Previously writing on castings and engineering company Chamberlin (CMH), in December I noted main businesses weren’t performing solidly… & certainly aren’t to be now!. Today though a trading update including “encouraging start to current financial year; leading to expectation of stronger levels of sales growth and return to profitability in second half of year”. Turnaround potential?…

Today is not only Joshua’s Birthday but also 100 days to Christmas and also Dydd Owain Glyndwr Hapus!. So I am busy cake making. Maybe a picture later after I burn my own house down in honour of the last Welsh Prince of Wales. In the podcast I discuss naughty corporate brokers, Optibiotix (OPTI) and Novacyt (NCYT) 

Payment software for business communications company PCI-PAL (PCIP) has noted a patent infringements lawsuits press release from competitor Semafone and that its directors “believe that the Semafone claims have no basis… PCI Pal will defend itself robustly against all allegations of patent infringement”. The shares, at 76p, are still though currently more than 14% lower.

It was back in December 2018 that Nigel mentioned ‘Neil Woodford raising more much-needed cash by dumping good shares’ by selling his stake in Kier Group (KIE), ‘a British construction, services and property group active in building and civil engineering, support services, and the Private Finance Initiative’. I am sure there were a bunch of reasons why Woodford needed the cash at the time, but this decision was not a complete disaster as the shares have fallen over 80% since. If only he could have missed all his other big losing calls! I have not been a great fan of Kier Group and related companies for many years, having seen plenty of sector ‘excitement’ over the past twenty-five years. Suffice to say there were a bunch of reasons why in an industry that can easily be impacted by economic volatility and too much debt.

You may remember that directors of Novacyt (NCYT) made an abosolute killing because of a cash bonus plan which was dependent on the share price at October 17 2020. Assisted enormously by news of a massive contract win with the DHSC announced on September 29 the shares were c930p on D day. Today they are 325p as the horror of the DHSC feck up emerges. As a reminder here is what Novacyt said on 29 September sending its shares roofing it:

This event was held on 9 September and what follows is a transcript of the more interesting Q&As. There is oodles of jam tomorrow but I sense that the time for that working has passed. Steve O’Hara and Optibiotix (OPTI) need to start delivering jam today to drive a re-rate of any sort, let alone from £50 million to £1 billion as suggested in Q1.

By June 10 as the FCA suspended trading in shares in the fraud Umuthi (UHS) for a second time it had been aware for a while that this IPO was put together by a fraudster known for cooking the books and banned from doing any financial services work by the South African equivalent of the FCA. But in this letter, passed to the Winnileaks service, sent  to Umuthi while it asks a stack of questions the FCA stresses there is NO formal enqury. FFS why not? And some of the questions it asks, regarding the resignations of Memery Crystal and PKF Littlejohn should surely have been asked back in March, rather than after the shares were allowed to resume trading – albeit for only two weeks – on May 25. The FCA is not fit for purpose as we noted here. The letter is below.

Hello Share Finders. This old punter doesn’t often discuss Tullow Oil (TLW). This is because it’s lost me money since I bought about 10 years ago, and it’s only been treading water for quite some time. However the share price just shot up on a six months results report just out. The reasons for the rise look convincing.

Early stage financial services businesses investment company B.P. Marsh & Partners (BPM) has made a trading update for its half-year ended 31^st July 2021, including that its “portfolio has performed well during the period, and we expect this to continue through the group’s current financial year”.

I discuss a fascinating article about XL Media (XLM) HERE in the Times of Israel. If I wanted to list a fraud I’d be big on ESG as was XL. Chris Bailey’s fund manager pals would love it as I stole all the cash. I look at gender targets and ask what they should be, referencing Principals of Cambridge Colleges. I look at Mercantile Ports (MPL) and PrimaryBid and then what I plan, or hope, to do next about the fraud Umuthi (UHS), ask the victims to tell their stories. I look at Paul Johnson’s Power Metal Resources (POW) and its latest news which takes me back to 2007 and Mark Watson Mitchell’s Yellowcake. I comment on Asimilar (ASLR) and then go to town on Deepverge (DVRG) and its journalist trolling cock of a CEO Gerry Brandon explaining why I believe investors were materially misled in the run up to the £10 million June 7 placing and why the company is, for a variety of reasons, a total bargepole. It is just not investment grade material.

Gold miner in Kazakhstan, AltynGold (ALTN) has announced its results for the first half of 2021 and that the results of its capital expenditure “look promising”.

Having fallen below 30p as covid emerged, shares in models and collectibles company Hornby last closed at 44.5p. However, a trading statement today currently sees them back towards 40p. What’s the trading story?…

In March I observed that “I’m still not buying the stock – or drinking the product – of Fevertree (FEVR)” HERE. The one line view is that nothing has changed and (interestingly given the general market movements over the last few months) the share price is about the same level as it was about six months ago. Whilst the latter sounds dull – especially as the dividend yield is still under 1% – it has not been a disaster given the volatility in some other share prices. The challenge for Fever-Tree however remains its c. x40 EV:EBIT multiple for the full year, around double the level of underlying operating earnings growth. As always, it depends on what you pay for forward growth potential.

Jubilee Metals (JLP) has been stressing how profitable it will be this year and how next year it will be so profitable that it could pay a dividend. Obviously with Colin Bird as chairman talk of profitability and dividends can only mean one thing. Yes….its another placing! Knock me down with a feather. But this one begs two big sets of questions:

Designer, developer and international distributor of toys, games and giftware Character Group (CCT) commences a trading update today with that, “The re-opening of the bricks and mortar retail sector following the easing and, subsequently, the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in many of our markets has had a buoyant impact on sales generally”. So why are the shares currently, at 572.5p, more than 17% lower?…

For pointing out what an overvalued crock is Deepverge (DVRG) and how the maths of cashburn did not stack up, its arse of a CEO took to trolling me on twitter, a medium he uses to ramp his shares in an alarming manner.  Today’s interims vindicate me and show why anyone believing Brandon deserves all they get. Notwithstanding the company’s Covid play based, literally, on piss and pooh, the valuation is a joke.

In between trying to make mint cordial, mint ice cream and damson jam last night I had a call from a man who had done some work for Umuthi (UHS) and what he said about a forged document purporting to show a bank transfer and a blocked site visit is further evidence of what a complete fraud this is from top to bottom. I relay it to you and wonder what the FCA will say about this?

Hello, Share Searchers. Zytronic (ZYT), a niche company which makes touch sensors, has just released an encouraging trading update. It says that a loss made in the first half of this year has turned into a profit in the second.

Once again we get an RNS reach from spoof company Online Blockchain (OBC) run by the same gang who run ADVFN (AFN) which put out its own comedy release today as discussed in bearcast HERE. But this one is so special it needs a full translation service. The translation is in bold.

AIM-listed jam-tomorrow internet of things investment company Tern plc (TERN) announced its interims to June this morning. Tern’s motley bunch of fanatics will of course be celebrating the claimed 75% period-on-period increase in turnover amongst its cash-guzzling portfolio, but for all that, NAV per share slipped from 7.3p to 7.1p and the company burned through another mountain of cash.