Thalassa Share Discussion Threads

[varies] 06/1/2024 19:58:50

Thanks again, Kooba.
The Discretionary Trust seems to hold 25.71%, say 2 million shares now worth c. £480,000.
I wonder if THAL has any security for the loan beyond this holding. The share price may well have been about 70p when these arrangements were made.
There seem to be good reasons for Thalassa Holdings being registered in the British Virgin Islands !

[kooba] 06/1/2024 14:07:39

That is true and leads to a conflicted position for Soukup who is the only obvious beneficiary. Controlling the discretionary trust means he has full control of the company ..DS is a trustee. The trust owns shares in the company but owes the company a chunk of money that presumably is secured against the shares. The shareholding now does not cover the loan and there is no obvious way that the debt can be repaid. The Loan is to the THAL Discretionary Trust, the terms of the loan are set with a 0% interest rate however interest has been accrued at 3% as per IFRS requirements, it is the intention of the Company to waive this interest upon repayment of the capital. It's effectively an interest free loan to himself now invested in the shares which have fallen well below the loan amount and there is no obvious way how shareholders will get repaid. Using shareholder funds on this scale and holding such a large equity holding is highly dubious.This all needs tidying up for the benefit of all shareholders..it's a bloody mess and the non executives need to step up and protect minority shareholder interests. Should all be wound up and cash repaid.

[varies] 06/1/2024 12:06:19

Thanks so much, Kooba.
Amongst the assets I see a loan of £1,492,000 to the Thalassa Discretionary Trust, a trust set up for the benefit of employees and presumably managed by Mr. Soukup.
The trust has a large holding in THAL but no information is provided about its other assets and whether it could repay this loan.
Mr. Soukup receives a salary from THAL of over £300,000 p.a. So he may not see an advantage in liquidating the company much as you and l and others might like to see this.

[kooba] 05/1/2024 14:17:32

That's how I read it...so they are officially at a big discount to assets ( the £3m from property sale to be with the company by the end of March) if you trust the assets outside of any the Cash , Newmark holding and the Property promise. There is however no guidance of where the company goes from here though. As I said the honest thing would be to make a sensible offer relative to that NAV (120p) and go and unwind away from listed markets as there appears no strategy. The updates just are a diatribe on macro markets , nothing new in terms of how the company intends delivering value to shareholders.7.95m shares in issue.Property pledge £3m..38pps10% Newmark £750k..9.4ppsThere was some cash and a few other private assets ..value according to the board all adds up to 120pps.But difficult to get much transparency on how the values aside from above are reached.Maybe should liquidate it and pay the money back..it's certainly not worked as a listed company for most shareholders.Hopefully some clarity at some stage.

[varies] 05/1/2024 12:22:58

With many misgivings I have dipped my toe back in this pool and bought a few more shares.
I have spent an hour studying the full annual report for 2022 available on the company web-site and am not much wiser for it.
l do notice in Note 11, however, that the Tappit investment was not been written off entirely in the 2022 accounts as the chairman had promised to compensate THAL for the £3 million initially invested. "As a result, only the value of the accrued interest and Option value , totalling £1,432,041 has been written off above".
So the asset value presumably includes this £3 million expected from the chairman.

[varies] 27/12/2023 09:13:07

Kooba.
many thanks

[kooba] 26/12/2023 17:58:57

The company had to write off its investment in Tappit a company Mr Soukup had previously served on the board...he also made a personal investment in the company and got that paid back before Tappit pulled the plug. He therefore committed to repay the initial investment £3m ( writing off over £1m of book value on the company's valuation ) . He has done this by pledging that amount through an interest in a property he holds..full details I don't think ever came out. However in the last results they say a property will be sold shortly and one presumes cash put into the business. I do not believe there is a loan from the company to Mr Soukup.The company trades at a big discount to the stated assets ( which includes the Soukup pledge) ..the moral thing to do would be to make an offer to shareholders to take this mess private..he can then unwind it and keep the difference if he can. Having held for too long 60p would do to move on.Jan '23"I will, therefore, exceptionally and on a purely moral basis, submit a proposal to the Board to contribute assets or rights in the amount of Thalassa's initial investment of £3m (equivalent to ~38p/shr). The Board will explore the viability of my proposal with our legal and financial advisors and apprise the Market in due course".Sept '23"-- The Real Estate owned by the Chairman, but pledged to the Company, is currently let until September 2024.Planning permission has and is being sought for certain developments, which it is hoped will increase the value ofthe property. It is anticipated that the sales process will begin in Q4 2023.and that a sale can be completed in Q42023/Q1 2024."Cheap maybe ..but as clear as mud.DYOR

[kooba] 26/12/2023 13:36:54

Both are correct..one , the larger figure is the number of shares outstanding .. . The smaller figure is shares in issue..that is the figure to use for market cap , the other issued shares are held by the company in treasury following share buybacks. Number of securities in issue (excluding those held in treasury): 7,945,838Number of securities held in treasury: 12,906,521On Newmark from last report in Sept '2023NWT -https://newmarksecurity.com/• Share price performance of NWT continued to recover slowly through H1 2023. We still believe that, given the age of its chairman and the fact that he has three children, two of whom are not involved in the company, that NWT will, in due course, be sold. We are patient investors and will continue to hold our position.From interimsGROUP RESULTS 1H 2023 versus 1H 2022, unless otherwise stated (Unaudited)• Profit /(loss) after tax for the H1 period under review• Group Earnings Per Share (basic and diluted)*1• Book value per share*2 30 June 2023 vs. 31 December 2022• Holdings* 30 June 2023 vs. 31 December 2022• Cash 30 June 2023 vs. 31 December 2022£0.6m vs. £0.6m* based on weighted average number of shares in issue of 7,945,838 (2022: 7,945,838)* based on actual number of shares in issue as at 30 June 2023 of 7,945,838 (2022: 7,945,838)* includes all holdings ex cashSo according to company net assets per share as at 30th June 121p per share...so if you believe the somewhat opaque assets then the shares trade at an 80% discount to assets.DYOR

[varies] 24/12/2023 15:16:16

Would a kind person please explain the disparity between notes 3 and 11 attached to the results for the 6 months to 30 June 2023 ?
Note 3 tells us that the number of shares in issue is 7,945,838.
Note 11 tells us that there are 20,852,359 shares in issue of US$0.01
Which is right ?

[kooba] 11/7/2023 12:00:58

The results out yesterday...Unclear when any promised "up to £3m" payment will be coming to the company...and it is difficult to see how the remaining assets are valued to give the 130p claimed asset value so opaque as ever.Considering the huge write off thought shareholders might have some more transparency on valuations!The stock was suspended pending the late release of results."Following the Company's announcement dated 19th April 2023, the listing of the under-mentioned securities has been temporarily suspended on the standard list of the main market from 02/05/2023 at 7:30am, pending publication of the Company's annual audited accounts."Why are they still suspended ..i can see no reason why or any commentary on when they the suspension will be correctly lifted.

[hedgehog 100] 06/5/2023 17:11:51

THAL has just top-sliced its holding in NWT, after a good recent run for NWT's shares:-

04/05/2023 07:00 UK Regulatory (RNS & others) Newmark Security PLC Holding(s) in Company LSE:NWT Newmark Security Plc



NWT is something comparatively rare this year: a tech penny share that is performing well, both technically and fundamentally:-

Newmark Security (NWT) 56.5p Market cap. £5.3M.


"Newmark Security in 2023: A Transformed Tech & USA Success Story"



Up 71.2% (33p to 56.5p), on a strong return to profitability.

And with plenty more likely to come on both fronts.


Newmark Security (NWT):-

[kooba] 14/2/2023 16:53:37

Well the company says that assets to be sold to cover the moral gap in the accounts. Rather think that shareholders be given an expected timetable for this largesse...weeks months years?We also need a full disclosure of the value of all other assets and how the company intends to create and deliver value to holders. This is a shambles and there is no clarity on anything.As another poster questioned has the company still got leveraged hedges against the market? Might not be that clever on this bounce..not saying i trust it but still it could have cost a company playing against the indexes a few bob.

[varies] 11/2/2023 12:17:01

kooba
Thank you very much for posting the link to the announcement, which I had missed, about the investment in LML not proceeding.
I agree with all you say but fear that THAL may be exposed to large losses on its open short positions as a result of the recent recovery in world stock markets. Mr Soukup's recent pronouncements suggested that THAL had made money on its "hedging operations" earlier in 2022 and that he had re-opened these.
As you say, we can only form a vague idea as to the value of THAL's assets.
Like you I would regard a liquidation worth 60p per share as a very welcome outcome.

[kooba] 10/2/2023 13:33:13

"In early November 2022, Thalassa was notified by a director of Tappit that the company was arranging a funding facility. The Chairman of Thalassa was a lender under the funding facility but has since been repaid."In November the CFO of Tappit was setting up the vehicle that did the back to back administration purchase joining the board of the vehicle early Dec.This does not help the overall look of what was known before the administration. Why was the Chair lending money to a company that was a principal investment of Thalassa..how did they get their money out so soon to a total write off to Thalassa? Presume a month before but could be closer? Not enough detail on a connected party transaction.

[kooba] 10/2/2023 13:15:38

I repeat i think the fair and sensible outcome is that Mr Soukup does the decent thing and buys out minorities at a sensible level relative the the board approved balance of nav which is around £1 post Tappit write off rather than putting more assets in plugging a hole and continuing to pretend this is working for anyone. I think current assets are below historic values so likely lower than the figure in the market..could be more like 70-80p ..but an offer of 60p i would be delighted to accept and jump.Noting the Tappit write off announcement i note Mr Soukup put his personal money into Tappit shortly before they called in the administrator but got his money back. This is a connected party transaction and surely shows he was aware of the company's financial position in the months ahead of failure? But still held the investment at over the capital invested.

[kooba] 10/2/2023 13:04:58

https://www.investegate.co.uk/thalassa-holdings/rns/london-medical-laboratory-investment-update/202109171250071845M/Spent some time on this then they were unable to proceed for some unexplained reason.

[varies] 10/2/2023 08:55:03

Thank you , Kooba.
Are you saying that THAL never proceeded with the investment in London Medical Labs or that it did and that there was no subsequent issue of capital by LML ?
I agree with you heartily that this is not a successful company.
It did succeed some years ago in selling a business for a handsome sum of money but has squandered the proceeds.
The report and accounts are indeed rich in pontification but short in detail of THAL's assets. A small comfort to be derived from the Tappit fiasco is that Mr. Soukup may now perceive his limitations.

[varies] 02/2/2023 20:55:32

Having spent the last hour trawling through THAL's announcements since July 2019, I remain in a muddle as to what they still own.
The transactions between Anemoi, Apeiron and id4 are certainly convoluted.
In Feb 2021 THAL advanced £2.5 million to London Medical Laboratories and undertook to take part in a subsequent issue of capital. We have heard nothing recently about this.
After the Tappit disaster we must hope that Mr Soukup will fasten down the hatches as another shock might be fatal.
I now regard my recent small investment here as no more secure than money placed on a horse!

[baner] 01/2/2023 21:02:24

varies

i fully agree with you - this will not be a straight forward cash compensation. soukup will claim an option to buy something off him is worth £Xm - or similar.

[varies] 01/2/2023 20:24:38

A very thin market; I have bought a few shares at about 30p which may prove unwise.
Looking back through my records, I see that I was buying THAL shares at 86p in May 2018 and selling them at 80p in March and April 2019. I sold my last at 62p in Jan 2020.
Not brilliant but I have had the good luck to be out of this share for 3 years.
One simple means by which Mr Soukup could compensate THAL for its losses on Tappit would be to buy the holding off THAL for the price paid. I fear that the solution chosen is likely to be more complicated but wait with interest to see what it is.