Volution Share Discussion Threads

[greengiant] 21/5/2010 21:22

Well hopefully it is her selling because she knows that she is on the way out!! What the hell they need her for is anyones guess. This company is fou!!!

gg

[isis] 21/5/2010 21:08

Not a good sign that.

[glennborthwick] 21/5/2010 21:07

£600 quids worth, dear h dear

[argy2] 21/5/2010 19:14

There are times when you have to question the sanity of Company Directors. Either that or it is her time of the month!

[hh9] 20/5/2010 18:39

egoi joins an enlightened group. The Theatre business is good, could make better margins but very good. Football they will never sell as the Smiths will never come up with the money the bank needs etc,. Most likely outcome now would be for the banks to demand the sale of Spotco/Dewynters. That would clear the debt and some, then then take it private or shut it down. At least current share holders might get something back.

[greengiant] 20/5/2010 17:36

isis -

egoi has been negative on this for a long time

gg

[argy2] 20/5/2010 16:11

More aptly yet another Whingerfrith disaster!

[isis] 20/5/2010 15:40

not another egoi disaster!

[egoi] 20/5/2010 15:32

The bits that caught my eye were related to your thoughts Gg.

'.....GOING CONCERN.......

The company is currently in breach of its current banking covenants governing the terms of the loans owing to Allied Irish Bank (GB) as detailed in Note 7. The covenant breaches occurred following the disposal of certain subsidiary undertakings and consequently the company has entered preliminary discussions with the bank with a view to renegotiating its covenants and its banking facilities in respect of its Mezzanine debt of £3.728 million together with rolled up interest of £347,000 which falls due for payment on 31 August 2010. The Mezzanine debt repayment has partially been satisfied by the proceeds arising from the disposal of Optimal Wealth Management Limited and the business of First Artist Management Limited. The Vendors of Dewynters are due to receive payment on 30th June 2010 in respect of a loan note of £1,500,000 and the Vendors of SpotCo are due to receive payment in respect of the deferred consideration of $2,500.000 due in October 2010. The company is currently in negotiations with the vendors to restructure the payment schedule of loan note and deferred considerations.

The company has received a further overdraft facility from Allied Irish Bank to provide additional working capital to compensate for the cash shortfall arising from the poor January 2010 football trading window and general trading conditions.....'

[egoi] 20/5/2010 11:29

About 3 million of assets, of which 25 million or so is made up of goodwill and intangibles tells me a lot of what I wanted to know.

Many fine words and thoughts in there, but breaching, and renegotiation of, banking covenants, is what it's all about for now imho, and that I think means they need to move forwards with selling some parts very quickly or I can see little prospect of a successful future, almost regardless of how busy Dewynters might be..

[greengiant] 20/5/2010 10:47

Again very poor results. Cash generation good because they are stretching their creditors. This can only be done once.

gg

[argy2] 20/5/2010 09:01

Usual good news bad news story. Can't see them being seriously re-rated until sports side gone/name change.

[themoneymonster2] 20/5/2010 08:35

Anyone any thoughts on these results?

[dd776] 20/5/2010 07:21

any good news in the results?

[colindmoon] 15/5/2010 17:19

Have you read these words before?

First Artist Corporation plc, is one of the world's leading integrated marketing, sport and entertainment management businesses. Our companies are recognised experts in entertainment and sport representation, wealth and media management, advertising and events, and the complementary nature of their skills makes our offer truly exciting.

From all of the "spin" above, can we assume the "Wealth Management" is entirely in the pockets of the Smith Brothers, rather than the investors?

"Time" already suggests that the "Executives" hands-on approach only results in benefits for a chosen few Directors, and their operational management favourites.

[hh9] 11/5/2010 14:43

No issues with the Smiths per se, but you have to ask the question, are they adding value? clearly not. At their cost to the business probably the opposite. The most worrying thing is that no one is actually running the business.

Time will tell

[greengiant] 11/5/2010 13:36

HH9 - I see that you do not like the Smith's.

Personally, there is nothing personal against the current board except for its continual underperformance. They have to date destroyed shareholder value, I have no doubt JS is a very intelligent and entrepreneurial guy, however, I think all people should look at the current board and ask the question as to whether or not they are actually the best placed people to run this company?

I wouldn't last long in any role that I undertook if I had performed as badly as this current board. The question is what are they doing to rectify this? With 9 days to do before results, I can see very little in the way of shareholder value creation.

gg

[hh9] 10/5/2010 22:41

Dewynters and Spotco were without doubt great buys. Not the cheapest, but theatre is very solid cash cows, even in recession and always one of the first to come out of it. Market dominance in this sector will ultimately attract a buyer from one of the larger agency groups, when the time's right.

Football is a disaster and this summer will not save it. The real issue here is that the Smith brothers are the football agency and on the main board of the group - Conflict or what?? There's no FD since the last real one left nearly 2 years ago, since then the role's changed hands every 5 minutes. Bar theatre the place is a mess, they can't even get their interims out on time.

If they can survive then theatre will save them long term and this will be a good investment as debt is cleared down, but the Smiths have to go, at any price.

[tara7] 10/5/2010 12:42

Bit of buying now

[tara7] 10/5/2010 12:29

Well well well, thats why i am upbeat.!!!

[greengiant] 10/5/2010 10:14

tara - The company would have had to of told us if the footie side had been sold. I understand why there is such a delay, and again, it shows how narrow minded the company has been. When the management approached them to buy it, the very first thing they should have done is offer them an exclusive period of 3 months. Once, this exclusivity ran out, they should have appointed advisors to auction the business.

Instead, they have continued with this management buy-out at the expense of the share price and have incurred further losses as their inability to sell in a timely fashion has meant that they have had to endure the quieter winter transfer window.

We are almost in a position, where it would actually be better to NOT sell the footie business now, but rather see through the summer transfer window and then auction the business. This is looking to be a very lucrative summer period (typically after the World Cup, summer transfers increase in volume and value).

There is good news, which is why I have averaged down (probably stupidity) - From what I have heard the Dewynters business is manic (best word I could use to describe it). New shows are coming thick and fast and include Love Never Dies and they have been given the brief for Wiz of Oz. Also Legally Blonde and La Bete.

So, worth a punt but not for Widows and Orphans.

gg

[tara7] 07/5/2010 15:02

Ok, football side has not been sold [or if it has we have not yet been told.] One thing is for sure, Fan will be sold if their is no way out. That sale will in my view come from the US and will get GG out at a price he would be happy with.

[egoi] 07/5/2010 14:59

Thouht provoking Gg. My 'fascination' with the company I think is because I agree with you about the various businesses, notably Dewynters.

Open goal in one sense, if they can balance the books with the sells and a funding, but I've seen open goals missed!