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Even a few of our detractors have now come around
Having reached the halfway point of the year, it is time to look once again at my five slam dunk sells for the year. At the end of May the scores were 3 down and two up. Has there been any improvement? The not-so fabulous five were Tern plc (TERN), URU Metals (URU), Barkby Group (BARK) and Trafalgar Property (TRAF) of the AIM Casino and AIQ (AIQ) of the sub-Standard list.
As we reach the end of month five – we are almost half way – here is the latest from my small-dunk sells for this year. The biggest feature of the portfolio is that all the companies need to rattle the tin and whilst that has been less of a problem during the everything bubble, market conditions are deteriorating fast. So I expect a few accidents in the coming months.
Aquis listed VSA Capital (VSA) makes its dosh floating and raising money for shitty little companies on AIM, the Sub Standard List and Aquis. The photo below, from yesterday, shows its staff preparing to party in the sun. So, with a prize of some worthless shares in star VSA float AIQ Limited (AIQ), let's all play "spot the customer's yachts."
We have reached the end of month 4 – how are my five slam-dunk sells of AIM-listed Barkby Group (BARK), Tern plc (TERN), Trafalgar Property (TRAF), URU Metals (URU and Standard-listed AIQ (AIQ) doing?
It seems my slam-dunk sells for 2022 – AIM-listed Tern plc (TERN), Catenae Innovation (CTEA), Trafalgar Property (TRAF) and URU Metals (URU) along with sub-Standard listed AIQ (AIQ) is set for a very interesting few days ahead which could see disaster strike for at least two of these companies.
Sub-Standard-listed AIQ, the baby of Andrew Monk’s VSA Capital and Standard List posterboy for all that can go wrong, announced this morning that its IT consultancy business (what’s left of it) has been awarded a contract to supply an NFT marketplace, and that it has established partnerships with two suppliers. Big news……or not!
After yesterday’s FY results were released by sub-Standard listed AIQ (AIQ) I pointed out that the recent insiders convertible loan was, we were told yesterday, at a ludicrous interest rate of 5% per day. The usual form for auditing accounts is that the auditors audit not only the numbers in the financial statements, but the notes as well. Yet later that day, the company had to ‘fess up that it had got it all wrong. Talk about being unable to organise a piss-up in a brewery!
I noted yesterday that FY results from sub-Standard-Listed AIQ (AIQ) were due today. To leave one’s results to deadline day is of itself at Red Flag, but a brief nose through the numbers what a horrific shambles has been made of this VSA Capital/ Andrew Monk IPO from 2018. Fortunately, ShareProphets readers were warned right from the off.
We are (almost) at the end of February and the world appears to have changed very much for the worse. So how are my five slam-dunk sells of Tern plc (TERN), Trafalgar Property (TRAF), URU Metals (URU), Barkby Group (BARK) – all on the AIM Casino – and AIQ (AIQ) of the sub-Standard List doing?
We are just over a month into the year: how are my Slam-Dunk Sells for 2022 doing? My portfolio of disaster for this year was Tern plc (TERN), Trafalgar Property (TRAF), URU Metals (URU) and Barkby Group (BARK) of the world’s most successful growth market and, from the sub-Standard List, AIQ (AIQ).
The disaster that is sub-Standard-Listed AIQ has lust lurched from bad to worse: it has announced a £500,000 convertible loan from insiders, led by Executive Director Li Chin Chung with £250,000. But the insiders connection does not end there…..
2021 was not a good year for bears. Markets were in a rip-roaring bull phase and in my view all common sense went out of the window, so even the most ridiculous speculative plays went up. But my strong view is that 2022 will be different: QE is being tapered away, interest rates are rising, inflation is soaring and government helicopter money is no longer there (at least for now). In 2021, bears had to hide behind the sofa and short positions could be attacked by an army of pitch-fork armed private investors. That is not the case now and I expect some hefty declines as a result.
Sub-Standard listed AIQ (AIQ), pride and joy of Andrew Monk’s VSA Capital fold, has updated the market with publication of its interims. Given that the company only joined the LSE sewer that is the Standard List in January 2018 and spent its first six months suspended – in part due to disclosure failures in its Prospectus (nice work, VSA) – one might not be surprised to learn that AIQ’s existence hasn’t exactly been stellar. But this morning’s Interims – to April – are utterly disastrous. Shame on all concerned.
Yet more red faces for Andrew Monk and his team at VSA Capital which launched this abomination on the stockmarket and still acts as its adviser. But I guess that coke and hookers don’t pay for themselves and a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. What a total shambles! Sub-Standard-listed AIQ (AIQ) has announced the result of its strategic review this morning – this as a result of the disastrous reverse takeover of Alchemist Codes to add to the original and equally shambolic IPO on the sub-standard list back in 2018 which saw the stock suspended for most of its first six months on the market.
Oh dear, oh dear. Oh dearie dearie me. We warned you time and time again and even managed to get the shares suspended but somehow this bastard child of Andrew Monk’s VSA Resources. ;lurched on. Sub-Standard Listed AIQ, which spent most of its first six months on the market suspended after the IPO was botched, has delivered calamitous final results, called a strategic review and qualified its going concern statement. In short, it is mega-ouzo time for us, it is time for Mr Monk to apologise to one and all and donate the fat fees earned on this one to Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks.
I guess it was about seven miles that my daughter and I managed and it was terribly muddy so hard going but I am not in great shape. On the last Saturday in May, I shall be doing 34 miles. I need to up the pace a bit. In the podcast I cover: AIQ (AIQ), Online Blockchain (OBC), MyHealthChecked (MHC), Zoetic (ZOE), Kanobo (KNB) and Ariana Resources (AAU).
Sub-Standard-listed AIQ has had a chequered history since it floated on the London Stock Exchange courtesy of Andrew Monk and VSA Capital. The founding executive directors’ full details had not been correctly disclosed, there was the mother of all shambles as IPO share certificates failed to arrive in a timely manner and at the same time a buying frenzy – perhaps by people who thought there was a relationship to Mama Captain (denied), the stock spent most of its first four months as a listed entity suspended and even a placing to address the IPO shambles was messed up. Meanwhile, the stock was trading (when not suspended) at a ridiculous premium to cash, with no business.
I start with a look at dividends in general and why they should be cut or axed but I discuss - as per today's most excellent article from Chris "Three Brains" Bailey - Imperial Brands (IMB) and Shell (RDSB) in particular. I am tempted to buy both because I think their shares will go up AFTER an inevitable dividend cut. I discuss what a moron Jeremy Corbyn is and my anger at an Oxford institution wanting Government cash. I look at Zenith Energy (ZEN) wondering if it has found more fake sheikhs drawn to the AIM Casino and also at AIQ (AIQ) - which continues to amuse.
AIQ joined the Standard List in January of last year and spent most of its first four months suspended, has to correct its admission document following revelations on this website and the share price went bonkers – yet it had no business, just cash. This morning it released its interims – is it really worth 28.5p a share?
There seems little point in chastising Standard-listed AIQ (AIQ) for its ridiculous share price – it has been so ever since it listed, through two suspensions and two sets of results which show that its assets – a few coppers and no business – are a tiny fraction of the share price. Quite why the shares have been going up again in recent days is beyond me.
Standard-listed AIQ (AIQ) – an investment company which rather caught our eye last year in the wake of its calamity of an IPO and repeat suspensions thereafter – has published its maiden full year results. Needless to say, they are nothing to write home about (unless you are a ShareProphets writer!)
There is a lot of bad language in this podcast. Do not play it in front of the children. In it I cover Naibu (NBU), Daniel Stewart (DAN) and Pinsent Masons (WANKERS) and the latest from their legal battle. I look at TrakM8 (TRAK), Angus Energy (ANGS), UK Oil & Gas (UKOG), Flybe (FLYB), and AIQ (AIQ).
In today's podcast I look at Frontera (FRR) and the latest ramblings of the disgraced whore blogger Malcolm Graham Wood, at Neil Woodford disaster Midatech (MTPH), at AIQ (AIQ), Flybe (FLYB), Tertiary Minerals (TYM), Tower Resources (TRP), and at Altona (ANR)
It has now been exactly a year and two days since VSA completed its “due diligence” on AIQ (AIQ) and brought this cash shell to the Standard List. And what a year of shame it has been.
The shenanigans of the Standard-Listing of AIQ are well documented here on ShareProphets, which included an incomplete prospectus, two suspensions due to a disorderly market (the IPO shares couldn’t be traded) and a fund-raising which was delayed – all in its first five months as a listed company! Meanwhile, with assets (all cash – it is a cash-shell) of around 8p a share, the price rocketed to an incredible 135p. We have been saying sell all along.
AIQ (AIQ) joined the Standard List in early January and spent most of the first four months of its life suspended due to a disorderly market, had to correct its admission document because it had missed out some information and steps had to be taken to remove some internet references to businesses which, we are told, it had nothing to do with. It was a shambles. This morning it released its interim numbers to April.
Yes, today's training session for my Woodlarks charity walk is down at the gym run by local Tory stalwart Perry. Everyone else there is a muscular body builder. Then there is me. As the muscle men laugh at my pathetic efforts please donate a tenner ( as 95% of you have failed to do) to the 32 mile 28 July charity walk HERE. In the podcast I discuss rescuing junk mail from Oakley's piss and netting £922.77, Audioboom (BOOM) - do the maths, its looking dire even post placing for free speech denying worm Rob Proctor, Feedback (FDBK), Avanti Communications (AVN) and Inmarsat (ISAT), Jim Mellon's Fast Forward (FFWD), LightwaverRF (LWRF), PCGE (PCGE) and AIQ (AIQ).
I called Standard Listed AIQ (AIQ) lower when it announced its Open Offer and the shares have (very roughly) halved, but there is plenty more to go. This morning it announced that the offer, at 20p, had been oversubscribed but remember that the net assets per share (all cash) are around 8-10p.
Forgive the late bearcast. Blame it on Greek Hovel business. In today's podcast I look at Folli Follie, shares in which are slumping again as I warned you the other day HERE - tomorrow might be D (for Death) Day. I then take up Andrew Monk on AIQ (AIQ), Petra Diamonds (PDL) and the idea of consolidating brokers and Nomads via M&A. It makes no sense Andrew. Then I look at the GoTech (GOT) shambles - its now a dope play but frankly you must be a dope to own this stock. Then I cover Optibiotix (OPTI) again with a point folks like Cynical Bear have missed. Finally its i3 Energy (I3E). Thanks to those who have sponsored me as I suffer the dual agonies of walking 30 miles and having to listen to Brokerman Dan drone on all day, but 99% of bearcast listeners have not yet donated a tenner. Please do so HERE
Having made it back to the market after its second suspension (and it only listed in January!), Standard-listed AIQ (AIQ) has now launched the promised open offer at 20p. Meanwhile, the shares have been collapsing from the suspension price of 135p to just 55.5p last seen. So the open offer is a giveaway, right?
Don't get me wrong. I may be a diehard Republican but I loved the Royal Wedding. However the man feted as the hero of the day, that American Bishop really did spout absolute bollocks. I explain why. In this podcast I warn Julie Meyer that today's bombshell exposes are just an appetizer for what is to come later this week. I also look at Arian Silver (AGQ), AIQ (AIQ), Seeing Machines (SEE), Avanti Communications (AVN) and RM2 (RM2).
And the next video is the bears with myself, the Dark Destroyer Matt Earl, the Bard of the Boleyn Lucian Miers and a cameo by Nigel Somerville on Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO). On the agenda Telit (TCM), Tesla (TSLA), Mitie (MTO), IQE (IQE), RM2 (RM2),Avanti Communications (AVN), AIQ (AIQ) and a good stack more.
The only surprise is that this didn’t happen sooner. Standard-listed AIQ has been suspended again, under Rule 1510 of the Rules of the London Stock Exchange. Unlike last time, it was not at the request of the company, this is the regulators in action (as opposed to inaction last Friday). It also means that having listed on January 9th this year, the stock has been trading for just 3 days in January and two and a half in April – a total of five and a half days over the course of a day short of fifteen weeks. Is this some kind of record?
In this podcast I look back at a very valid point made by Dr Hon at UK Investor on a cancer still at the heart of the City. I look at AIQ (AIQ), San Leon (SLE) and Paragon Entertainment (PEL) - another Finncap debacle. Then I turn to Ed Croft and UK Investor who was rude to me ( who cares) as he over-ran his allotted time and pretended otherwise by slating me. He also called Nigel Wray a sucker for his investments. Ed: how rich are you? How many AIM stocks have you backed in a major way where you could have m,ade 100* your money? But I am sure you are right and Wray is a sucker. And then Ed presented data which though accurate allowed him to leap to a totally wrong conclusion. If I was scoring his thesis I explain why I'd have to give it a fail. Or as that is now on campuses today a 2:1. Unlike Ed I did not insult someone else on the main stage on their big day as that would have been rude but his nonsense needs correcting.
On Friday at 1.21pm we published a piece asking what was going on with Standard listed AIQ (AIQ). After all, the shares had only just come back from suspension following a disorderly market from when it was first listed in January. But the share were once again rising sharply, and at 115p way ahead of the 8-10p a share of cash that this cash shell had. At 1.55pm the company released an RNS saying that it:
I will see many of you at UK INvestor today. This was recorded last night as I struggled with my Neil Woodford talk. On that note I praise Cynical Bear for his amazing work on exposing Nomates but also all my colleagues at ShareProphets as working with them (even Darren) really can be good fun. I look like a bit of a prat selling my AIQ (AIQ) at 45p but a 130p share price at the close on Friday is a scandal and benefits no-one. I discuss what an outrage this is in detail and loom back to a similar bout of madness involving my pals Nick Leslau and Nigel Wray back in the dot com era. That was market madness, this is - I think - a genuine scandal.
Standard-listed AIQ, (AIQ) having shaken off my questions, corrected the record over its directors’ other directorships and supposedly dealt with the lack of stock available which sent the shares sky-high when it first listed has finally got its shares unsuspended as of yesterday. But once again the shares are trading at an absurd level for a cash-shell with perhaps, at absolute best, around 10p a share of cash: at time of writing, and no investments, the spread is 100p – 130p!
In one of the most bizarre listings the UKLA has allowed through, AIQ (AIQ) got onto the Standard List in January, only to be suspended three days later. The shares had gone mad, rising to 125p at suspension despite being a simple cash shell having raised money at just 8p. It seems that there were buyers but nobody could sell as their shares were paper certificates which had not arrived. But there were a few other matters too.
In the excitement I forgot to mention Nomates but you can see a chart below that he'd rather you did not. It is self explanatory and my father wants to clarify that like Larry Cummins of Milestone (MSG) infamy he does not have a degree from Oxford. But unlike Lyin' Larry he has two. I discuss Milestone, Blue Prism (PRSM), AIQ (AIQ), 13 Energy (I3E) and focus on Frontera Resources (FRR) and include in my coverage the sordid role of fat bastard, that is to say Malcolm Graham Wood.
Andrew Monk of VSA Capital has answered the questions raised in my previous two articles covering Standard-listed (but still suspended) AIQ (AIQ). He has to be credited for following up on the issues presented, and being open with his answers.
Nigel Somerville penned two articles on AIQ (AIQ) which, I thought were pretty damning as you can see HERE and HERE. The valuation is clearly bonkers and I say that as a shareholder (by accident not design). Andrew Monk of VSA floated AIQ and has penned this response which I am happy to publish in full as it all seems very comprehensive and reassuring. I really don't know what to think other than that the valuation at the suspension price is bonkers on steroids.
As you know I got a lawyer's letter from the Ariadne Group run by Julie Meyer yesterday. I explain why the in house lawyer poodle chap is a very confused young man. He has not, as he said he would, got back to me to clarify his confused position. I urge you to read Nigel's AIQ expose today as it is most excellent. I discuss Haike Chemical (HAIK) and why it is by definition a bad company as is - as per today's article here - Purplebricks (PURP). Then it is onto the looming bun fight at Paternoster Resources (PRS) - if any of Nick Lee, Amanda Van Dyke and Melissa Sturgess which to dish dirt on the oppo, I am here and happy to publish it all. You see I am everybody's friend.
Having taken a look at the prospectus for the flotation of AIQ (AIQ) on the Standard list in part 1 we now move on to Mama Captain, Barrel2U, Mama Harbour and iBuddee. These outfits have faced allegations of being ponzi/MLM (multi-level marketing)/pyramid/money game schemes.
Last week’s flotation of AIQ (AIQ) on the LSE’s standard list raised a lot of questions. For a start there was demand for the stock, but apparently no stock available to buy: it seems the registrar had yet to send out certificates and so the shares rocketed until they were suspended. But after much digging, there appears to be rather more to the story than the listing of a bare Cayman Islands shell. Where to start?
Clearly, the whole AIQ (AIQ) IPO was a farce the way it has been handled and having also been digging around, there is more to come but I will leave it in the excellent hands of Nigel to report further on the dodginess here. I will just turn my hand to a bit of poetry inspired by Monk’s defence this morning and by recent Twitter hilarity.
Andrew Monk's VSA floated AIQ on the Standard List last week. Its shares soared 1000% and were suspended. As Andrew notes, through the passive investment vehicle RRR I own shares in AIQ (about £10 worth - CORRECTION I am told it is £1841 worth!). I will try to sell the lot as the valuation is insane. But Monk wants to defend his corner so before our writers really go to town - and I am on their side - here is Monkey in his private email to clients today...
Our good friend and occasional correspondent in these parts, Graham Chester, has also been looking at Standard Listed (as of Tuesday) AIQ (AIQ), which rose from 8p to 125p to have a value of £62.5 million for its £3.6 million of cash and nothing else. Like me, he has become a bit of an anorak on China Frauds so when a familiar name crops up….
I plan to record a podcast on www.TomWinnifrith.com on this special day on why I feel more grim about what happens next. In bearcast I cover AIQ (AIQ), Nighthawk (HAWK), Telit (TCM), Ferrum Crescent (FCR) and Petards (PEG)
Suspended today becuase the market is disorderly, AIQ (AIQ) listed on the Standard list just two days ago at 8p per share, raising £3.6 million. It is a special purpose acquisition company incorporated in the Cayman Islands and formed to undertake one or more acquisitions of target companies or businesses in the e-commerce sector. Er, so it’s got no business at the moment and just £3.6 million (minus costs) in the bank and is now worth an incredible £62.5 million! Bollocks.
