Thalassa Share Discussion Threads

[ntv] 10/5/2019 09:16

LOL
cancelled all the preference shares

I wonder if we will reissue them when he sees it fit to run off with the cash
The good thing about the internet is it is not like books, it remembers what people do

He forced minor shareholder to sell their shares in THAL because their shares were effectively worthless following the issue of the preference shares
then he started buying up the cheap shares and now he has cancelled the prefs
A nice honest days works
well done to THAL
I HOPE AMERICAN AND HIS LAWYER NOW SUES THEM

HOW THE LSE ALLOWED THIS BUNCH ON THE MAIN MARKET IS AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE

[hindsight] 02/5/2019 15:48

Not sure what information they are dreaming about, but they got all mine as sent me loads of junk paperwork, email and a phone call. Dread to think at what cost to Thal shareholders but we know what its cost us Lsr holders (which is also loss on top of a loss for thal shareholders)

[rndm355] 02/5/2019 13:22

Some thoughts on latest developments. Thalassa threatens LSR officers with possible imprisonment:

[topvest] 31/3/2019 20:37

Page 41 - about £0.5m on the offer and about £0.5m on legal advice. Ouch!

[topvest] 31/3/2019 20:33

Interesting indeed. A very well put together document. Unfortunately, the defence and legal process on this and the court plan is likely to be costing quite a material sum and so shareholders appear to be in a lose/lose more situation. I do hope that Soukup gets defeated as he is a very untrustworthy individual. I reluctantly sold at about 30p less commission. Should have sold LSR much earlier. What an awful, albeit thankfully small, investment it was!

[ntv] 28/3/2019 07:40

He has jacked by the THAL share price by restarting the buy back but if he stops the buy back at any point the THAL share price will drop like a stone
He will probably do that to get at LSR's cash
Maybe another preference share issue or some other devious plan to get at your money
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

[sailing john] 13/3/2019 12:20

LSR - response - an interesting read if you have half an hour to spare!

[frazboy] 12/3/2019 14:33

"The Board believes that the dual listing will benefit existing shareholders by making the Company's shares more accessible to European investors and thereby improving liquidity. The Board also believes that ensuring the Company's shares are tradeable on an EU regulated market will avoid any impediment to using the Company's shares as consideration for cross-border acquisitions which might otherwise arise as a result of Brexit."

Luxembourg listing... Brexit is the reason, superficially, but, really, is it?

[varies] 06/3/2019 16:00

SteMis
Thanks. I am glad we agree.

gfrae. It is indeed possible that LSR shareholders will be stuck with their shares if the offer is rejected and Mr Soukup continues to be obstructive but I cannot see why he would want THAL to be locked in alongside everyone else. He would surely want THAL to take its share of the LSR cash and move on. I only wish he had accepted this sensible solution in the first place.
There is always a risk in an arbitrage, usually of one party failing to fulfil his side of a deal, but I prefer LSR shares to THAL shares at current prices.

[gfrae] 06/3/2019 15:35

If the bid is not accepted then you could be stuck with LSR shares trading at 27p or less whilst Thal shares might rise,possibly considerably.

[stemis] 06/3/2019 13:43

I agree. The disparity between the two prices seems madness. There's some uncertainty because we don't know the exact details of the offer, but it seems hard to see how a THAL shareholder could lose by selling THAL and buying LSR. I haven't been a THAL shareholder for a while and wouldn't really want to be one again, other than short term, but I bought some LSR for the arbitrage about 3 weeks ago at 27.2p net.

[varies] 06/3/2019 13:04

On further reflection I find that the offer for LSR cannot make sense for THAL shareholders.

We are told that the asset value of THAL is well above the current share price : over 120p, I believe. For this reason THAL is buying its own shares in.
Yet, as has been pointed out here, the value indicated by LSR's current share price is much lower. Taking 28.5p an offer of 14.64p cash plus 26/100ths of a THAL share indicates a value of only 53.3p for a THAL share.

If the offer succeeds, there will be many disgruntled former LSR shareholders eager to sell their THAL shares on any substantial rise and this is likely to be a dampener for some time.
At the risk of proving too clever, I have sold some THAL at 80.5p and put the money into LSR at 28.5p. Unfortunately the purchase attracts stamp duty of 0.5% but this "arbitrage" seems hard to resist.
If THAL go away, LSR shareholders should eventually receive over 30p but the wait may be a long one !
If the offer succeeds, I stand to recover half my outlay in cash and the cancellation of THAL's preference shares would make its ordinary shares less unattractive.

[varies] 05/3/2019 11:37

Like everyone else here I wish that THAL had voted for the liquidation of LSR and had not issued preference shares that strengthen Mr Soukup's control of our company.

On re-reading the announcement made on 6 Feb of the preliminary results for the year to 31.12.2018 I see that
"the THAL board also wishes to advise the market that the preference shares issued on 30 Sept 2018 and announced on 4 Oct 2018 will be cancelled upon successful completion of the LSR offer".
The offer documents are due to be sent out by tomorrow.

Mr Soukup seems an obstinate and difficult man but perhaps the LSR position will be resolved within a few weeks and, if the preference shares are indeed cancelled, the market may look more favourably on THAL ordinary shares.
The best solution for us would be a sale of the Flying Nodes project followed by the liquidation of THAL. This seems unlikely to happen.

[gfrae] 13/2/2019 21:01

Perhaps the Reit status of LSR is worth a few p to THAL?

[stemis] 13/2/2019 19:15

Probably good reasons why you wouldn't want to be a minority shareholder in a THAL controlled LSR...

[frazboy] 13/2/2019 18:10

Happy to be corrected on any of the points in the post below if folk think they're wrong - a lot of the detail is from memory. And we don't of course know for sure why Thalassa issued preference shares or why they chose to list on the main market.

[frazboy] 13/2/2019 18:03

No one really knows what DS thinks, we know what he writes, but we don't know what he thinks.What we do know is this...On the positive side:Thalassa got a good price for WGPOn the negative side:No specific cause has been provided as to why Thalassa needs extra cash resources (which it would acquire from LSR if the bid is successful).LSR's shareholders, with the exception of Thalassa, voted overwhelmingly to have the company liquidated and their cash returned.Thalassa appears to have paid early to mid 30s for its LSR stake (source RNS at the time of purchases).DS was exceptionally well remunerated in both 2017 and 2016 (source company accounts) receiving far higher director remuneration than might have been expected given the value of the assets under management. No breakdown of director remuneration has been provided for 2018.The Thalassa investment trust still owes the company (from 2018 accounts) ~$1.5m (despite most of the loan being written off) from the loan the company gave the trust to buy shares from DS a few years ago.Thalassa was, according to the 2017 accounts, still paying the rent for Eastleigh court/stables as the contract entered into in 2014 was for 10 years (unless WGP has picked up the contract?) - the owner of the property is a company owned by Duncan Soukup.Francis Smulder was also well remunerated in 2017 (source company accounts) given the size of the company. No breakdown of director remuneration has been provided for 2018.The company issued preference shares to concentrate power in the hands of the existing shareholders - the likely benefactors being DS and the Thalassa investment trust.The company listed on the main market to bypass having to obtain shareholder approval for the LSR (and possibly other) transactions.The cash burn rate, for Thalassa, as calculated from the 2018 annual report and 2018 H1 accounts, is around $4m per annum, annualised. Unfortunately it's not clear what the money is being spent on.I'm not sure I would have supported a rights issue.

[scburbs] 13/2/2019 16:47

Not worth it unless you think you are uniquely placed to recover all the THAL NAV per share you have just diluted through your investing talents.

If others shared that view a right issue would have been the way to go. As they don’t appear to LSR shareholders are being coerced to provide it.

They want control of the cash, no other value in the shell.

[stemis] 13/2/2019 10:51

"He thinks he can extract value by using LSR as a shell"

If he ends up with 61.8% of LSR, which will probably end up a £26m cash shell, he is exposed to value on £16m of cash (61.8% of £26m).

For this he will have paid £9m and foregone cash on THAL's existing holding (by allowing LSR to distribute, say 32p a share) of £6.7m = £15.7m. Then there are fees on top..

Again, hardly worth it.

[hindsight] 13/2/2019 09:03

If a compny is being run like a dictatorship, strange is quite normal

[tiltonboy] 13/2/2019 08:20

He thinks he can extract value by using LSR as a shell

[stemis] 13/2/2019 07:57

It is indeed a strange business. Until we see the detail of the offer (i.e. how much you would get per LSR share if you elect for 100% cash) then it's all a bit of a guess. If it was 30p and only 30m shares accept the offer (which would leave THAL with 61.8% of LSR), there might be no issue of THAL shares. That would be a marginally good deal for THAL shareholders (gaining another 36.4% of LSR at a discount to NAV) but hardly worth the effort surely for a benefit of around £600-900k (2-3% of the NAV of THAL).

[scburbs] 12/2/2019 20:57

How could THAL shareholders support the acquisition of cash in a massively dilutive manner? Much better that they don’t get the chance!

It’s a discounted rights issue, but they would rather go to unwilling LSR shareholders almost certain to be desperate to sell than to THAL shareholders to raise the money! Shows how much support they think they have from their own shareholders, ie know they couldn’t get the backing to raise that cash.

Terrible for THAL shareholders and terrible for LSR shareholders. Might work for someone?

[topvest] 12/2/2019 18:07

It’s all a bit odd really. If it wasn’t for the preference share stunt, Soukup would probably have much greater support for his move on LSR. It was that stunt, that has made him uninvestable. He has shot himself in the foot!

[rbonnier] 11/2/2019 23:44

The Soup Dragon is one sure cool cookey !