Tandem Share Discussion Threads

[grahamty] 14/4/2010 10:16

gg

Did you meet Simon ? He should be forced to sit down and read the last 1000 threads on here to get a feel for shareholders thoughts. He should be our Chanpion for Change on the Board. And my earlier question ? Why does it take three and a half months for the prelims ? When are they due ?

[greengiant] 14/4/2010 09:49

CWA1 - I have expressed my views before. I do not feel that the company needs yet another accountant. To me it adds nothing. I am sure Simon is a very competent person, I have no issues with him personally, but I do not feel that it is the right appointment.

Balcony, glad you made money from this - I am also glad that you have held some of your share in the company :-)

Going to be doing a lot of sitting in Lawyers offices at the moment so bored to tears. Looking at buying a company, but Sale & Purchase agreements will be the death of me.

gg

[cwa1] 14/4/2010 09:36

gg

May I ask if you got a feeling for the credibility of the newly installed NED, or if the company gave you a flavour of what he might bring to the table.

Thanks and regards

[balcony] 14/4/2010 09:32

I was buying as low as 4.88p[old price] at the end of march last year,So feel i had to take some profits,I will hold the rest to see the story unfold,And thank you for all your hard work and research to date

[greengiant] 14/4/2010 09:17

grahamty / balcony,

I agree that a false market has been created over the past month, and that is entirely down to my buying. However, the question that I ask myself is

Is the company currently overvalued based on the information that we know? Consider that the company did around 12.5p EPS in H1.

This is why company guidance is so important (in numbers). Do we think H2 will be the same? Do we think it will be less (or more). Too many THINKS

This is the point that we tried to drive home about communication. The system has fantastic Financial systems in place, however, the information is not shared with investors. This will change. I also look forward to the appointment of another NED, which will add further interest.

gg

[balcony] 13/4/2010 14:05

Grahamty-Agree.I sold 20k for that reason at the end of last week,Although the price as carried on moving up,I also noticed scburbs sold last week

[grahamty] 13/4/2010 12:39

Was a date for the prelims agreed at the meeting ? With a Jan y/e it should not be mid-May, and with shareholder interest, a share price that has doubled, they should be keen either to get the good news out; or rein back enthusiasm and prevent what might have been a slightly false market over the last month. Of course I hope good results will be better than we expect and will support the new share price. However, any disappointment and the more hawkish writers on this site will never forgive them. Is there a date agreed ?

[supreme mo] 11/4/2010 14:22

Yes only by gg buying 11% of the company - I am pretty certain that venaglass had put the order to sell their stake into a market maker - how long would it have taken to drip their share out into the market without gg's intervention?

[amt] 11/4/2010 13:02

Share price more than doubled in 12 months so looks like shareholder value has been created to me.

[greengiant] 11/4/2010 09:52

kramch,

It is interesting that you believe that the bike market has been expanding, and whilst I agree that was the case in 2008 and prior, 2009 actually saw a contraction of the market. This can be seen by looking at what happened to Shimano last year



The market is looking to recover this year, but, as with anything, when capacity has been cut, it does take a period of time for the market to recover. This may lead to a delay as production is "ramped" up again.

So in the context of this decline (and only looking at Interims) the managements performance has been good. Question is, can they take advantage when the market is growing.

Also another issue to consider is FOB, which has the effect of decreasing turnover (so it may appear that they are losing market share) but can have the effect of increasing profitability.

I am as much in the dark as all others with regard to results. But I look forward to reading them, and also the 2 way communication which this Board has committed

gg

[greengiant] 09/4/2010 12:56

Just popping in, it is good to see that the tone of this thread has changed slightly. My view is simple, wipe the slate clean, management have had priorities which they have seen as important in the past.. They are now fully aware of what other priorities are important for PI's. I am not arguing that either set of priorities are right or wrong, I am arguing that you could merge both and get a fantastic company with happy shareholders.

My view is now to back off and let management run the business and see whether they can implement the changes that we discussed.

gg

[kramch] 09/4/2010 10:45

Bit late to the party for various reasons, but great on GG for seizing the initiative, and of course for DD's unceasing ferret work.

I appreciate the desire to stroke the BoD's ruffled feathers, foster morale and give them some room to demonstrate they can perform.
However the reality is that control of the company has shifted.

The BoD have failed to raise turnover in an expanding market, have taken excessive salaries at the expense of returns for shareholders and have forfeited shareholder support. Now the tables have turned.

IMO they need to react now by re-evaluating the corporate goals (SWOT's analyses, new initiatives etc) set specific targets by which performance can be judged and tell us what these are.
This process either needs a NED with turn-around experience (know of anyone?) or a consultancy (yes I hate them too) to organise it.
In my experience this has always raised staff morale and flushed out those who can't or won't embrace change. Strike while the iron's hot (my first turnaround was a metal bashing company), it's a lot easier and quicker! K

[skegbyhouse] 09/4/2010 08:44

From the meeting:

Management agreed (after some pestering by Andrew and Davidosh) that shareholder communication could be improved and (more importantly) would be. That was a commitment they made. Most of them think it is a good idea, but they are scared of the effect that some of the more emotional posting could have on company staff morale. Maybe we haven't thought about that enough whilst 'talking among ourselves' (after all, bike makers can use the internet too). So if we can keep cool (whilst still making our points) it would be helpful.

Nobody there wanted to be made an insider with the results so close (particularly Andrew) so there were limits to what detail could be extracted. But the management did point out that with the results close the details of any plans they have to push the company forward would best be revealed then. And they do have some (they say, and we saw no reason not to believe them.)

They realised that there would have to be further meetings with shareholders (Andrew, really). That alone will ensure more shareholder engagement.

We got the impression that they really understand the bike market. They talked about competitors, their customers (shops etc) and the bikers who end up with their product. It was more difficult to asses how good they are at the outsourcing but they pointed out a good number of the problems (currency, time lags, fashion versus overstocking etc.) it brings with it so it would be unlikely that they are not making strenuous efforts to overcome them.

Over the long term there is no doubt that Andrew will be able to introduce change but (and this is only my opinion) it will best be achieved by working with the management - certainly until we see what can be achieved by doing so.

Certainly change is underway but it will be an evolution, not a revolution.

I increased my shareholding by 25% two days after the meeting. if that means anything.

[scburbs] 08/4/2010 19:46

SteMiS,

It effectively became a new company with the outsourcing of production to China (with a much more expensive board, albeit the same board with broadly the same roles!).

A fairer comparison on the net assets would be to monitor the position since the outsourcing.

This fairer comparison would be between £2.94m of net assets on 31 January 2006 and £7.27m at 31 July 2009. A fall in the pension deficit of £2m has accounted for part of this and to the extent this wasn't from extra contributions it should really be excluded.

Not a bad performance given the market cap even with the additional salary profit strip that the board has taken from the improved outsourcing margins!

Good luck to all here. I have sold and taken my profits (quite shocked to be realising a profit on this one!). I will continue to monitor and hope it will be a great success and am obviously very grateful to GG for the opportunity to take a profit for which he seems solely responsible! I would have offered my shareholding in support in the polls, but given I was always looking for the exit when this moved from ridiculous to just plain cheap didn't think that would be right.

The question is whether this company can move from plain cheap to fairly valued. The impact that GG has made so far must significantly increase the chances that it can. The increasing profile and popularity of cycling will be key if the TND brands are strong enough.

[watchout2] 08/4/2010 18:19

GG.

I see you are defending the management !

Dont tell me they have signed you onto the board with a 500k salary a year :-))

Only kidding, thanks for the feedback, it's easy to judge people that are just names, that you have never met or in reality have any idea how they run the
business by a poor peformance in a share price long term.

Do you have a email address GG ?

[stemis] 08/4/2010 17:58

You have to include the invoice discounting line which is included within Creditors line

Okay, fair point

As at 31.1.04 the company had net assets of £7,300,000 (inc minorities of £749,000) and net debt of £3,836,000.

As at 31.7.09 the company had net assets of £7,268,000 (no minorities) and net debt of £1,528,000

Still not a lot for 5.5 years of effort (it's not like they've paid anything out as dividends).

[supreme mo] 08/4/2010 13:23

See m o n e y a m . c o m for the reported trade from yesterday guys...

[wraz] 08/4/2010 10:22

Thanks gg. Look forward to your positive and welcome interventions.

[greengiant] 08/4/2010 09:45

wraz,

The management team are aware of the issues and have promised to address them. Personally I am happy to give them that chance. I will add some more, as I haven't finished here just yet. I am going to be rather busy on other issues for the next month or two so I will go quiet but I will still be popping in.

gg

[18bt] 08/4/2010 09:43

GG Thanks for the report. The finals are due out early May and I will be looking for real signs of an im provement in communication and, hopefully, a fairly full statement of future strategy. What worries me most (and where a good NED should start) is that they haven't got any strategy other than "running the existing business better".

[wraz] 08/4/2010 09:39

Looks like gg has taken a cycle ride to Damascus. I still feel the management team and Board would have been more interested in conserving cash than brand awareness had it not been for your intervention. Did you get any idea of what the communications strategy for 2010/11 might look like?

[greengiant] 08/4/2010 09:38

SteMis,

You have to include the invoice discounting line which is included within Creditors line

gg

[balcony] 08/4/2010 09:35

GG-Thank you

[balcony] 08/4/2010 09:35

GG-Thank you