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Even a few of our detractors have now come around
Floated at 8p on the (sub) Standard list on 2 October 2020, football gaming shower Guild Esports (GILD) now sees its shares languishing at just 3p after the release of truly dreadful interims. The only shareholder laughing all the way to the bank is David “show me the money” Beckham.
Thanks to Winnileaks I have obtained an explosive document prepared by Neil Woodford in January 2018 in which he answers questions put to him by Old Mutual for whom he – at the time – managed a value fund. I publish it in full and it is explosive in part because Woodford – for once – shows a degree of honesty in what he says. And that makes it all the more damning. If the FCA can be bothered to read this it explains in a nutshell why Neil Woodford should never again be allowed to manage other folk’s cash.
Hello, Share Shakers. The fact that the Footsie fell during the week is bonkers. What are big traders afraid of? It beats me. Even the ultra-cautious Bank of England is predicting a huge leap forward in growth.
Link seems to have a habit of shooting itself in the foot at the former Woodford Equity Income Fund as it prepares to defend itself against a legal onslaught from Harcus Parker on behalf of 6,500 folks whose investments were mis-managed into the ground by Neil Woodford, overseen by Link acting as authorised corporate director (ACD). Most recently, it has announced that it has invested some of the fund’s cash into a company called Mafic and the mainstream media has been having a field day as cash supposedly due to be handed out to beleaguered Woodford investors has headed in the opposite direction.
Once again the heroic boss of JD Wetherspoon has dared to speak out against the GroupThink gripping academia, the media, and the political classes on the subject of Covid. As an example of this madness, rather silly Daily Telegraph reporter Helena Horton was today lecturing the actor Laurence Fox on twitter about his idea of meeting six folks for a drink tonight.
I start the podcast with my torture in trying to transfer a pension from the Daily Mail to my SIPP. It got so surreal this week but I might be making, expensive, progress. Then I look at how we often jump to easy conclusions when a share price falls. I am guilty of one such lazy jump. I refer to Versarien (VRS) and UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) in this section. I also have questions for Versarien and its hapless Nomad Bobbie Hilliam of Quindell infamy about the recent spike in its share price. Then I look at Bidstack (BIDS) and investors in denial and finally at Ian Smith and MXC Capital (MXCP) which is leaving the AIM Casino which is NOT what it should do. Smith is in denial too.
In today's podcast I discuss Optibiotix (OPTI), how the critics have moved the goalposts and the ghastly Daily Mail. I also look at Big Dish (DISH) where ennui is setting in, at misleading interims from the worthless cur that is Plutus Powergen (PPG), at serial confetti issuer Zenith Energy (ZEN) and then at Eurasia Mining (EUA) where, after this post, I should say Optiva is now denying it is doing a placing. But frankly, it's still a matter of when not if.
There is no doubt in my mind that disgraced Neil Woodford’s revolutionary pallet company RM2 (RM2) should never have got anywhere near the AIM Casino and through keep-the-lights-on refinancings (largely paid for by Neil Woodford with other peoples’ money) it should have been removed a long time ago. But Neil needed the listing as he tried (and failed) to keep within his 10% proportion of investments unlisted limit so despite protestations from within, the AIM listing continued. Well, this morning it is all over bar the shouting.
Neil Woodford’s Income Focus Fund (WIFF) had a good day yesterday as it put on 0.53% in NAV per unit, according to Morningstar. Mind you, the FTSE-100 put on 1.8% and the FTSE All-Share index added 1.5%, so it wasn’t all that great. But a gain is a gain. In theory, that should have pulled the total assets up from Friday’s close of £287.65 million to £289.17 million...
It is just out – this month’s review of the gating of Neil Woodford’s Equity Income Fund by its authorised corporate director, Link. The news is not good...
Lucy White of the Daily Mail is either the stupidest bint on Fleet Street or takes dictation from WPCT's PR spinners. I discuss her laughable piece on Proton Partners and the stricken Neil Woodford Patient Capital Trust.
The deadwood press was fawning as a pack over Neil Woodford until relatively recently. For a long time myself and other other writers here, notably Cynical Bear and Nigel Somerville, were lone voices in the wilderness though our analysis was spot on. But in recent times Neil has lost most of his makes but some still stayed loyal.
Oh the pain and suffering I have to endure for you, dear reader! I have just read Ruth Sunderland's article in the Daily Mail asking whether we should keep faith with Neil Woodford so you don't have to. Of course, there is nothing new to ShareProphets readers - you heard it all before, months ago. The answer, obviously, is no. But there is more to it than that.
Oh dear, oh dearie me. Woodford dog Thin Film of the Oslo Bors province (THIN) has reported its full year numbers to December 2018. We knew they would be bad – there was a strategic review post-period – but it looks as though a trip to the corporate undertakers could be on the cards unless the company can get a fundraising away, and with Neil Woodford out of cash that’s going to be a big ask. Even if it does, unless Woodford stands his corner he could be diluted away into oblivion.
In this case the turd has been sugared, the pill polished but make no mistake, Midatech Pharma (MTPH) is well in the merde and that is bad news for Britain’s most conceited fund manager Neil Woodford whose funds own 20% of the equity.
There were two enormous red flags waving at NetScientific (NSCI), the healthcare IP commercialisation group. The first was the announcement a few weeks ago of a “strategic review” which in plain English means “we are fucked” and the second was that Britain’s worst performing fund manager Neil “Nomates” Woodford owns 47% of the company with the funds he used to manage round at Invesco owning another 19%. And so to today’s disastrous news.
Hello, Share Rangers. As a former journalist who served Fleet Street, I’m unhappy with the demise of newspapers. But share bunnies need to be sensible rather than nostalgic. So on the full-year results of the Daily Mail (DMGT), I will continue to avoid its stock.
The PR machine of Neil Woodford got its pliant servants at the Daily Mail and elsewhere in the corrupt deadwood press to make great play about how the Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) was about to go into the FTSE 250 Index so meaning that Index funds would have to buy the shares so the share price would go up. Uh Oh! Late last night came an announcement from the LSE:
Over the past two years one salient feature of the Neil Woodford car crash is that every couple of months the Daily Mail or Mail on Sunday, which were the biggest cheer-leaders for Nomates when he set up Woodford Investment Management, runs an article saying “it’s bad but will get better, average down.” The trouble is that the Mail thesis is based on one big lie. At the weekend it was veteran Personal Finance hack Jeff Prestridge who landed an exclusive interview, i.e a blow job for Neil.
In this podcast I cover Tesla (TSLA) which is curiouser and curiouser, Optibiotix (OPTI) and the parasitic vampire that is ADVFN (AFN), Great Western Mining (GWMO), Toople (TOOP), Angus Energy (ANGS), the Brockham Well, UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) anmd its latest despicable smear c/o yellow journalists at The Daily Mail and cheered on by the vermin paid share rampers of LSE Share Talk
You don't care what I say today, all you care about is the football. Indeed: come on Eng-er-land. I reflect briefly on the soccer, then cover Mrs May's Brexit sell out, why I'm not voting for the party of the useless and treacherous old hag again, and finally discuss the idea that British companies should not be bought by "dirty foreigner", ref Inmarsat (ISAT). I cover Optibiotix (OPTI) en passant and am glad that thanks to the incredible generosity of Nick Leslau, myself and Brokerman Dan have now raised £13,000 - 65% of our target - for Woodlarks ahead of the 28 July charity walk. Check Nick's donation and perhaps give a tenner yourself HERE.
"Why Woodford has NOT lost his magic touch... despite UK's star stock picker seeing a series of huge bets going wrong spectacularly". So screams the headline on a leading article by Paul Thomas in the Daily Mail. I suppose it depends on how you define magic? If you mean it is making things ( like other people's money) disappear then indeed, Nomates is still the King. Why was this article written?
I wouldn’t normally cover stocks listed on the Oslo exchange but Thin Film Electronics was mentioned in the comments of a recent Woodford piece and I also noted it was the Share Punt of the Week in the Daily Mail on Friday, so if it is good enough for them to recommend a Woodford-backed cash guzzler to its brain dead readers, it is appropriate for me to provide another side to that story, especially as the cash burn here is off the scale.
I smiled wryly at the announcement on Thursday from YOLO Leisure and Technology (YOLO) about its investment in Magic Media Works, the manufacturer of the Electric Jukebox / ROXI as, once again, it makes the Daily Mail look pretty silly and one wonders whether its “financial journalists” ever ask a probing question before just publishing whatever is served up to them by corporate PR.
I think I have said all that needs to be said about China trainwreck BNN Technology (BNN) in yesterday's bearcast - the one the Mrs dubbed crude. What a compliment!. BNN is toast but just as an aside its now suspended CEO Darren Mercer seems to have some unusual financing arrangements with the company. And there is the matter of Peover.
It must be exciting times at NHS supplier Totally (TLY) at the moment with the buy-and-build strategy taking shape and an RTO in progress and a busy time, particularly for the CFO, Don Baladasan, who also has the interims to prepare but, er, has he just left to join CentralNic (CNIC)?
Oh dear, Oh dear. As predicted here many times it has not ended well at House of Britannia, the company established by serial shyster Simon Petherick. An administrator was appointed on 29 June. Now for the roll call of fame.
No great surprise that Nektan’s (NKTN) CEO, Leigh Nissim, has announced his resignation this week as it must be a challenging and dispiriting role, although one I do wonder when he actually started looking as he’s been in the role for less than a year. It leaves me though with me with a sinking feeling about the PR machines at play at this end of AIM and must also leave Daily Mail readers fuming.
The nauseating Mail on Sunday fawned upon Pippa Middleton and her ghastly family as they celebrated the "wedding of the Year". Bring on the revolution! But perhaps the real wedding of the year should be between our two very own in-house Bulletin Board Morons GrannySnuffs & Wildes who seem made for each other. can you find examples on the LSE Asylum, iii, ADVFN or twitter of comments more idiotic than those of our own dream team? If so post in the comments section below, the deadline is midnight Sunday 28th May.
I know I shouldn’t have too much sympathy for the retired bigots that read the Daily Mail but its recent tipping of Nektan (NKTN), which will no doubt cost its loyal readers a few quid, is yet another reason to boycott the rag.
Oh dear, oh dear. just when you thought things could not get any worse for Aussie poltroons Slater & Gordon (SGH). They just have. And big time as the UK Government finally takes action against the most literal ambulance chasing lawyers and that means our pals S&G.
The reference to Lego and the Daily Mail is HERE. In today's podcast I look at four bubbles that are bursting in a demonstrable way: bonds, residential property, crowdfunding - where the returns are shockingly bad - and health wristbands.
Following the example set by Paul Warwick the chairman of worthless penny stock Andalas (ADL) in starting a blog, Sir Benjamin Dover of AIM listed Global Mining Endeavours has decided to follow suit and like Paul promises to be candid in his approach. Blog number fourteen....
Following the example set by Paul Warwick the chairman of worthless penny stock Andalas (ADL) in starting a blog, Sir Benjamin Dover of AIM listed Global Mining Endeavours has decided to follow suit and like Paul promises to be Candid in his approach. Blog number thirteen...
Following the example set by Paul Warwick the chairman of worthless penny stock Andalas (ADL) in starting a blog, Sir Benjamin Dover of AIM listed Global Mining Endeavours has decided to follow suit and like Paul promises to be Candid in his approach. Blog number ten....
I start with an apology to Ms Jo Hart of Midas in the Daily Mail who I termed a silly witch who shames our profession last week. She is, in fact, clearly the world's greatest tipster for today she has lavished praise on a stock we own shed loads of- Concepta (CPT). I end with a note that I have put my daughter straight on Donald Trump HERE. The bu;t of the podcast discusses bigger fool investing with reference to Cloudtag (CTAG) and I explain why Cynical Bear was far too kind on the POS company earlier today and why I am reporting Cloudtag and its Nomad Cairn to the regulators for either lying to investors or misleading them in a material way four days before a bailout placing.
The national Lottery promises the best odds ever says the Daily Mail, a statement that may or may not be true. With a little help from George Orwell writing in 1948, a book called 1984, I examine how the tax on the stupid that is the National Lottery is in overdrive today.
Rob Terry darling, AIM-listed Imaginatik (IMTK) has seen its shares slide by 32% (last seen) this morning, yet there has been no news issued by the company since 28 June when it was announced that Rob Terry’s Quob Park Estate had seen its holding reduced to almost 5%. Surely a statement is needed to explain the share price movement.
I have no problem with folks taking payment to promote a stock. If a company wishes to spunk shareholders cash to pay an IR firm like Proactive to record a soft interview with its CEO that is not an issue as long as commercial interests are declared. You have got to be transparent. But Proactive Investors and the Daily Mail are showing no transparency and this is surely wrong. I refer to Inspirit (INSP) ramping.
Over on TomWinnifrith.com, Tom writes about the latest person who has annoyed the Daily Mail (and thus, Tom), drinking ouzo down the Kambos pub, and waging the WW III against snakes and rats.
Conman Simon Petherick of House of Britannia is up to his old tricks. His company has bought another outfit Best Of Britannia Retail, which says holds exhibitions promoting British-made products. But the deal is far from what it seems. It is a con. Yet the Daily Mail says this is a move ahead of a £6 million ISDX listing. Whatever. Now, for Daily Fail reporters who are too fecking lazy or stupid to do basic research let;s deconstruct their hoodwinking. The Mail states:
I prepare for a celebration lunch with lefties in the grim North. Woe is me. But my mind wanders to what else was happening in 1966? I am really not on the ball today. Then I ask how can we say that investors are protected if fraudster Rob Terry can raise cash for his Knob Park ponzi via crowdfunding? Then I answer the question in today's Daily Mail (a loathsome rag) - in a low interest rate era should you pay off your mortgage?
AIM-listed Imaginatek (IMTK) has just responded to Press Speculation - one assumes the Daily Mail story Rob Terry is planning a takeover - but pointedly failed to deny the story. Is Rob Terry about to launch a bid and return to the Casino? I though April Fool's day was last Friday....
There is only one thing that Daily Mail readers love more than articles about how illegal immigrants can give you cancer and that is articles on how prices are going up. But today there is an article which warns that the Bank of England is set to try and stop Buy to Let becoming a bubble. It's too late! It is not if but when it all bursts.
Today's Daily Mail carries a horror story about the demise of Crumpet Cashmere, an upmarket clothing venture patronised by Pippa Middleton (pictured) and other well known bimbos which has just gone bust. My point is not to make cheap jibes at the ghastly Pippa but to flag up how this shows the horrors of crowdfunding and how the FCA is failing in its duties to protect mug punters in a horrifying manner.
Jabba The Hutt is no longer on the board but he ramps shares in Octagonal (OCT) on twitter and his pal from Inspirit (INSP), John Gunn, runs the show. Piss poor interims were out yesterday but being Jabba related they contained a clear breach of AIM Rules - just what was it trying to hide?
First it was the Daily Mail and now it is the Daily Telegraph that has taken up the cudgels on behalf of Essex pensioners Mr and Mrs Bagot who were completely robbed by AIM listed broker WH Ireland (WHI). This scandal is growing and could bring WH Ireland to its knees as I have already flagged up HERE. The Telegraph today gives us full details of the scale of the mugging. It is awful.
Having soared from 0.315p at the start of the month to a 1.725p close on Monday before falling to 1.31p yesterday, shares in African Potash Ltd (AFPO) are currently on the rise again on the back of the company dismissing a report in the Daily Mail as “speculative and unfounded”…
Over the weekend I warned you that the sensationalist reporting of Greece by the Daily Mail and notably the lying bitch Liz Jones was just all lies. She did not understand what was going on and was making things up in a sensationalist manner to help sell copies of that rag. One of la Jones lies was that they were running out of food here. As it happens, outside my front door is a street market….
I am horrified to see today’s Mail on Sunday spout complete lies about Greece. It saddens me that this paper pays folks like Liz Jones to write sensationalist crap.
Rob Terry and his latest Quindell missive, the latest Sefton farce, the China frauds, the sheer level of mendacity, greed and corruption on the AIM casino is at a level which I cannot remember but the authorities do sod all and all the time the Private Investor gets screwed. This week AIM celebrated its 20th birthday and its allies in the crony capitalist cabal on Fleet Street lapped it up. I am sorry to say that my old pal Geoff Foster of the Daily Mail penned a vomit inducing piece HERE which needs "fisking"
The Daily Mail & BBC this weekend ran stories about how the NHS was doing trials which would see all pregnant women getting a non invasive pre-natal test for down's syndrome. The Mail piece sums it up HERE
Daily Mail Readers are today lashing out at their paper for flagging up that Quindell (QPP) shareholders are signing up in droves to take a class action against the fraud and the fraudsters. This is a Great British Company, paying taxes, creating 4000 jobs and with £1 billion in sales they say. No it is not as I explain below & I speculate on how much Rob Terry and his henchmen have taken out of Quenron.
Readers of this smasheroo website just get luckier and luckier – if you’ve been following my tips. Sorry, that sounds very immodest – but the only fault I have is over-modesty. Please forgive me, but I’m so excited about that anti-cancer outfit I recommended to you – Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO).
