The Artisanal Spirits Share Discussion Threads

[plast] 19/12/2006 17:43

so if you hold less than 6000 now, does it mean that art will buy them from you
at 3,25, as i under stand it, ive now got less than 2000, 1975 shares, and dont want to top up, so i will get back 1975 at 3.25p is this right, thanks.

[vaneric] 19/12/2006 12:09

Aspen Finance is the chairman's own little pension scheme.

From Artisan investor relations pages:

Under the Chairmanship of Michael Stevens, Artisan (UK) plc

The largest shareholder is Aspen Finance (Michael Stevens – Chairman) with 21.81% as at August 2006. There are no other large shareholdings at 31 March 2006.

The Company has entered into a Placing Agreement with Aspen Finance Limited ("
Aspen"), a company in which Michael Stevens, the Chairman of Artisan, has a
beneficial interest, whereby Aspen has undertaken to subscribe for the New
Ordinary Shares created by the aggregation of the Fractional Entitlements, but
subject to a limit such that Aspen cannot be obliged to subscribe for such
number of Fractional Entitlements as would result in Aspen holding more than
29.5 per cent of the Company's issued share capital, when combined with Aspen's
existing holding of 21.97 per cent

V.

[shawzie] 19/12/2006 11:24

luderitz
You will need to look in Panama.

[luderitz] 19/12/2006 10:44

Anyone know who Aspen are? or know who are behind them?

[luderitz] 19/12/2006 10:04

I agree with swiftnick In post 1351. we are being ripped off (again) and I will be voting against.

[kangaroo joe] 18/12/2006 23:58

Or Stevens might take it private on the cheap at some stage.

[sll] 18/12/2006 18:06

gj - A lot of folk will be tidying up their holdings to get their stakes up/down into the required 6k tranches and I don't blame them. I have now pushed on 'up' to the nearest 600k tranche above, because I prefer round numbers (both pre and post reorganisation) and more importantly because I like this element of the ART development plan (a "long held ambition of the Board") and certainly would not want to be taken out at 3.25p (a useful floor nontheless, imho). Why does it appeal?
1 Anything that saves on admin costs is good in my book.
2 Paving the way for a resumption of divs (however small) - even better.
3 Demonstrates (yet again) the long sustained development view being taken by the ART Board, when added to IFRS adoption, change of year end, new brokers, their generally prudent approach to the business, steadily gearing up on their land bank given RBS's backing etc.
4 Also, the latest interims were frankly less bad than I had expected given earlier guidance and gut feel. I had expected something less good (don't be fooled by the comparatives for the IFRS reasons given).

The usual caveat of a steady price reduction that can often follow a share consolidation in the 1:40 zone may have less application to a construction stock such as ART - given its very sizeable discount to TNAV and the fact that it is consistently profitable (albeit with ups and downs). I could of course be wrong, but have put my money on the table now. steve

[gjabrj] 13/12/2006 11:19

Increased volume alot of sells but price is holding, Large buyer in the background.
Our first institution?

[hosede] 13/12/2006 10:37

Times quite positive this morning - described interims as "solid" - new broker Brewin Dolphin opened coverage with a buy.

[gjabrj] 13/12/2006 10:17

Lets hope Mr T is still hoovering up all surplus stock.

[gizzimodo] 13/12/2006 07:57

They still need shareholder approval, anyone know if 75% or 50% approval needed ?

[lostcause] 12/12/2006 22:13

Well put Davidosh.

[gjabrj] 12/12/2006 22:02

sorry multiple post

[gjabrj] 12/12/2006 22:01

david

perfectly put

[gjabrj] 12/12/2006 22:01

david

perfectly put

[gjabrj] 12/12/2006 22:01

david

perfectly put

[davidosh] 12/12/2006 21:20

I am certainly in agreement with the consolidation as it will reduce costs and probably help the quoted spread to narrow for those looking to trade afterwards however......

I do agree with Swiftnick who stated as follows...

No, this is not a share buyback. It is simply one shareholder (Aspen) buying fractional entitlements off other shareholders. It is Aspen who benefits from getting shares at 50% of NAV. All other shareholders are disadvantaged unless by sheer luck they happen to have a shareholding which is exactly divisible by 6,000 (in which case they are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged).


Surely the fairest way of conducting this consolidation and the way that 90% of these are done would be for the company to buyback the shares into Treasury or for cancellation completely so that the dividend and future profits are shared between fewer holders and less shares. The eps calculations would also be higher in future years.

I do rather feel that one shareholder seems to benefit significantly in every corporate action that takes place in Artisan whether it be the creation of 40,000,000 new ordinary shares in the Company at 2.75p per share when the NAV was 100% higher and the market price significantly higher or indeed the latest scheme.

The negative affect is that we also now have a very dominant shareholder who can automatically decide whether he wants to undertake such actions with very little shareholder activism in sight or likely to vote against. The same reason will prevent any likely takeover activity unless it is agreeable to the large holder.

Just out of interest if someone rang Artisan and said we have land available at half price I have little doubt they would be interested to see it SO.....why have they not been buying up our own shares in the market on a regular basis ?? Were management not keen to raise the eps and create demand for the loose stock that seemingly held back the price.

After all when the NAV is 6p the shares bought back at that 3.25p level announced today is more or less buying the land at half price and you already know its quality as you already own it!!! So no added cost in visiting sites, planning costs and solicitors fees.

A 'no brainer' surely, but no it is better to call in Aspen Finance ...Mmmmmm


These were exactly the things that us long in tooth shareholders had against the last chairman but it seems what goes around is coming round again....I would honestly prefer to rally round Mr Stevens and praise him for having the interests of all shareholders in his mind but this Aspen deal is not one that benefits us all by my calculations and certainly forces an exit or additional costs for the majority of long termers.

[plast] 12/12/2006 18:12

screwed again, ive been holding shares in art since 1998, they consolidated it back then or there abouts, my holding went down from thousends to hundreds, now im getting stuffed again, my first buy was at 11P AND AGAIN AT 14P, then the consoladation, now im stuff if i dont buy more, well i wont be buying more cos art have done sod all since 98 and i dont see them doing sod all in the future, bitter yes, the price will fall again once its been done , so hold tight and get them for 5p when art give you all a report saying they cant meet the targets, yet again, im bound to get someone say something about my post but im the one loosing out yet again, sod um.

[gjabrj] 12/12/2006 16:52

It will get rid of over half the shareholders on the register.

I would like to see some institutions or small cap funds start to show an interest but for that we need a more robust market cap. now where have I heard that before?

[shawzie] 12/12/2006 16:48

shawzie - 21 Nov'06 - 16:04 - 1308 of 1353 edit
Perhaps a share consolidation (say 50 for 1) might help to improve the image of ART in the City and take it out of the "penny share" category.
However, with so many small shareholders it might be considered too costly an
exercise.

Bylow - 21 Nov'06 - 18:44 - 1309 of 1353
shawie.....share consolidation for an unloved stock is often the kiss of death,best left alone.
---------------------------------------------------

Further to my November post, I welcome todays news.
However, the recent share consolidation at GTL shows that shareholder value has been lost at GTL, hopefully in the short term.
On the other hand shareholder value has been enhanced at THUS since consolidation, so who can foretell what will happen with ART share price?

[gjabrj] 12/12/2006 14:28

What % shareholiding for a MBO ???

[swiftnick] 12/12/2006 13:44

No, this is not a share buyback. It is simply one shareholder (Aspen) buying fractional entitlements off other shareholders. It is Aspen who benefits from getting shares at 50% of NAV. All other shareholders are disadvantaged unless by sheer luck they happen to have a shareholding which is exactly divisible by 6,000 (in which case they are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged).

[gjabrj] 12/12/2006 13:15

This is effectively a share buyback at less than half NAV, good business for the existing shareholders.