Lockdown in our part of Wales starts in just under two hours. The Mrs has already escaped to England with Joshua. I am staying here but need some supplies so must rush to get them from a store where they don’t make you wear a face nappy before the North Wales fuzz sets up roadblocks on the bridges over the River Dee. Before my Dukes of Hazard style contraband run, I discuss various conspiracy theories over Rolls Royce (RR.) and IAG (IAG). I look at the massive issues now hanging over Verditek (VDTK) as I expose its latest desperate ramping and another past lie. Finally, Dev Clever (DEV), what is going on with Asimilar (ASLR) and Mark Horrocks as its share price slides again.

Early this year we showed the top shorted London-listed shares at the start of 2020. How’s the performance as at the end of September? (those in bold remain from 2019)…

I recently covered Rolls Royce (RR.) as being worth a look as a long term investment once it had managed to refinance its balance sheet, and news on that front came today.

Online shopping technology group Attraqt (ATQT) “is pleased to announce the acquisition of Aleph Search, an Artificial Intelligence powered search technology. The group also announces a placing to raise gross proceeds of £4 million at 32 pence per share to fund the acquisition, increase investment in sales, marketing and product development activities and to accelerate growth”. So how much is the acquisition and what are the financials?…

Fasten your seat belts and don’t sell your gold shares (unless they are in companies run by folks whose middle name is Dilution and whose first name is Calamity). 

In 2015 I exposed InternetQ (INTQ) as a fraud with my “From Athens with Love” dossier.  The FCA did nothing at all. And major shareholder both PA and via his fund, Martin Hughes of Tosca Fund, worked with the management to take the fraud private. Tosca took a seat on the board. They repackaged it as Akazoo and in 2019 floated it again on Nasdaq. Then my pal Gabriel Grego exposed it as a fraud all over again and this time the company fessed.  Gabriel made it clear in the opening paragraph of his report that we had exposed exactly the same fraud in 2015.

Spotting misleading and deceptive RNS statements made by technically insolvent AIM listed ramp Verditek (VDTK) is like shooting fish in a barrel. The skill is in finding one that is demonstrably true! Given that the company needs a placing pronto to avoid bankruptcy, AIM Regulation and the FCA should be investigating all its statements made via RNS to establish if ANY are true, given how many pre-placing lies I have unearthed. So here is yet another one… Optimeyes

On Monday Van Elle Holdings (VANL), “the UK’s largest ground engineering contractor”, was “pleased… operations have continued to improve… cash position remains strong at c. £12m… has a clear focus on the medium term strategy to improve the operational performance of the business, alongside developing positions for differentiation and growth with key customers in the housing, infrastructure and construction sectors” and Frank Nelson was “delighted to take over as Chairman”. Today “Director/PDMR LTIP Awards”…

Most Primary Bid offers I can happily ignore. But the one just announced looks interesting.

For another time are my views on Rolls-Royce (RR.) after its big money raising announcement today because today I actually want to dole out some praise. I know previously (for example here) I have lauded Next (NXT) for its commitment to a high level of disclosures and a detailed plan, and typically these are the sort of traits I look for. You can have all the numbers and insights you like but ultimately you are putting your faith into a management team and their day-to-day capabilities. I love the insights from big themes and various important numbers, but company culture matters hugely too. And talking about culture, brings me to the industrial flooring company James Halstead (JHD)…

Hello Share Splurgers. I approach today’s subject with trepidation. The reason for my hesitancy is that Uncle Tom has roundly criticised the chances of this company to benefit shareholders in the long run…

I end with today’s placing news from Xtract Resources (XTR) and the range of reasons why this has become a pariah stock.  I start with two excuses for lateness. In the middle, what I made of last night’s Presidential debate. Trump, I judge, won it but not with a knockout. I am not calling it yet but I move my prediction from too close to call to still tight but leaning to Sleepy Joe. It is his to lose now. Correction: the debate host was from Fox not CNN – as stated inh the podcast – but is a known Trump hater and his clear partiality was all too evident.

Previously writing on self-styled “operator of the leading marketplace for personalised products” Altitude Group (ALT), in July with the shares 17.5% lower on the day at 23.5p I concluded cautious of the required recovery in transactional volume through 2020, with my prior update on the company and with a still more than £16 million market cap, natch still bargepole / sell. Now “Postponement of Results and Trading Update”, and the shares at 14p…

AIM-listed Yu Group (YU.) announced its Interims to June this morning – deadline day, never a good sign – and the balance sheet shows it is in a mess.

A June update from audio visual communication services group Immedia (IME) included that it “has cash reserves, and plans in place to manage these resources, although the directors are considering raising extra funding from a variety of sources”. On the discounted placing that followed, I noted it will be interesting to see what cash reserves there were in following balance sheets. Now half-year results…

Previously writing on aircraft charter, safety & security company Air Partner (AIR), in July with the shares at just above 90p I suggested it possibly the point to bank gains here and for now monitor how the “more normalised” trading goes from the watchlist. Today half-year results – and the shares currently 6% lower on the back of them, at 72p…

Having advised readers to bank big gains on Xtract Resources (XTR), I waited the requisite period and then dumped my own shares, disgusted by the way that Chairman Colin “Calamity” Bird seemed determined to dilute his mug punters in a shameless and un-needed fashion. Today, vindication.

AIM-listed John Zorbas vehicle URU Metals (URU) has today released its FY20 results. It is “pleased to announce” them, as is Chairman Jay Vieira, but there is absolutely nothing here for shareholders to be pleased about. It is massively technically insolvent and the Going Concern statement is a hoot. And call me old-fashioned, but where has the Nomad signed off on this announcement? Maybe I am going blind, but I can’t see the Nomad mentioned anywhere: surely that it a breach of AIM Rules? Has the Nomad resigned? Should the shares be suspended?

Earlier this month I wrote a pre-IPO article about The Hut Group (THG), concluding you should ‘brace yourself for the newspapers falling all over this one the day after it lists post a day one share price romp’ and that essentially I was not going to chase it. This was due to a variety of concerns…

I’m a pissed off shareholder. On Friday we had an update on Jupiter which indicated that Red Rock Resources (RRR) will continue to get enough in dividends to cover its costs. Great. So now Andrew Bell announces he has raised £1 million at 0.8p – the shares closed Friday at 1p, having been 1.05p midweek…