148 days ago
My shocking expose of Dispensa (DISP), the crock formerly known as Zamaz, where I’ve been a perma bear since its September 2 2022 IPO at 11p seems to have somebody panicking. The shares have today crashed by 42% to just 0.95p. Which will be the next rat to jump as there is far worse to come. I shall kick off with a couple of questions for those such as PR goons Walbrook and VSA Capital, where I am unwitting shareholder, to consider as they ponder how much more reputational damage they can tolerate.
317 days ago
I really do hope that in penning this piece I am not going to interrupt another feminazi lunch being attended by Celadon Pharmaceuticals (CEL) PR head honcho Ms. Sarah McLeod. For I fear that Ms McLeod needs to stop discussing the gender pay gap and ensure her client – a company I have oft warned is drowning in red flags – to issue a statement as its share price continues to tumble. Here’s why?
360 days ago
Shares in MGC Pharmceuticals (MXC) were 2.25p valuing the crock at £70 million when I published my first explosive dossier HERE just 20 months ago. Of course folks like broker Turner Pope, evil PR Spinners IFC Advisory (not having a good day are we chaps?) and the bulletin board morons knew better than silly old TW. I’ve kept on exposing this all the way down and today the shares are down by almost 50% on the session at just 0.055p after more disastrous news.
510 days ago
I understand that many listed firms feel the need to hire an IR/PR firm. Actually they should resist the urge, it is just another cost centre and adds no value at all, in terms of generating free cashflow. It is not as if the posh twits who inhabit the world of PR can actually polish turds or turn a good company into a great one, their exorbitant fees subtract from the NPV of a company, they do not add to it.
588 days ago
Back in August of last year nanosynth (NNN) announced, in a grossly misleading way, that it had signed a death spiral with Lanstead “to raise £2,942,500”. I warned at the time that this was fantasy, that nothing like £3 million would be raised and that those responsible ( PR firm IFC Advisory) should be hung, drawn and quartered while AIM Regulation should force a restatement. Nothing happened. IFC told me I was talking tummy rot, the Oxymorons did nothing. And on Thursday afternoon, nanosynth admitted that it faced a financial crisis and its shares collapsed.
591 days ago
Arthur Millholland and his colleagues at Canadian Overseas Petroleum (COPL) treat the morons who own shares in the company with undisguised contempt, hiding from them some very bad news indeed. The old shyster, Charles Goodwin at Yellow Jersey PR and in house PR Cathy Hume should be ashamed of today’s effort it is a disgrace. Even by their own lowly standards. The headline is “COPL 2022 Financials Results and Operations Update.”
606 days ago
Not for the first time the Mail on Sunday is doing PR for Sarah Willingham of Nightcap (NGHT). As usual it gets its maths hopelessly wrong.
633 days ago
No this is not a reference to Darren after the glitch on the earlier bullcast. It is a reference to Versarien (VRS). I explain why today’s Umbro based ramping video is just so much hooey and a sell signal not a buy one. Then it is onto young journalists and the problems they face, Jamie Nimmo eulogising Dan Wagner with some PR puffery in the Sunday Times. Finally why Avacta (AVCT) is such a compelling short.
634 days ago
HSBC (HSBA) published its 500 page annual report on the same day as announcing its full year numbers. But it had nothing to hide. Almost all companies do exactly the same but three days after Versarien (VRS) published its full year numbers there is still no sign whatsoever of its annual
report. I have now had a response from the company’s PR team. It is hilarious.
663 days ago
Yesterday’s deeply discounted bailout placing at 0.18p will have stunned some shareholders in nanosynth (NNN) who thought, as a result of RNS releases made in August and September, that the company had raised almost £3 million and was fully funded. That was a deceit. I believe that CEO Mark Duffin, PR firm IFC Advisory and Nomad SP Angel may be guilty of market abuse and have asked both AIM Regulation and the FCA to consider the matter.
686 days ago
I have always warned folks about this company, even before its shares were suspended at 30p last Christmas Eve, giving it a £250 milllion market cap. Others ramped away or took vast fees (bucket shop adviser Novum and PR Chris Lane at Buchanan) step forward. But this was always a failing business drowning in red flags. Today it ‘fessed. Well sort of. It also lied.
735 days ago
At 9.07 PM last night I revealed here that Applied Graphene Materials (AGM) was working on a placing, trying ( I stress trying) to raise £3 million at just 2p as against a 10p bid price. I flagged my piece up to the PR bunnies at Hudson Sandler and so ensured they all had a late night as today there is a response to comment on “an article published on the ShareProphets website on the evening of 7 November 2022 regarding a possible equity raise.” Timber!
755 days ago
Hurst has not stuck the ball in the back of the net yet but the crowd of bears are on the pitch clutching bottles of ouzo and is that a Fat Lady I see among them? Surely this disgrace from the IPO class of 2021 is doomed after the latest news? You cannot say that I did not, on numerous occasions, warn you all
776 days ago
Earlier I posted damning claims about musicMagpie (MMAG) by someone claiming to be an ex employee, which suggest that the busineses’s new ventures will flop and its existing business is in real decline. So who is this poster? It has been suggested that it is the company’s CTO David Hilton. The company’s PR firm Powerscourt cannot be arsed to return calls as promised which only fuels uncertainty whiile musicMagpie HQ was not even answering the phone mid afternoon. But Mr Hilton has better manners and has got back to me to say he is still employed at music and is not the whistleblower.
812 days ago
I start with a nasty shock my grandmother, Lesbia Cochrane, got in the late 1920s. This is relevant I suggest that a whole swathe of millenials could be getting a similar shock this year and that is one of many reasons why I pose the Boohoo (BOO) question. I look at its balance sheet, cashflows, shocking G (as in ESG) and find myself agreeing with ouzo man. Thewn the chart below and what it means for any company including Purplebricks (PURP) , getting some PR dictated puffery in The Times today, exposed to UK housing. Finally it is 12 days to ShareStock. I am off to mow the lawn for the tents next, book your seats HERE
817 days ago
Half calendar year numbers are predictably shite but thanks to the monthly trading updates, opaque as they are, we already had a fair old idea how much in the merde the company is, however much disgraced Peter Wall, and his PR gimps at Tancredi, who refuse to answer simple questions, might try to polish the turd.
882 days ago
Just a few caveats. Align Research is paid to pump out the research below. Align and its boss, Richard “nobody likes me and I don’t care” Jennings own shed loads of shares in Bluebird Merchant Ventures (BMV), and the “analyst” is disgraced, journalist smearing, part time PR man, the vile and repellent Dr Michael Green. Dr Green should not be allowed to work in financial services after his crimes as an enabler of the fraud Sefton Resources (SER). Having said all of that, I too have an interest in these shares and reckon they are cheap. Are they worth 9.58p as the ludicrous Green suggests? Er no. But could they double? Yes. And the note below explains why.
938 days ago
Sub scale technology investment waste of space company Vela (VELA) has today announced that it has hired a new PR and IR firm Novum to ramp its shares. Novum, aka my old pal Alan Green, I have a question for you about the gap in the website CV of your boss Brent Fitzpatrick, the one linking him to a convicted fraudster and jailbird.
941 days ago
Sadly Upland Resources (UPL) announced the death of its NED and also its broker Jeremy King. The release issued as an RNS as you can see below, was crafted by not one but two PR firms including uber expensive FTI Consulting. To have two firms on board means Upland is spunking a good £10,000 amonth on PR but you need to pay for quality. The contacts on the release include a Mr Jeremy King, a true story of Easter resurrection.
967 days ago
So, David: do you want the audience to learn anything, or are you a mere PR man for low-grade corporates? Tonight, musicMagpie (MMAG) is presenting at Mello Events, and you can bet that it will not discuss how, shockingly, it deceived investors about real competition in its IPO prospectus; or how its CFO-turned-COO was a serious fraudster.
972 days ago
It is almost as if reporter Jon Robinson from Business Live was taking dictation from PR fluffies Powerscourt as he reported on boardroom share buying at musicMagpie (MMAG) here. Claiming the bosses were “doubling down” by buying £300,000 of shares at 52.5p is “doubling down” when, as I pointed out HERE, the same bosses had sold £15.7 million worth of shares at the IPO less than a year ago is just 100% misleading. It gets worse…
1012 days ago
Firstly I discuss how Omega Diagnostics (ODX) mislead folks on 19 January about the lack of a placing. The slippery words of PR shithead Paul “Queenie” McManus of Walbrook saw folks pay 15p per share. Today Omega confirmed my latest scoop, yes it has raised £5 million and will do an open offer for another £2million at just 5p. But Queenie says this is dependent on another corporate action. In the podcast I reveal exactly what that action is since the PR shithead won’t. There is a brief discussion about poor Prince Charles and the total bursting of the Covid stocks bubble. Then onto the shocking corporate governance and executive greed at Nanosynth (NNN). It is dressed up as aligning executive interests with those of mug punters owning this grotesquely overvalued stock. It is nothing of the sort. The shares should fall by 90%. Former chairman Antony Legge would NEVER have allowed this. How standards have slipped.
1071 days ago
This horrible company which, as we exposed, lied in its very first RNS on December 30th 2020 repeated that same lie today.It is shameless. Or peraps its morally bankrupt PR dirtbags at Yellow Jersey enjoy posting serial lies? The company was going to announce its results for the year to June 30 In October, then in the week starting November 29 but finally they are out. A masterclass in pointless bullshit from scumbags who offer no explanation for the delay.
1205 days ago
On MyHeathChecked (MHC) I tidy up all the loose ends from yesterday’s options storm and i am confident that the greedy management have behaved in this way as the shares will head higher. On the fraud Zoetic (ZOE) I discuss the purchase of the domain name Chill.com and all the questions that throws up. I do know a bit about buying domain names and this is not what it seems. Then I cover the 2 questions that its financial adviser, Nick Harriss at Allenby and its scumbag PR Henry Harrison Topham will not respond to and which i will be taking up with the FCA tomorrow. It strikes me these are slam dunk rule breaches. Nick, at least, used to care about such matters.
1212 days ago
Forgive the crude title or love it if you are Matthew and his dog. I could not resist. I start with a discussion of the tyranny of village facebook pages prompted by my latest spat with some villagers of Holt in Wales HERE. Then I look at Kefi (KEFI), Zoetic (ZOE), Kanobo (KNB), Supply@ME Capital (SYME), Block Energy (BLOE) and the bitcoin pump by America’s Neil Woodford and others. Ian Westbrook is now at just under £12,000 and has ten days to reach £20,000 to see the loathsome Neill Ricketts at the next stage. To call the bluff of the Versarien (VRS) bully, please donate HERE. PS Darren points out it is the 26th not the 27th. He is correct.
1214 days ago
I apologise for a late bearcast. I was meeting up with my mentor on goat milking. Meanwhile brave Ian Westbrook is now half way to target to ensure that bully boy Neill Ricketts does not steamroller his second biggest critic - please do donate HERE. After 24 hours I still cannot tell you what shares I will be buying. Maybe on Monday. In the podcast I look at Ptredator Oil & Gas (PRD), Simec (SAE), Remote Monitored Systems (RMS) and Acceler8 Ventures (AC8) where my take may surprise you.
1261 days ago
These are not hard questions for the fraud Zoetic (ZOE) and its journalist-smearing, morally bankrupt PR team from Buchanan led by the fraudster’s fave spinner Henry Harrison-Topham to answer. But it will not. After eleven days and nine emails, the evil spinners are yet to respond to:
1263 days ago
These are not hard questions for the fraud Zoetic (ZOE) and its journalist-smearing, morally bankrupt PR team from Buchanan led by the fraudster’s fave spinner Henry Harrison-Topham to answer. But it will not. After ten days and eight emails, the evil spinners are yet to respond to:
1263 days ago
These are not hard questions for the fraud Zoetic (ZOE) and its journalist-smearing, morally bankrupt PR team from Buchanan led by the fraudster’s fave spinner Henry Harrison-Topham to answer. But it will not. After nine days and 7 emails, the evil spinners are yet to respond to:
1265 days ago
That is a fair question and I explain why they almost always do but why one in particular is opting not to do so. In this podcast, I cover Bidstack (BIDS), Supply@ME Capital (SYME) and Zoetic (FRAUD).
1265 days ago
This is not a hard question for the fraud Zoetic (ZOE) and its journalist-smearing, morally bankrupt PR team from Buchanan led by the fraudster’s fave spinner Henry Harrison-Topham to answer. But it will not. Seven days of silence prompts me to ask for the fifth time:
1278 days ago
Shares in the Standard Listed fraud that is Zoetic International (ZOE) are, at 56p mid, almost 50% off their all-time highs achieved at peak pump earlier this year. To have suffered such slippage amid a bull market for pot and small cap stocks takes some doing and is, in itself, something of a red flag. The posh but extremely dim and morally bankrupt PR man for this firm, Mr. Henry Harrison-Topham, tried to steady the nerves of the fools invested here with a trading update but it was no good. It was a case study in where what the company did NOT say serves as a red flag.
1295 days ago
Needless to say, the morally bankrupt PR firm of Buchanan has still not replied to an email from Tuesday night regarding forecasts for its technically insolvent client Bidstack (BIDS). Presumably it is working hard finding a journalist to smear and that is its priority. When Steph Watson says she will reply to an email what she clearly means is “I am a lying PR harpy and will do nothing of the sort.” But, without the assistance of mendacious Steph, I now have confirmation that house broker Stifel has indeed slashed forecasts which appears to be a clear breach of AIM Rules 10 and 11.
1301 days ago
You may remember that the, now technically insolvent, fraud Supply@ME Capital (SYME) forgot to hold an AGM for calendar 2019 and only called one for April 30 2021 after I raised this as an issue. But is this AGM itself illegal? I have repeatedly asked the company’s PR man Mr Paul Vann 2 questions and still he refuses to answer.
1301 days ago
Companies like Scotgold (SGZ)) pay Proactive to record soft interviews and so anyone engaged in this process is part of a bent and corrupt bastard child of journalism. This is PR dressed up as reporting. I have seen some rotten Proactive blow-offs in my time but today’s effort from Katie Pilbeam on Scotgold is the worst ever. She makes Justin the Clown look lke Jeremy Paxman in his prime. Watch and cringe. It is so bad it is actually truly enjoyable, you really will laugh out loud.
1312 days ago
Today’s lack of profits/sales warning and associated deceits from the fraud Zoetic International (ZOE) also made claims about forthcoming UK product launches which surely the UK Regulator will regard as unfounded. I guess Financial Advisor Allenby and PR spinners Buchanan are happy to be party to such rule breaking as they put their names to this release. I guess both have bills to pay so sod actually obeying rules.
1363 days ago
It seems someone pulled the video of an angry Iconic (ICON) shareholder challenging toxic Dave Sefton to a charity boxing match. I can’t think which low grade scumbag would want his reputation protecting with that attack on free speech. Maybe toxic Dave has hired the fraudster’s PR of choice, Henry Harrison-Topham of Buchanan, to do his PR. Anyhow, our pal is back and his new target is Lyin’ Steve Sanderson of UK Oil & Gas (UKOG). Enjoy before this video is also taken down.
1394 days ago
On 10 July 2020, I published a devastating and detailed bear dossier on AIM darling Manolete (MANO) with the shares at 515p valuing it at more than £250 million. The company and its odious PR firm Instinctif responded with a pompous and unconvincing denial. I’ve warned you repeatedly since then and yesterday in the late afternoon came a shocking warning. The shares closed at 200p but as lies are exposed, worse, including a bailout placing, will come. So let’s start with the lies.
1394 days ago
This is like shooting fish in a barrel. It is such a slam dunk and so easy that my cat could spot it. And best off, SP Angel the fraudster’s favourite Nomad has signed off on the lie. This morning Mosman Oil & Gas (MSMN) has announced in a semi-literate release drafted by Justine James of Alma PR:
1401 days ago
Sabien (SNT) has been around for years developing boilers that were going to revolutionise the world. Whatever. Floated at 52p per share in 2006, its shares now trade at 0.1p after more catastrophic news. Losses to date are in excess of £5 million but at least it has been providing a steady source of coke and hookers cash for London’s Nomads, brokers, PR fluffies et al. Today came a real shocker.
1450 days ago
A great woman I once knew used to joke about how it could only happen in her home City that the International Airport was named after a drunk and a wife beater. I refer to the late George Best. Should we honour a man who was a footballing genius and who also had a way with words but whose off-field activities were, shall we say, not very 2020? Lesser men who beat up women have lost their place in history. And that brings us to Diego Maradona.
1532 days ago
Can there be any more red flags fluttering over laughable AIM Company Verditek (VDTK)? You bet there are. First up is today’s news of a share issuance for PR services. What PR you say? Exactly.
1550 days ago
Shares in FastJet (FJET) have today left the AIM casino so are now untradeable as well as, essentially worthless. Remaining investors face mega dilution or administration or most possibly both. Having warned folks extensively over the years about an operation first set up to smuggle tobacco and which just could not turn a legitimate cent I feel somewhat vindicated. But there is more… Citigate Dewe Rogerson and the half to £1 million of shareholders cash spunked on nothing!
1554 days ago
First up I explain why i am going to make some damson jam with Joshua this weekend and why thanks to Clem Chambers and Online Blockchain (OBC) you can win a pot. I mention en passant FastJet (FJET) and its journalist-smearing fascist bastard PRs at Citigate Dewe Rogerson, Wishbone Gold (WSBN), Big Dish (DISH) and Supply@ME Capital (SYME) . Then I do a long piece on 7Digital (7DIG).
1581 days ago
I have been waiting for this day for a long while. I hope that comrade Graham Neary has a glass (or seven) of Black Velvet over in Ireland tonight. I shall have an ouzo as I enjoy some karma heading to the - journalist-smearing – fascist PR bastards at Citigate. I should warn you that this podcast contains some bad language as I consider the AIM demise of Fastjet (FJET). I laugh at a rumour about Ascent Resources (AST) and the whore blogger Malcolm Graham Wood and I consider the laughable plans of the pathetic nanny state regime of Bojo to tackle obesity. I also look at Cineworld (CINE), R4E (R4E) and Supply@ME Capital (SYME), three firms I fear are in the merde. And did I mention that Citigate Dewe Rogerson are a bunch of journalist-smearing motherfuckers whose comprehensive lack of ethics I shall toast with ouzo tonight?
1586 days ago
Last week I published a detailed dossier on Manolete (MANO) explaining why the shares, then 515p, were worth 80p. Today the company has published an attempted rebuttal which starts with upper class twit PR scumbags Instinctif trying to smear ShareProphets. The shares are off another 15p at 395p. The PR men may find smearing journalists almost as entertaining as mutual masturbation behind the bike sheds at Eton, but the markets are not convinced. I shall deal witrh that smear in bearcast later. First why the rebutall is so weak.
1592 days ago
There are only two financial journalists who write regularly about Skinbiotherapeutics (SBTX): myself and Steve Moore. Coverage elsewhere is minimal to zero yet for some reason the company wastes the cash of loyal shareholders such as myself, on Instinctif, a financial PR firm. Yesterday at 4.16PM on trading statement day Mr Phillip Marriage of Instinctif dropped me an email. I suspect he wishes he had not. Our full exchange follows.
1603 days ago
My guess is that the long awaited meeting of FastJet (FJET) PLC with a crash landing at Tits Up Airport cannot be postponed for that much longer. It is not as if this company could ever make any money pre Covid. But while I await that moment as one that I celebrate with champagne and noxious phone calls to its journalist smearing motherfucker PRs at Citigate Dewe Rogerson, I remind the company that it had promised us a trading update by Monday at the latest. Specifically, on 8 June it stated:
1608 days ago
With shares in Avacta (AVCT) ludicrously overvalued at 138p the company rightly fears that when the second tranche of stock from the recent placing at 120p is admitted to the AIM Casino tomorrow there will be a line of folks wanting to flip. What to do? Of course, get your evil morally bankrupt PR spinners at Yellow Jersey to issue complete non news and make it sound exciting. Heck Yellow Jersey managed to persuade suckers to pile into mega and obvious fraud Frontera (FRR) so they can push any shite uphill. For a while at least.
1624 days ago
The judgement which I publish in full below from the International Arbitration Court is damning. For those, such as scumbag PR advisers Yellow Jersey, the whore blogger Malcolm Graham Wood and Nomad Cairn which, for years, helped the, formerly AIM listed, FRAUD Frontera Resources (FRR) to raise millions of pounds from mug punters, it is document demonstrating their wholesale moral bankruptcy. Those involved continued to push the shares even AFTER I had shown the company to be a fraud run by liars.
1677 days ago
I have flagged up the corrupt nature of the deadwood press, and the Sunday Times in particular, numerous times on this website. The way it blew off Neil Woodford in return for “scoops” and again and again backs boards, who by dint of underperformance, are quite rightly under fire with dirty attacks on their critics is shameful. Babcock (BAB) is a case in point. Today the paper shows its true colours again with its coverage of NMC Health (NMC) and more especially, and shamefully, of EasyJet (EZJ).
1717 days ago
Even the journalist smearing PR mothers at FTI consulting could not polish the steaming turd that was today’s 4.11 PM update from the, until recently, FTSE 100 member NMC Health (NMC). The level of fraud is staggering.
1721 days ago
Get your beer and popcorn ready this is going to be fun. Iofina (IOF) has today issued an RNS via its morally bankrupt PR mothers at Yellow Jersey commenting on social media and press reports that the self-confessed bad boy of Brexit, Arron Banks, is calling a GM to oust useless chairman Lance Baller. Iofina says it has received no request and as such “ the Board believes that posting this type of information on social media, instead of by proper and legally permitted channels, to be wholly inappropriate and in potential violation of applicable law and regulation. Furthermore, the Board believes this action to be detrimental to shareholders of the Company as a whole.” Pompous knobheads.
1722 days ago
Hey morons do you now realise that it does not matter how much you troll me, call me a peadophile or harass my wife at work it will not save you from my hard analysis, investigative journalism and from the reality that you have backed a wong ‘un?. Versarien (VRS) has been forced to come partially clean and the news is utterly terrible. Even morally bankrupt PR firm Yellow Jersey – which spun for Frontera (FRR) AFTER I showed it was a fraud – cannot polish this turd. I also look at Tertiary Minerals (TYM) and Botswana Diamonds (BOD) and have a Welsh Hovel flood update.
1799 days ago
After yesterday’s shock lack of profits warning from Bidstack (BIDS) the next question is when will a bailout placing be needed. To that end the company has announced today what appears to be an almighty spoof designed to ramp the stock ahead of the placing. Even the company’s PR Buchannan has just admitted to me that the release is not clear. This is your £10 million spoof of the day.
1877 days ago
Last night the disgraced dirty tricks specialist PR man Tim Thompson orgnaised a ramptiastic investor evening giving his client Angus Energy (ANGS), run by Lucky Lord Lucan, the chance to meet Bulletin Board Morons. What happened next is bonkers.
1908 days ago
FTI Consulting, PR for First Derivatives (FDP), wants me to take down legititmate articles asking legitimate questions. If Roger Lawson had his way I’d have to take them down. Luckily the ShareSoc supremo can’t gag a free press so instead I publish some more, explosive, court documents about First Derivatives in full, below and in this podcast I explain why they matter.
1969 days ago
We live in a mad, mad world and I cite four examples of this: the banning of the original US flag by Nike 48 hours ahead of July 4, illiterate Zak Mir going into PR, the PI love-in on Bulletin Boards with utterly worthless Premier African Minerals (PREM) and the IPO of Funding Circle (FCH). I look at Dialight (DIA), and Fastjet (FJET) and then list my top ten shorts worth more than £250 million (with two slightly smaller cheats included) and explain the bear case for each.
1976 days ago
I asked the question in bearcast - had Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) burst its overdraft limit? Nigel Somerville thought it had. The PR has got back and it has not. But it is darn close and the answer is actually even more worrying. Let me explain.
1976 days ago
In this bearcast I ask a series of questions for PR spinners for Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT). References to 210p should be 227p. Let’s see what answers I get. I also look at Optibiotix (OPTI), RM2 (RM2), Mysale (MYSL), Agronomics (ANIC) and have a big question for Neill Ricketts and Versarien (VRS)
1990 days ago
I see that the spin doctors for Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) told their poodles in the deadwood press (the FT) to run a fake news article suggesting that vultures were circling looking to bid for the company and its assets. No-one, not even the PR cocksuckers at the Financial Times, believes that for a minute and the shares have slumped again today to 59p, despite, or perhaps in part because of, the weediest of statements from WPCT.
2014 days ago
On 2 May Management Resource Solutions (MRS) held an investor lie-fest at the offices of its uber expensive PR posh-tards FTI Consulting. It was recorded so hapless Nomad Arden has full access to what was said. I have already detailed, here, a stunning admission by boss John Zorbas which would have seen any normal Nomad resign on the spot. But there was more….
2019 days ago
At the investor presentation on 2 May at the offices of uber expensive PR posh-wits FTI Consulting, which was attended by over 20 sceptical and angry investors, Management Resource Solutions (MRS) boss John Zorbas again showed he was, quite possibly, a liar.
2023 days ago
Today at 2PM, Management Resource Solutions (MRS) hosts a teach in for analysts and investors at the offices of its PR firm FTI Consulting. Anyone attending might care to ask if the Takeover Panel has been in touch.
2096 days ago
Eight days ago Neil Woodford’s PR spinners told their gophers in the lacky corrupt press, aka Peter Evans and Sabah Meddings of the Sunday Times to write a big puff piece about how Neil Woodford’ backed Proton Partners was planning to raise £50 million and list on the NEX lobster pot. It has not taken long for that fake news to be exposed, as no investors other than Woodford himself have been prepared to back this IPO – something revealed in the prospectus out today.
2206 days ago
Two days after MySquar (MYSQ) suspended its shares on the AIM Casino and admitted to fraud and a cash crisis its odious slug of a chairman, the well known PR spinner Mr Piers Pottinger has quit as a director and from the company. Piers may wish to distance himself from what is a very messy crime scene but it is too late. He was either involved in the fraud or enabled it by his incompetence or his silence or both. He features in a detailed dossier I am preparing for the FCA and SFO urging them to launch a formal enquiry.
2209 days ago
I start with a Wigan Athletic supporting homophobic yob tweeting abuse at me on behalf of Frontera Resources (FRR). What a silly man at every level. FFS the real insult is he thinks I wear an England Rugby shirt. Whatever... Then it is onto the blurred line between PR and journalism and the Sunday Times splash on M&S (MKS) which should be taken with a bucket load of salt. Finally a few words on Mike Ashley. He may be a lardbucket and a tosser but...
2212 days ago
You will no doubt remember that as well as facing two legal cases either of which could strip it of all of its assets (having caved on a third) Frontera Resources (FRR) is completely out of cash, burning cash and drowning in debt and thus is trying to ramp its shares however it can to get a bailout rescue placing away. So welcome to the tale of two spoofs orchestrated by disgraced dirty tricks PR specialist Tim Thompson of morally bankrupt & intellectually challenged fucktards Yellow Jersey and egged on by the whore blogger Malcolm “fat bastard” Graham Wood.
2248 days ago
The journalist smearing PR bastards at Citigate Dewe Rogerson snuck out results from FastJet (FJET) just after noon hoping that the whole world would be on a lunchbreak. Not only are the numbers utterly shite but having raised $10 million in July the company now ‘fesses that it needs more cash by the end of October or it will be once again at the cul de sac at the end of tits up alley. Disgraceful.
2276 days ago
Grossly overvalued AIM listed piece of crap Frontera Resources (FRR) is running on vapours. It has less cash than your average Venezuelan and is burning it at an alarming rate. Despite the best efforts of disgraced PR man Tim Thompson of scumbags Yellow Jersey PR and the whore blogger, Malcom “Fat Bastard” Graham Wood to ramp the stock, it has more than halved since May 1 and is now just 0.22p to sell. So what price is the looming bailout placing going to be at. You guess in our reader poll, the deadline to enter is midnight tonight:
2339 days ago
I guess the journalist smearing bastards at Citigate Dewe Rogerson might be about to lose another retainer. Their response to my probing of the financial woes of their poxy client FastJet (FJET) was to threaten and smear me. Fuck you Citigate. Now Fastjet has ‘fessed to just how grim things are. It could be tits up time by the weekend. Crack out the ouzo, let’s celebrate. I shed no tears for a company that stands by the actions of scum like Citigate. And I warned shareholders often enough what financial fate lay in store for FastJet.
2350 days ago
I record with Argentina and Iceland in the background on mute. Hell's teeth who on earth could support the fecking Argies? I explain the sheer torture Brokerman Dan Levi has in store for me in six weeks time and give him a reason to add to that. Andalas (ADL) is utterly worthless crap and his commentary on Friday and the statement that resulted utterly stinks. Anyhow consider how he will torture me as we walk 32 miles, feel sympathy and SPONSOR ME HERE. Then I look at Paul Scott winning an award for PR and at events at Theranos and Tesla.
2360 days ago
This podcast is not about Julie but I just pass on a conversation with a PR man for your amusement. Instead I look in detail at Autyns (AUTG), Magnolia Petroleum (MAGP and the end of its dead cat bounce, and three placings and the resultant aftermarkets: Optibiotix (OPTI), Premaitha (NIPT) and Microsaic (MSYS) and what that says about companies that can exclude Primary Bid. Is it really so bad? Finally, Paul, the idiot from Luton, has sent me £20 and 5% of Bearcast listeners have donated to the Woodlarks charity walk but 95% have not! To those who have donated I say thank you. To the rest, I know you can afford a tenner. Please follow Paul the Idiot from Luton and cough up now HERE
2361 days ago
I explain why Steffi has been a naughty PR girl (again) as I consider Andalas (ADL) - a worthless and insolvent dog which is still not coming clean. The prize is for anyone who can explain the Online Blockchain (OBC) gibberish spouted today. It really is nonsense is it not? I also want to know how it is doing in terms of cashburn and there is no pointer to that. I look at FastJet (FJET). Its PR firm - Citigate - once tried to fight off my legitimate - and now vindicated - critique of its (lack of cash) position and its failure to answer questions by saying I was motivated by a hatred of Greeks - its PR bird being a bubble. Oh the irony. Citigate, employer of fragrant Eleni Menikou, your bosses are still free speech denying, journalist smearing wankers and your client is still fucked. I also look at Westminster (WSG) and Pantheon Resources (PANR). Right I am now off on a training walk. Brokerman Dan and I have now raised more than £5,000. We are seeking to raise £20,000 for Woodlarks. That will be a game changer for a great charity. 95% of listeners have NOT donated. To those who have I say thank you. To the rest, I know you can afford a tenner. Please cough up now HERE
2395 days ago
Noting yesterday that Julie Meyer MBE had hired a new high powered lawyer (to replace the half dozen or more to whom her companies owe money for unpaid bills) I wondered why ace PR spinner Henry Gewanter did not have his name on the release. Henry has answered with a post on the article. It reads:
2401 days ago
Well done to my friend the legendary hack, evil PR spinner and raconteur Brian Basham who managed to finish the London Marathon in 7 hours, 59 minutes and 33 seconds - I doubt I could do that today, let alone at 75.
2411 days ago
On Thursday I ran an article suggesting that the state oil company in Georgia was going to an International Arbitration court to take acreage back from Frontera Resources (FRR) - the company's morally bankrupt PR firm Yellow Jersey and disgraced dirty tricks specialising account executive Tim Thompson declined the chance to comment. Next up Frontera lied by twitter...
2412 days ago
Last week I suggested that grossly over-ramped AIM Bulletin Board Moron darling Frontera Resources (FRR) might be in a spot of legal bother. I did so only after giving the company's morally bankrupt PR firm Yellow Jersey and its dirty tricks disgraced account manager Tim Thompson a chance to refuse or comment. They have still declined to do so. Instead...
2418 days ago
Hamas, the rulers of Gaza whose leaders still openly talk of driving the evil Jews into the sea and who happily fly Nazi flags alongside their own as you can see below, continues to organise protests on the Israeli border. Thanks to the liberal media's hatred of Israel it has been a PR triumph. But the truth...
2424 days ago
Via, his PR man - aka the spawn of Satan - I have sent a letter to Eric Schaer the CEO of AIM superfraud MySquar (MYSQ) challenging him to deal in person, face to face with me, on April 21, with the incontrovertible evidence that his company is a fraud. I write:
2431 days ago
Telit Communications (TCM) and its advisers, notably PR morons Adrian Duffield and Chantal Woolcock of Instinctif, really are fucktards of the highest order. They have had to correct a statement fessing up to an FCA investigation in a material way which changes its meaning. God help these clowns.
2481 days ago
IQE (IQE) has, this morning, attempted to hit back at Matt Earl's devastating dossier published on Friday, HERE. The statement, crafted by evil and hugely expensive PR spinners FTI, naturally seeks to point out that Earl's Shadowfall fund is short so gains if the share price goes down. No doubt house broker Stifel which has earned millions from IQE will publish a bullish report later. Will IQE issue an RNS flagging up its COI? No. Earl himself has hit back at the hit back telling ShareProphets:
2599 days ago
There was I thinking that I had missed the day in court of Abchurch PR supremo Julian Bosdet as he battled charges that he was driving his Range Rover back to his country pile while under the influence. Oh no...
2605 days ago
We have warned you often enough that the valuation of Sound Energy (SOU) is que absurd even though the shares, at 55p, are well off 99p year highs. Still anyone not using today's "news" from Morocco as an opportunity to sell is nutso. Here is how a leading broker called it:
2628 days ago
It seems that PR firm Bell Pottinger will go into administration today and 270 folks will lose their jobs. Fear not most have already had other offers or decided to set up on their own. They saw the ship was sinking and there is no rat like a morally bankrupt PR rat in such a situation.
2632 days ago
Top City PR Man Julian Bosdet, a senior director of of slimey and evil spinners Abchurch - PR of choice to China frauds on AIM and employer of many a posh but dim upper class twit - is on unconditional bail as he attempts to wriggle off a charge of driving his Range Rover back to his Country pile while well over the limit. His defence is based on attacking the fine and honourable men and women of the Avon & Somerset Police.
2695 days ago
After tearing apart this week's bogus trading statement from MySquar (MYSQ) HERE and HERE, the AIM listed POS has tried to pop up its falling share price today with another piece of PR non news. We can address that later but first I have three more questions that it can't and won't answer.
2697 days ago
My contention, questioned by certain other well known share bloggers, is that TrakM8 (TRAK) is what Warren Buffett would define as a "bad company." That is not saying that it is a fraud. It is not, although it has told untruth's in RNS's and raised cash to buy some strange old businesses. It is bad becuase it just does not generate free cashflow. Paul Scott, PR crony capitalist Reg Hoare or the paid corporate shrills can bang on abourt earnings per share till the cows come home but earnings are a matter of opinion, cash is a matter of fact. Trakm8 yesterday published its, piss poor, results for the year ended 31 March 2017.
2698 days ago
Some folks are just lazy fucks. The team round at PR crony capitalists Vigo Communications who charge an arm and a leg for spinning for Sound Energy (SOU) appear to be such folks, as they put together today's disastrous press release using cut and paste. It starts "Sound Energy, the African and European focused upstream gas company, is pleased to provide an update on the drilling of the Badile exploration well, onshore Italy.". With what followed I bet the ranch that Sound was anything but pleased. Hint: the shares have crashed by 30% to 54.25p in early trade.
2705 days ago
When AIM listed Mercantile Ports & Logistics (MPL) disappears up in smoke having sent tens of millions of UK Investor cash to money heaven, the stink will force Nomad Cenkos to show that it acted in a way that did not bring the Casino into disrepute, as it did when it allowed Quindell to commit wholesale fraud. Thus one shareholder, a veteran of the ports and logistics industry, is putting Cenkos on record now so that it can have no excuse at the death. letter one HERE raised clear questions of fraud. Letter two HERE showed more cases of how Mercantile misled investors. Now the shareholder has followed up again with a third letter to the head of corporate governance at Lagos Securities, Amber Wood, cc'ing in Redleaf, the PR to Mercantile as well as Quindell at the height of that fraud. Do Cenkos and fragrant Amber give a toss about clients lying to investors?
2705 days ago
When AIM listed Mercantile Ports & Logistics (MPL) disappears up in smoke having sent tens of millions of UK Investor cash to money heaven, the stink will force Nomad Cenkos to show that it acted in a way that did not bring the Casino into disrepute, as it did when it allowed Quindell to commit wholesale fraud. Thus one shareholder, a veteran of the ports and logistics industry, is putting Cenkos on record now so that it can have no excuse at the death. letter one HERE raised clear questions of fraud. Now the shareholder has followed up with a second letter to the head of corporate governance at Lagos Securities, Amber Wood, cc'ing in Redleaf, the PR to Mercantile as well as Quindell at the height of that fraud.
2706 days ago
Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) shares have fallen from a ramptastic peak of 350p to just 13.5p to sell as at last Friday. But sell you should as I explained again today HERE. The question is what will the shares be trading at ( mid) as at next Friday which is a critical deadline. What do you think? Let's gloat on the professional graves of scumbag crony capitalist Dr Michael Sinclair, arch share ramper Alan Green and PR low life Paul "Queenie" McManus. With a deadline of 7 AM Monday 26th vote now in the poll below.
2710 days ago
There is clear evidence that Mercantile Ports & Logistics (MPL) has misled investors ahead of raising vast amounts of cash on the AIM Casino. Its Nomad Cenkos Securities (of Quindell infamy) appears unconcerned as long as it keeps banking the fees. When this company unravels and goes to zero as it surely will, the shameful way that Lagos Securities has brought the casino into disrepute by ignoring stacks of red flags shown to it, will surely leave it in the merde. A shareholder who happens to be a ports industry specialist has written to Cenkos’s representative for Governance matters Amber Wood (ccing in PR specialist Redleaf which also acted for the Quindell fraud). The damning letter is below. It is truly shocking...
2710 days ago
The underlying problem with Milestone Group (MSG) is that it is a crap business that never generates any cash. Thus in order to keep CEO Deborah White in the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed and to keep paying crony capitalist advisers such as shamed PR firm Walbrook (Eden, Fusionex, Advanced Oncotherapy etc) it relies on bailout placing after bailout placing with shareholders seeing value destroyed every time.
2729 days ago
Hello fascist, journalist smearing, PR fecking geniuses at Citigate Dewe Rogerson, your favourite follower of the dog that is FastJet (FJET) is writing today from my home village in Greece. You have done a good job at polishing the turd that are the calendar 2016 results from Fastjet (FJET) but if folks read beyond your spin to the bottom of the statement they will realise this is a basket case and the shares - at 16p are a stonking sell - the target price is 0p.
2747 days ago
In August 2015 AIM Casino listed fraud Eden Research (EDEN) announced that it had sold a license to its long time associated company Terpenetech for £600,000. On the same day it announced that it had bought a 29% stake in (worthless) Terpenetech for £920,000 in shares. I quizzed Eden's PR man Paul "Queenie" McManus of Walbrook PR about this deal which was clearly a panama pump fraud. And Queenie lied to me.
2797 days ago
I have just noted that my old pal "thirsty" David Bick is doing the PR for hedge fund Crown Ocean in its battle to oust the shamed, discredited and unwanted board and management at Bowleven (BLVN). If you are in a scrap with utter scumbags having Bick on your side is no bad thing as he is the king of this form of trench warfare, gutter warfare. Team Crown issued a statement on Friday which is damning. You will remember that the management of Bowleven is still in place despite shareholders voting most of the bastards off the board and now they are trying to flog the company. Crown - quite correctly - smells a monstrous rat. It states:
2810 days ago
It is not just Hart, the CEO for a few hours more at Bowleven (BLVN), but also the overpaid, inbred, upper class fuckwits at PR spinners Brunswick who view ordinary investors with unmitigated contempt. Someone leaked it to the Times this morning that Hart was to resign as boss of Bowleven after years of being paid a fortune while destroying shareholder value. If that is correct he is jumping before he is pushed at the GM, called by Crown Ocean.
2826 days ago
I noted earlier that while most financial PR firms are so morally bankrupt they would spin for uber nonce Rolf Harris if the retainer was high enough, Tavistock PR appears to have some honour quitting as adviser to the FRAUD Cloudtag (CTAG). There are only so many lies you can put your name to I guess. But some folks want to hear lies and to reprint them, the BBMs. Please nominate the most moronic bulletin board post or tweet in the comments section below. The deadline for entries is midnight on Sunday February 26.
2826 days ago
In the main bearcast today I touch on the Cloudtag (CTAG) fraud but that is really covered in its own bearcast HERE. I do look at RapidCloud which was suspended today and will lose its AIM listing in a month. Who warned you that this would face a "terminal conclusion" 149 days ago? Was it PR wankers Walbrook or Nomad WH Ireland or savants on the LSE Asylum? Er no, it was me HERE. I then look at Challenger (CHAL) a zero in waiting, Iofina (IOF) and IGAS (IGAS) both of which should also be zeros. I commend today's excellent piece from Nigel, the Deputy Sheriff of AIM, on the Servision (SEV) scandal HERE. I take Nomad Allenby to task for failing to comment on this and for allowing Servision to mislead mug punters. AGAIN. Finally I take apart overvalued ramp Wey Education (WEY). Its shares are up 33% today. That is a ramp not a reflection of value.
2828 days ago
When it looks like placing ahoy, sounds like placing ahoy and smells like it is placing ahoy it usually is placing ahoy. I look at the numbers for Corero (CNS) and Amur Minerals (AMC). In this podcast threatened by the greed of morbidly obese three legged cat Oakley, I also cover NCC Group (NCC) following up from yesterday's late in the day article, Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) Beowiulf (BEM) and TrakM8 (TRAK). I also look at the laughable PR of worthless crap company Fitbug (FITB). There is a stand alone bearcast on the joke news from Servision (SEV) HERE
2844 days ago
The things I do for you dear reader: go to the Spring Fair and read the Mail on Sunday. Truly what sacrifices I make. We are in the tail end of a bull market for low grade AIM stocks. So I discuss events and share price movements at Amur Minerals (AMC), Arian Silver (AGQ) with its shit head of a PR man - Nu Oil & Gas (NUOG), Cloudtag (CTAG) and the truly incestuous events at Glenwick (GWIK)
2849 days ago
I have made it clear that the issues raised by Channel 4 with regards to the way Boohoo.com (BOO) treats warehouse staff and exploits vulnerable immigrant workers are serious. I am so shocked that I am boycotting the retailer. Ho Ho Ho - do you honestly think I have ever used it? But other real customers are enraged not just by what appears to be the unacceptable face of capitalism. Boohoo is censoring its facebook page removing any hostile comments. That in itself is seen as being shifty. Truly, Boohoo is crap at PR.
2860 days ago
I recall a couple of episodes from my time on Fleet Street demonstrating the corrupt relationship between PR firms and the press you mistakenly think you should trust. I then move on today's article by Peter Evans in the Sunday Times on the fraud Eden Research (EDEN) which, from headline to conclusion, is misleading, strewn with factual errors and omits the real story of wholesale fraud. It was clearly spoon fed by the PR man, Paul "Queenie" McManus of Walbrook and shows the press in the worst possible light. No wonder so many of us despise my profession, or at least the established dead wood press part of it, so much.
2880 days ago
I am in a twitter spat with ex Fleet Street editor Neil "Wolfman" Wallis who is concerned - rightly - that new legislation (Section 40) will restrict the ability of non national newspapers to pursue investigative reporting. But in begging sympathy for journalists, a man who has now turned to the dark side, to PR, fails to accept how low our profession has sunk in the public esteem.
2895 days ago
When it is described as a "corporate update". That is how Iofina's (IOF) prize piece of excrement PR person Dominic Barretto headlined yesterday's profits warning. It looked so tame why bother reading? But it was a warning and Barretto being a total wanker deliberately did not add in any hard numbers. You see he views investors with contempt. His job is to polish a turd not to inform. And boy is Iofina a turd.
2915 days ago
"Lorne Daniel at FinnCap, PR man Reg Hoare, Nomad Ed Frisby, Broker Joanna Scott, Edison Research, Proactive Investors we have beaten them all, we have beaten them all!. Paul Scott can you hear me? Paul Scott ... your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!" Yes The Sheriff of AIM is again 100% vindicated and it is ouzo o'clock already thanks to dog TrakM8 (TRAK)! But where next for the shares? All is discussed in full in this bonus podcast.
2920 days ago
In today's podcast recorded with an audience of my Guardian reading father who is torturing me by reading out snippets from the ghastly left wing rag, I start with a look at Pantheon Resources (PANR). I then cover FastJet (FJET) - having a swipe at its smearing scumbag low-life PR fucking geniuses at Citigate Dewe Rogerson en passant - , Avocet Mining (AVM), Blenheim Natural Resources (BNR) and African Potash (FRAUD). Then it is onto Redcentric (RCN) and MXC Capital (MXCP) and the challenge for Mark Gustafson, Mr bullshitter at Challenger Acquisitions (CHAL).
2955 days ago
The bloody postman is today's interruption. Will you sign for this crap for the chavs who live next door as they are out (again) signing on or working in the black economy? Whatever. I should charge for being the postbox for this entire street. Better still emigrate. In terms of companies I look at Laird (LRD), Motorpoint (MOTR), Strat Aero (AERO), and Mkango (MKA)
2971 days ago
Servision (SEV) has today announced its interim results and they are dismal. The company is bust and why it's advisors (Nomad Allenby, broker Belfort Securities & PR himbo Christian Taylor Wilkinson at Cadogan Leander) do not call it a day and walk defies belief. It shows all three are morally bankrupt.The results are analysed in a bearcast special HERE. But I flag up in itw own right a loan Servision has taken from Yorkville which seems to be the new, most expensive loan , in AIM Casino history - at 33% - it is 5 percentage points dearer than the loan the FRAUD African Potash (AFPO) took out from Katrina Clayton, the wife of its FD. Frankly Servision would be better off borrowing on Christian T-W's credit card and splitting the difference.
2973 days ago
I like Emma Kane the boss of PR agency Redleaf which is 66% owned by AIM listed Porta (PTCM) a lot, but she has a hell of a lot of explaining to do with regard to how she dumped millions of shares just days before today's diabolical results from Porta
2987 days ago
I sensed that those close to the fraud African Potash (AFPO) were getting skittish and now I can reveal that the first adviser has indeed handed in its notice. And I am not surporised as to who it is that has shown that it puts morality ahead of money.
The adviser quitting is St Brides PR. St Brides, you may remember, acted for the sister company to Potash, Sable Mining (SBLM) which last week said it was quitting the AIM Casino amid its own problems with a major bribery scandal. St Brides quit that account a good while back, whereas Nomad Cantor Fitzgerald hung on to the bitter end.
Congratulations to St Brides which shows that not all folks in PR are total rotters only interested in money. I hope that good companies on AIM who are looking for PR opt to go with St Brides on the basis that there should be a moral dimension to business and this agency - unlike others I could mention - is clearly on the side of the angels.I kinow a lot of AIM CEOs read this website, come on chaps, do the decent thing and hire St Brides first thing on Monday.
St Brides has put morality and principle ahead of cash considerations and thus shown itself in the best possible light. The question now is
2990 days ago
Pornography, naked women, sheep shagging Taffs. Actually there is nothing of the sort in this bearcast but I mention it just to annoy Kay Larsen,a prudish and stupid PR spinner for Sepura (SEPU). Kay is a really silly cow and we have crossed swords before so I rub her nose in it with her client whose statement today is a scandal. The rozzers really need to have a butchers. Then I cover Modern Water (MWG), Falcon Oil & Gas (FOG) and a trio of uber dogs with uber fleas: Blur (BLUR), Inspirit (INSP) and related party Octagonal (OCT). Then I look at Phil Edmonds creation Sable (SBLM) which is now a month away from AIM casino death. Its sister company is the fraud African Potash (AFPO) and I cover this matter in detail. It looks as if the Mrs will give birth tomorrow so if I take a break and you miss me either listen to the archive HERE or google "tourettes audio" and find something similar. Warning: this podcast contains some very bad language especially for the prude Kay Larsen.
2996 days ago
Naughty naughty St Brides PR. We know that it publishes lies on behalf of the fraudsters African Potash (AFPO) both via RNS and when smearing me to moronic shareholders but its efforts on behalf of Strat Aero (AERO) today really are not very impressive. Naughty Susie Geliher who works on both accounts it really is time you had your bottom spanked
3001 days ago
I start with a dedication to Maurice Byrne, a friend of my family for more than 40 years, a true eccentric and a bearcast listener who sadly passed away on Thursday. I will miss him, not least as a bulwark against the raging political correctness of my family. Then I turn to Cloudtag (CTAG) and African Potash (AFPO) two companies now exposed as having lied to investors in a material way just days before placings. What does this say about investing in frauds? What does it mean for the shares and what does it mean for AIM? as the Potash story now starts to head towards the Nationals (oh yes St Brides PR brace yourselves, you can smear me but will you continue in that vein?) what happens next in both cases? Maurice would have enjoyed these battles in so many ways.
3014 days ago
In this podcast I refer to my non financial podcast today on the great Olympic Con - sport is not making Britain Great again (HERE) and also to part 4 of the new series: The Chairman's Blog by Sir Benjamin Dover HERE. Then I go onto how the corrupt financial press and PR flunkies use and abuse you as readers and investors with special reference to bank closures and Lombard Risk Management (LRM) in the Mail on Sunday and, especially, Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) in today's Sunday Times.
3032 days ago
AIM casino dog with fleas MySQUAR (MYSQ) has today managed a small bailout placing as it teetered on the verge orf bankruptcy just 13 months after its IPO. The roll call name of shame includes pompous PR supremo Piers Pottinger who is a NED, Nomad SP Angel, brokers Mirabaud and Belfort Securities. The shares have plunged to 4p (60% down on the IPO) but are in fact worth 0p. This is a ZERO, an AIM uber-dog. I look at the red flags, talk you through the maths and name the guilty men, the establishment fuckers, the 1% who have made money as poor old private investors took it up the jacksie again. Yes I am angry and use some bad language.
3076 days ago
I am back in from the fields where I have been labouring in 40 degree plus heat. Today I offer a few thoughts on Circassia (CIR) and the risks folks just dont seem to appreciate of a) biotech and b) backing stock selections of star fund managers, in this case Neil Woodford - who incidentally is clearly a very talented chap. I look at Gulf Keystone (GKP), XCite Energy (XEL), China Frauds and then in some detail at Blur (BLUR). For further info on its brain dead dickhead of a PR man Dominic Barretto go HERE
3099 days ago
Eden Research (EDEN) had results yesterday. Drunken Sailor says that BB Morons reckon that I have been warned off with legal threats and so am not saying anything. Au contraire, I just missed them. I'd love to see the Eden bitchez in court, It all ended so well for them and the 3DM motherfuckers last time they tried it on in 2005 did it not? So for the avoidance if doubt Eden's results show that it committed wholesale fraud in 2015 as is its wont, it will run out of other people's cash by Christmas 2017 and is a worthless piece of crap as I explain in the podcast. If PR oaf Paul "Queenie" McManus wants to keep briefing the morons that I am scared so be it. The facts are otherwise.
3133 days ago
If anyone sees Chris Cleverley about town make sure he reads this. The "spin" from supporters of African Potash (AFPO) is that the events of yesterday are just a matter of bad PR, nothing unusual on the AIM casino and we should just move on. Ben "flip flop" Turney tweets such nonsense. Boy has flip flop lost the plot. African has been seen to have made statements via RNS, as it worked a placing away that were just, by its own admission, untrue. It raised cash on a false prospectus. That is fraud. Its shares must be suspended and its CEO Chris Cleverley deserves to go to prison. And he might just do that. Flip Flop sent out two tweets on this matter yesterday:
3137 days ago
Yesterday I was told that a man called Ben had called someone who stopped working here a year ago saying he wanted to speak about Rockhopper Exploration (RKH) - a Falklands oil ramp. Ben refused to give his full name or say what he wanted when he spoke to our ex employee, Princess Leia. She said he was jolly rude.
Leia, being a smart bird, googled his mobile and discovered that this was Ben Simons a PR himbo from Vigo Communications
3157 days ago
Down at Canary Wharf it seems that some City boy banksters are happy to pay £925 a pop for the UK's most expensive kebab. The Hazev turkish restaurant tries to justify the price by sating that its donner is made from the finest Japanese Wagyu beef, fresh morel mushrooms and 25-year-old Italian vinegar. Whatever. Is it really worth 190 times what you'd pay for a kebab on the back streets of Poplar just a mile up the road? I doubt it.
So who is buying?
3160 days ago
Yesterday I ran an email from PR Genius Reg Hoare who acts for Plus500 (PLUS) which tries to set the record straight after Lucian Miers' article the previous day. At the end of his email Mr Hoare states "I wouldn't for one moment presume to tell you how to run your Share Prophets web-site, but" he then tells me how to run my business. Ok Reg, I wouldnt presume to tell you how to run your fecking PR business but...
3161 days ago
On 22nd March Sir Stelios sent to Fastjet (FJET) the letter which appears below as he upped the ante big time. The response of the Fastjet board has been lamentable with two holding statements and no outright refutation. No wonder the shares have collapsed to 27.5p. It is going to get worse. The target price is 0p or near as damn it.
3168 days ago
Has all the hard work by the PR fucking genii at Citigate Dewe Rogerson been successful? I refer not to the hard work of not being able to spell the name of clients properly, or of smearing journalists as racists to ensure that they really can secure great coverage for clients. Instead I refer to how much bottom line value the fascists added for their listed owner Huntsworth (HNT). Let’s look at Citigate’s results as disclosed in Huntsworth Plc, its parent company, 2015 results just published on Tuesday.
3172 days ago
You know I have been thinking about a career change. As happens every week facebook for grown ups, LinkedIn, has sent me a selection of jobs on offer that it thinks I would be interested in. Second on the list is Senior Internal Communications & Engagement Advisor at the BBC. So that is where my license fee goes, great. Er what does one do here?
3175 days ago
Paul "Queenie" McManus of Walbrook PR has repeatedly briefed bulletin board morons who own shares in the fraud that is AIM listed Eden Research (EDEN) that I refuse to meet the company. That is a lie, I want to meet Eden, to record a podcast, and have made it clear I will head to its HQ in Cirencester. Yet Queenie declines to name a date. Why?
My offer is simple. I have twelve questions regarding Terpenetech. This is a SPV set up in 2011 which has been involved with accouning and securuties fraud with Eden for four and a half years. Without this fraud Eden would be bust.
3177 days ago
Yesterday, the fascist bully boys at PR firm Citigate Dewe Rogerson gave three different reasons for not answering a simple question about their client Fastjet (FJET). The real reason is that the answer shows that Fastjet is heading towards insolvency and needs a placing PDQ. More on that later, I have a full answer to come. Citigate tried to distract attention by claiming that I had libelled an employee by not describing her as a genius and, worse, had engaged in a racial slur by hinting she may be Greek. I think that says a lot about how senior staffers at Citigate view the bubbles for my views on and links to Greece are well known...
3186 days ago
For a second I will park the five years of fraudulent activities of Eden Research (EDEN) with regard to Terpenetech and move on to why it is breaching AIM Rules ( Number 11) with regard to non disclosure of material information elsewhere.
On the fraud side, PR drama Queen Paul "Queenie" McManus is still happilly chatting to Bulletin Board Morons claiming I won't meet up with his client Eden Research (EDEN). Queenie knows full well that I am happy to meet at Eden HQ any time if Eden answers questions on its five years of fraud with Terpenetech but he is running and the arsehole thinks that smearing journalists actually helps his professional standing? But lets get back to Eden - target price 0p as it runs out of cash.
3187 days ago
In today's St David's Day podcast I wish my Welsh listeners a happy national day and - especially for you - discuss why sheep porn matters. I then move onto Horse Hill and today's news and why Ben Turney and the other silly rampers are talking shit. To make it simple, I use the analogy of Ms Cheryl Cole and Mr Wayne Rooney. I discuss African Potash (AFPO), letters of credit and thus Environmental Recycling (ENRT) and its fellow FRAUD Eden Research (EDEN). Its PR man Queenie McManus is - I assume - still smearing me as he chats to his pals the Bulletin Board Morons - but the company refuses to meet for an interview. What - other than fraud - is it hiding? I discuss Greka Drilling (GDL) as it heads down the pan and - after today's results from Barclays (BARC) - banks in general and why Old Getafix is wrong to be such a bull.
3199 days ago
I urge you to follow the Quindell (QPP) lunatic Steamy, aka Marc Rowlands and sign a petition to Parliament if only to discredit the whole process. As an aside you now know the 322 stupidest people investing in AIM. I have a challenge for the lying toe-rag Paul McManus who does PR for FRAUD Eden Research (EDEN). I discuss Horse Hill stocks, Servision (SEV), Iofina (IOF) and Greka Drilling (GDL)
3233 days ago
All brokers talk: nonsense/their own book/up corporate clients/up clients they want to become corporate clients. As such all research can safely be ignored. On that basis here is the Mirabaud buy note from today on Atalaya (ATYM) c/o of its PR firm Walbrook. I publish only because I kind of think the story actually does add up.
3264 days ago
The Mrs listened to me recording Bearcast today and said that I seemed very happy. Maybe it is the thought of the next Afriag (AFRI) article I am working on or perhaps it was the second painkiller of the day kicking in? Or maybe a truly moronic Bulletin Board Moron posting? In this upbeat mood I discuss who should feature in this year's three part Christmas Carol? Fat Aussie share ramper David Lenigas or market abuser Chris Oil? Or should I run two series? Then a discussion on when Fitbug (FITB) goes bust. After that - in a bad language section - I discuss Arian Silver (AQG) and its fucktard PR man Dominic Baretto. I move onto Plethora (PLE), Aveva (AVV), Concha (CHA), 88 Energy (88E) and Caza Oil & Gas (CAZ) before rattling off the names of a few other small oilers that really are zeros.
On reflection: Warning bad language throughout
3266 days ago
I start with back news, not good but at least I have a handy tip for dodging passport control. Then it is onto the son of the late Brian Schneider of OEM infamy. He wants you and I to pay far more tax from our legitimate earnings though he has lived a privileged life - and still does - thanks to the proceeds of crime. He is a leading Jeremy Corbyn organiser. Right on Comrades. I look at Petropavlovsk (POG) and the idea of buying shares for the bid. I move onto a new biotech IPO, Levrett. I explain why its a bargepole but also how the coverage of this in the Mail on Sunday (Simon Watkins) shows again the corrupt nexus between certain financial journalists and the PR world with an aim to dupe you, the investor. Then it is onto Jabba The Hutt's Afriag (AFRI) where I follow on from today's bombshell HERE and the follow up HERE by explaining the real problem it - and AIM - now faces.
3266 days ago
I start with a hint to the oppo, that is InternetQ (INTQ), fire the lazy upper class fuckwits at FTI Consulting who you employ to do PR, they are useless as I explain in this podcast. It is then onto Condor Gold (CNR), Optibiotix (OPTI), Wildes and his trading strategy in LGO Energy (LGO) and elsewhere - the road to ruin. And finally where is Malcolm Stacey's Santa rally? It seems to be er..late.
3270 days ago
Yesterday I asked you to identify the odd one out in the four pictures below: The England Rugby team, David Lenigas, Market-makers Winterfloods and the City Nomads, brokers and PRs celebrating at their annual Christmas party and YOU ALL GOT IT WRONG but there were some good answers anyway HERE.
3271 days ago
Co-written with Malcolm Stacey. Age before beauty. Malcolm First: Hello Share Squirmers. There could be pressure on people like me who write about shares. We could be approached by PR people who want us to write about their clients. Which means that they expect us to give positive reports to companies which issue shares.
Even if they did not say this overtly, I can imagine what they would think of a write-up which turned out to be a blistering attack on the company which employs them. Now all this raises an interesting philosophical question.
There’s no doubt that share writers with immense integrity would never countenance any such deal. I include, of course our writers, like Uncle Tom, Nigel and Steve Moore.
But I had a dream
3271 days ago
David "King of the City bombasts" Williams of Avanti Communications (AVN) always responds to weakness in his company's - grossly overhyped - share price in the same predictable fashion - he announces a contract win. But each time he announces a deal - no value disclosed natch - the market is less and less impressed. This morning what investors really want to know is whether Avanti is making money from evil terrorist murderers ISIS?
3290 days ago
In this podcast I once again tantalise Lord David Bick - PR bully boy to Del Boy Lenigas - a new discussion is at the end. I start with Rare Earth Minerals (REM) - following up from here - then move onto Leed Resources (LDP), New World (NEW), Poundland (PLND), Optibiotix (OPTI), Bovis Homes (BVS), Johsnton Press (JPR) and fianlly to Solo Oil (SOLO), a company associated with Jabba the Hutt.
3298 days ago
A bizarre late night text comes from David "my veins flow claret and blue" Bick, the PR man to Big Dave Lenigas. It seems like I have offendended The Guv'nor and that I should not be heading down to his Manor in E13 any time soon. The text reads:
3305 days ago
Just a bit of City gossip. It seems like it may be a bit of a miserable Christmas for Tim Blythe, the truly odious owner of scumbag City PR firm Blythe Weigh. Oh dear. It could not happen to a nicer fellow.
3349 days ago
There will be two podcasts today. Later on it is companies. But I start with my analysis of the Greek Election result and what it means and also a look at the creeping growth of PR and what it means - heck you are paying for this burgeoning community of parasites.
3370 days ago
One day before my second and 25th anniversaries and I am in Devon. a long walk beckons but before that a few thoughts on Scancell - there will be a placing but not, now, next week. And on Auhua and then on the pointless, despicable and corrupt crony capitalists of the PR world. No holds barred on that one.
3455 days ago
Another week goes by and another pitifully small director share purchase is announced by Rosslyn Data Technologies (RDT). Its thick as pigshit and thoroughtly odius piece of excrement PR man Tim Blythe might advise the company that this will fool mug punters into buying. But I sense folks have wised up to this. If Hugh Cox reaally believed in Rosslyn he'd be filling his boots. Small scale purchases are clearly just an attempt to ramp the shares ahead pf a placing. We are not spoofed. Small scale share purchases are a red flag. But I promiosed more bad news for Rosslyn, so here goes.
I am not going to ask any more questions of CEO Charles Clark about his career in porn which he seemed to have forgotten about but
3530 days ago
I wrote an open letter to Emma Kane, the boss of PR group Redleaf Polhill (employer of foxy Bex) over the weekend prompted by grave concerns about a client of that firm which I shall now name, The House of Britannia (listed on GXG). You thought no-one in PR had any principle, think again. And its another small win for the Sheriff.
I shall reveal over the coming days why House of Britannia (HOBP) should be delisted and
3532 days ago
I have had a few battles with Foxy Bex and her colleagues at Redleaf Polhill over the past two years because of its willingness to represent absolute liars and criminals such as the Cupid gang and Rob Terry of Quindell. Redleaf (and indeed Foxy herself) has now taken on another client which they know full well is run by a liar and a charlatan and which is an investment disaster waiting to happen.
The corporate advisor to this POS Company has taken on board what I have had to say and returned calls in a polite and professional manner. But Redleaf has avoided doing so for a period of eight days. I am constantly told that the team representing this company is “in meetings” but my calls to them and to Redleaf boss Emma Kane are just not returned.
Eventually
3567 days ago
My latest book is dedicated to the fraudster Robert Simon Terry, the founder of Quindell (QPP) and highlights 49 Red Flags, warning signs you should look for before investing in shares. Number 31 is excessive spend on PR and IR. To get your free copy of the whole book sent to you today fill in the form HERE - meanwhile here is No 31
3590 days ago
In today's podcast I look at the PR/Financial Press corrupt deal. I then move into Quindell, Robinson, Cambria Africa, Frontier Mining, what timber prices tell us about general earnings visibility, Gowin New, a new China POS that had been flagged up to me called JQW (target price 0p), the Wandisco pump and dump and Jiasen International.
3596 days ago
In this podcast I look at the issue of earnings visibility with special reference to quoted spreadbetting firms, at Quindell and its change of PR and what that telegraphs to you and then there is a detailed report back on Sefton Resources and its latest omnishambles announcement.
3639 days ago
This is a very simple one for you all. I would like you to explain who Andrew Femi Odoula is? I know and have put calls into the PR firm now representing Quindell (QPP).
3649 days ago
Redleaf Polhill, the PR firm for the fraud Quindell (QPP) is holding its "tech showcase 2014" next Thursday in the City with five of what it terms "the most interesting plays" presenting. And yes, you have guessed it! One of those interesting plays is Quenron. I am almost tempted to delay my Greek trip by 48 hours to go along for the free booze, canapes, coke, hookers and the chance to hear Rob Terry present and field some questions.
But I have a sneaking feeling that Rob might not be there either because he has quit, because Quenron has collapsed or beacause he just could not face the humiliation and ridicule. I am also not entirely certain that given the active complicity of Readleaf in a smear campaign against me, that the unprincipled crony capitalist PR bimbos would even allow me to attend. Presumably they would argue that it is just for "proper" investors like Tom Dobell at M&G or for thick as shit journalists like Harriet Denys who wont ask tough questions.
3651 days ago
Some folks think that I was wrong to call Louise Cooper an investment prostitute. I make no apologies. The silly cow painted herself as whiter than white, a Mother Theresa. The FACT is that she was more Princess Diana. She works for a company that takes cash from companies to interview them, then gives soft interviews without declaring the payments. That is investment prostitution and is WRONG. However...
There is no problem in companies taking cash to record soft interviews (tipsTV, Proactive) or to put out research (Edison, GECR, Hardman). If it helps investors to understand what the company does or to get some idea on forecasts that is great. I applaud it. But this is not analysis as Princess Diana claims this is PR, this is a financial promotion.
3657 days ago
Well done to foxy Bex and her colleagues at PR outfit Redleaf Polhill, until now the spinners for the liars, fraudsters and insider dealers at Quindell (QPP). Foxy and her team have today quit joinng Canaccord on the list of ex-advisers to this POS. And it gets better..
I have just spoke to Redleaf and its invitation to Quenron to present at its annual tech showcase on Thursday has been withdrawn. So Rob Terry won't be standing up and telling a pack of lies later this week. And so now we ask the question who will be next to quit. Vote now with a deadline of 4.30
3672 days ago
Yesterday afternoon I revealed how AM casino failure of a company Independent Oil & Gas (IOG) was trying to get away a rescue placing. Its shares were, as I went live, 15.5p and barely traded. I also revealed that even though it had slashed the offer price to 10p it was struggling because, let’s be honest, this is a dog. The reaction of the company has been despicable, forced to fess up but aiming to mislead investors.
My story was explicit and caused the share price to slump to 13p. The company had to put out a statement and so at 6.13 PM (no-one is watching O’Clock) it announced:
3713 days ago
From the team that brought you Naibu (NBU) we also have China Chaintek (CTEK) which released its interims today and it goes without saying that they do not stack up either. My target price for the shares is 1p (the value of the cash dividend on offer) but since it will probably be the last when the stock goes ex my target price will be slashed to 0p.
As a reminder, team Naibu/China Chaintek is dodgy serial floater of China frauds Zedex Capital, the Nomad which floats utter shite from China and the UK and which brought Quenron to the AIM Casino (Daniel Stewart) and PR spinners for most of the China Norfolks, the upper class twits at Abchurch.
Chaintek, is like Naibu and the two German China frauds to have emerged in the past three months, from Fujian province China. They all make shoes. Chaintek is in logistics and its main customers are claimed to be shoe producers.
I do not need to go into much detail
3730 days ago
I have been discussing with my legal advisors the possibility of suing Quindell (QPP) chairman and RedLeaf Polhill the PR agency that drafts Quindell’s releases for libel. This is not because I seek mammoth financial redress but because PR agencies and Company executives need to understand that smearing journalists is not acceptable.
In its rebuttal of my allegations to which Bowers put his name Quindell accused me of a number of things. The onus in terms of libel is on it to prove these points
3763 days ago
Sadly Thomas Cook (TCG) did not as I had hoped serve up a profits warning today. Its shares are broadly unchanged at 122p but its trading statement is far from inspiring and the City knives are still out for PR obsessed CEO Harriet Green. She cannot afford to slip.
Ms Green states:
3782 days ago
I have predicted it before but predict again – the imminent trading statement from Thomas Cook (TCG) will be a profits warning. Of that I am certain. My question is whether its self-important and image obsessed CEO Harriet Green gets a one way ticket out of the building the same day.
The share price chart implies that all is not well at Cook. The shares have nose-dived from 180p at the start of May to just over 120p now. Anecdotally I hear that most Travel Agents had a dire June as folks contemplated the World Cup rather than two weeks in Ibiza. I expect this to be confirmed by Cook shortly.
When Cook was a glory recovery play the fact that Harriet Green was obsessed with her own PR – as much as that of the company – did not matter. But now that the merde is hitting the fan she will find that that obsession of hers will make her vulnerable.
You may remember
3785 days ago
This October the Crony Capitalists who make money from AIM will gather to celebrate another year of making money as Nomads, brokers, PR advisers, lawyers and overpaid directors at a lavish awards dinner. The poor investors whose wealth has been transferred to the crony capitalists will not need to get their DJ’s cleaned as awards for “excellence” are handed out. But if any pissed off peasants want to revolt we suggest you nominate now for research of the year Mr Kevin Ashton.
Mr Ashton was a star analyst at Canaccord - the firm that sponsors this particular award and which earns big fees acting for Quindell (QPP). Mr Ashton refused
3798 days ago
Rob Terry has today announced that he has bought £31,667 worth of shares in Quindell (QPP) at £1.90. Yesterday the new CEO bought a few shares. These purchases are all PR – designed to restore investor confidence in shares that are tanking. It is a smokescreen. This is a sell signal and here’s why.
£32,000 is peanuts for Terry. Remember that in 2013 Rob earned £1.32 million (including a £720,000 bonus). In addition as disclosed in the accounts “During the year, the Group made sales of £1,000 to, and purchased goods and services totalling £77,000 and fixed assets of £90,000 during the year from Advance Data Simulations Limited, a company controlled by R Terry.” I have no idea what all that is about but I suggest to you that £32,000 is small beer for Terry.
We have been here before.
3829 days ago
Bulletin Board Morons always tell me that I cannot be right in saying “sell” because a raft of directors have just bought shares. Au contraire – some patterns of boardroom buying are clear sell signals in themselves.
Let’s take Kenmare (KMR). About two months ago after serving up a dog’s dinner set of annual results five directors bought shares. The purchases ranged from 25,000 shares to 209,000 at between 13.2p and 14.89p. In total 509,000 shares were bought.
There is enough liquidity in Kenmare that they could all have bought on the same day and issued one RNS to that effect (each RNS costs £75 to issue). But they did not. The purchases were deliberately spread out so that four distinct RNS releases were issued on four separate days. It was just a PR campaign.
In truth the scale of the purchases (call it £70,000) paled into insignificance with boardroom pay of just over £2 million last year. When a company goes to such lengths to stress how directors were buying you know it is a sell signal, PR puffery and little else. If Kenmare’s directors really believed the stock was cheap they would have bet the ranch on it. They did not.
And as it happens
3845 days ago
Fleet Street still has not touched this story because it is too busy sucking PR cock to cover the stench emanating from the City’s largest financial PR firm. We can revealed exclusively that Buchanan Communications has admitted that a staff member did wage a dirty tricks campaign against Range Resources shareholders campaigning to change the way Range is run.
We broke news of this dirty tricks campaign last Friday HERE
Buchanan represents more AIM listed firms than any other PR agency and is owned by Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP Group (WPP). Journalists on the nationals want PR firms to spoon feed them stories or cushy well paid jobs in PR when they fancy a move to the dark side so NO national paper dared touch this story.
Buchanan has now confirmed that its chairman Richard Oldworth has written to the dissenting Range shareholders apologising
3848 days ago
Well done Quindell (QPP). It has finally offered a comment on the suggestion from a source of mine that it was considering a bond issue in 2014. To those poltroons who suggested that Quindell would not bother speaking to me, only “proper” journalists – sorry fellas but I have been in this game since 1992 and given that tens of thousands of folks read my stuff, firms do comment. PR companies call me all the time as they want me and the 32 other writers here to write about their companies because folks read our material in ever growing numbers. So stick this statement where the sun don’t shine.
3848 days ago
Yesterday I revealed how the City’s largest financial PR Company Buchanan is mired in scandal after one of its employees appeared to pose as a private investor to discredit shareholders opposing the (failing) management of a company it is paid £10,000 a month to represent. This appears to be a total breach of industry guidelines and if P45s are not handed out next week then the stench of cover-up will be unbearable. But this is just the tip if the iceberg as I shall explain below.
Needless to say Fleet Street has not followed up on this even though I know (I can track IP) that scores of journalists have read the piece. The journalists do not dare expose the PR firm that acts for more listed companies than anyone else. Cross Buchanan and there will be no hand-delivered scoops and no job in PR when you fancy earning real money. This is a very big story in the financial press but it just will not get covered. That shows the corruption of journalism as well as of PR and perhaps that is why fewer and fewer folks bother reading the deadwood press any more.
Remember how it was websites not the established press that broke the stories of lobbying scandals in politics and sleaze. It was the same principle at work.
This morning
3848 days ago
On Friday I was researching two articles where the conclusion is likely to be bearish
I put questions to the two companies conc.erned: Quindell & AN Other. AN Other’s PR folks could not have been more helpful. We have agreed that the company has until 2 PM on Monday to give me a formal response and I will hold fire until then. At which point the company knows that I will be unleashing a thermo-nuclear critique. Bonza. Until Monday I have agreed not to name the company so refer to it as AN Other.
3849 days ago
Part of the WPP (WPP) Group, financial PR firm Buchanan acts for more AIM listed clients than any other PR firm. But today I ask if the odours from its lavish Cheapside offices are not of expensive perfumes worn by glamorous PR birds, but from the stench of a dirty tricks campaign against those investors seeking management change at AIM Cesspit listed Range Resources (RRL)? There is no suggestion that Range itself is aware of this. So....
Let’s start with Buchanan. According to its website:
3869 days ago
When a stock is “hot” it can announce news of no import whatsoever and its shares zoom. When the “believers” start to ask about the Emperor’s new clothes in detail, when faith clashes with uncomfortable reality the reaction to such PR fluffery is negative. Blinkx (BLNX) is now in that phase as it refuses to deal with the fireworks delivered by Ben Edelman on April 5 at the UK Investor Show.
I have noted this phenomenon of how PR fluffery becomes a sign of desperation and is actually counter productive when a company cannot deal with hard questions before in relation to Globo (GBO) HERE. Blinkx yesterday served up some total non-news about a new partnership and its shares fell. The financial import of its latest deal will be negligible and it knows it. So do investors.
And so to Edelman. The strategy here has been to persuade thick journalists such as Harriet Denys of the Telegraph and Bryce Elder of the Financial Times to run with the line, or should that be lie? “Edelman said nothing new on April 5 so there is no need to comment.” Or “There were no fireworks.”
Hmmmmm. Bryce you may like to suck PR
3892 days ago
Yesterday I suggested that Iofina (IOF) of which I have been a long term bear was deep in the merde, running out of cash, needing a placing and set to issue a profits warning. Well I guess that is another victory for home team Winnifrith vs. the Bulletin Board Morons as the company has not wasted time with its first warning. Gotcha!
The statement today says that following the construction of the sixth iodine plant Iofina is going for a bit of a changeroonie of plans. The statement crafted by its dickhead of a PR man fesses up:
3892 days ago
At the weekend I challenged Todd Kozel, the grotesquely overpaid CEO of Gulf Keystone (GKP) to record a video interview with me. His Bulletin Board moron fans reckon that I talk cock and so if they are right Todd would wipe the floor with me. I offered to travel anywhere in the world, except to places where Jew Hating bigots might string me up for having an Israeli stamp on my passport – places like Kurdistan, Iran and parts of Bradford. Todd’s PR man says that he won’t do it. Todd is too cowardly to answer questions such as….
The questions Todd should have been asked at the analysts meeting were not asked. Perhaps those who penned bullish notes with daft share prices oh so recently were embarrassed. Perhaps oil analysts these days are just as thick as the oil Gulf pumps out but cannot seem to monetize. Whatever the Bulletin Board Morons might say as a long term Gulf Bear ( the Morons & bigots being bulls) I have no blushes on this one. I have been right so far and remain right. I remain an “out and proud” bear.
So what would I have asked Todd. This is not an exhaustive list but would have fiilled session one of Frost vs. Nixon, Winnifrith vs. Kozel.
3893 days ago
While most shares are making steady progress, the share price of AIM Cesspit listed Iofina (IOF) continues to drift and at 59p it is at its lowest since December 2012. Is something wrong? Almost certainly the answer is yes but since its dickhead of a PR man refuses to speak to me I cannot put the question to it directly, I just assume that bad news is on the way.
At a 59p share price the company is capitalised at £75 million. It has debts of $15 million (more on that later). We still await calendar 2013 results but a grisly trading statement/profits warning in December indicates that cash as at the year end was not a million miles away from sod all. And Iofina continues to burn cash.
Now that leads me to one conclusion
3894 days ago
On 20th September I pointed out that Sovereign Mines of Africa (SMA) then 3.5p was almost out of cash and was ramping its shares to get a placing away. Six months later after ramp after ramp of spurious press releases we finally have the placing. The only shock was that Sovereign did not commission an utterly crap paid for research from convicted felon Charlie Gibson of Edison to help with the ramp. The placing naturally screws private investors big time ( this is AIM) and is accompanies by prize winning PR horse shit from Sovereign.
The shares were 1.625p at the close yesterday. The placing is raising a paltry £625,000 (call that £575,000 after costs) at just 1p. So some lucky City folk can flip the stock and make a quick turn and all those suckers conned into paying anything up to 4p during the past six months by those upbeat press releases will be 20% diluted. The advisers make a quick buck, the City insiders on the placing making a quick buck and everyone else is buggered.
Sovereign clearly wanted to raise more
3898 days ago
On Thursday morning AIM Cesspit posterboy Arian Silver (AGQ) snuck out its calendar 2013 results with a press release whose lack of disclosure truly is appalling -something that has landed it in the soup before, see HERE. Do the mothers who run this company not know that the purpose of a results release is to clearly inform shareholders what is going on? Or do they not give a fuck?
I have noted before how the total prize tool who does the PR for this woeful enterprise has berated me for not tipping the shares. Given that stock-holders have lost 89% over three years and 66% over one year I feel pretty vindicated. But who cares about the poor shareholders? Arian keeps on raising funds allowing its uber-Welsh management team to enjoy the lifestyle they feel they deserve and the brokers, lawyers and PR flunkies to keep issuing stiff bills each month. Bottles of Bollinger and pert ewes all round.
And so we come to the results this week.
3912 days ago
Greece based, AIM Cesspit listed software firm Globo (GBO) has today announced that it fired its auditors six weeks ago and has a new firm in place. For a firm whose accounts have come under some scrutiny (see HERE) that might raise a few eyebrows but when you look at the exact timeline you will be truly kebabbed.
On 17th May 2013 Globo published its 2012 Annual Report signed off by accountants Littlejohn Frazer. At the AGM held on 10th June 2013 Littlejohn Frazer was reappointed as auditor.
At some stage in the six months that followed – a helpful fellow at PR firm Brunswick says it was in July – the company changed auditor to BDO.
On 13th January 2014 (we discovered today) Globo asked BDO to stand down.
on 16th January Globo said that it would release a Full Year trading statement on 28th January – no mention of the audit change
on 28th January that statement (bullish natch) was published - no mention of the audit change.
Today we are told that:
"Globo wishes to announce that it has appointed Grant Thornton as its sole global auditor following a competitive tender of three of the top five auditing firms.
As a result the board requested BDO to resign as its current auditor in favour of Grant Thornton, with effect from 13 January 2014. Grant Thornton is currently carrying out the 2013 Company audit."
Hmmmm
3959 days ago
Tim Horlick is a City financier but is perhaps as well known for being the ex husband of the self proclaimed “superwoman”, come PR obsessive and supporter (with other folks cash) of Bernie Madoff, Nicola Horlick. But having had my sport with Nicky I now turn to Timmy and put to him a few questions regarding AIM listed Pathfinder Minerals (PFP).
I fired my questions over by email to Timmy who was reluctant to answer. However I soon found myself in a lengthy dialogue with his PR man Damian McCrystal, who is a good and clever chap and was the best ever City Diarist when at the Daily Telegraph, before he turned to the “dark side of spinning. And so off we go.
Q1. Why did Tim and his cousin Richard sell their shares in Pathfinder on 20th October 2011?
A. McCrystal stated that in the summer of 2011 the Horlicks has worked with Pathfinder board member General Veloso to remove the other members of the Pathfinder board as they had no faith in them. When this failed the Horlick’s ceased to work alongside General Veloso and simply decided to sell. I was initially told that Tim and Richard agreed to sell at the wedding of the latter on 19th September, that Tim sold at once but that due to a honeymoon, etc Richard had sold much later.
However,
3969 days ago
Do not folks who have a few enemies learn their lessons from doing live twitter Q&A’s? it seems not. At 4 PM today Michael O’Leary from RyanAir (RYA) will be on line tweeting questions sent to #AskRyanair ? Oh dear. It already looks grim for the odious O’Leary.
Among the early starters are:
3969 days ago
Following my expose of Nicola Horlick and her dismal excuses for blowing so much of other folks cash in backing King Ponzi Bernie Madoff, a comment has appeared below that article which just blows wide open Horlick’s self created superwoman myth.
3985 days ago
Heck we have some bad news…when will we tell shareholders? Oh…how about Christmas Eve? It is a half day. No-one will notice and by the time they do we can think of some good news to announce or go on holiday? The bosses of the AIM Cesspit think they are being smart and will get away with it. But I am here to make sure you missed none of the horrors snuck out today and to give them maximum PR.
The nominations for the gold medal for sneaking bad news out on Christmas Eve are:
1. Tullow Oil (TLW) abandons 80% owned Norwegian exploration well as a duster
2. Verdes Management (VMP) fesses up that it was meant to have received £125,000 of a rescue £500,000 loan facility by 20th December but it has not arrived yet.
3. City of London Group (CIN) says that the £17.4 million it was promised in a placing has yet again still not arrived and so the deal is off. Will have to seek alternative funding. Chairman and NED quit.
4. Northern Petroleum (NOP) says that it is writing down its Italian assets from 2P to 3C category. It will have full details in New Year but is whetting our appetite now, i.e. softening the blow by announcing when no-one is watching.
5. Albemarle & Bond (ABM) – Better capital the lead bidder fo0r its assets walks.
6. Kennedy Ventures (KENV) serves up atrocious annual results and warns of funding gap.
Now it is possible that one or two of the above only heard the bad news late yesterday and so had to announce today. On that basis I will give Tullow, Northern and Albemarle the benefit of the doubt although I cannot say that I am impressed with any of them. That leaves three contenders for this annual award of shame. In reverse order.
3988 days ago
Justine Sacco is some American PR bird (quite high flying until yesterday) who tweeted ahead of a flight to South Africa “Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just Kidding. I'm White!' One suspects that her employer IAC will be sending her a P45 for Christmas.
IAC has already suspended her, airbrushed her name from its website and says it will be taking “appropriate action.”
Her tweet is tasteless and it is racist. IAC will undoubtedly be able to show that she has breached its employer handbook (bibles of political correctness and jargon) in some way and/or that she had brought it into disrepute. We all know that making a racist remark is now the most uber-crime of all. Ok it is marginally less of a heinous offence in the eyes of a Western liberal than first degree murder but it is marginal. Incidentally the crime is not just making a racist remark but making a remark that may be deemed racist. And that means saying more or less anything.
Hence in the 21st Century West Ms Sacco is toast.
For the avoidance of doubt I do regard her remark as racist.
Thirty years ago this thick woman would have made this “joke” next to the office water cooler and got away with it. Thanks to email and twitter comments like this go viral and once the “activists” and media elite get onto the case there can only be one outcome.
My Christmas hope? Ms Sacco learns her lesson. Her prejudice is unpleasant but if she can keep it to herself I hope that she finds another job and is allowed to get on with it.
Do those baying for her blood really want to ruin her whole life? I suspect many of them do. And I find that just as unpleasant as the prejudices of Ms Sacco.
3989 days ago
That headline got your attention? Read on.
There have been too many lunches this month. I look forward with relish to a January spent away from London living the simple life and detoxing. One of the more illuminating lunches was with Mark Jones of Alecto Minerals (ALO).
3991 days ago
I have never liked Iofina (IOF) and so today’s shocking profits warning brings some sort of grim satisfaction having published a very bearish piece at 150p back in June
Red flags abound in today's statement.
1.Today we hear that Iodine prices fell in 2013. So why the bloody hell were we not told about this more explicitly before. The company announces operational updates on bring a new facility onstream every other week but surely this is critical information? Whoever does this company’s PR should be publically hung drawn and quartered. As it happens the company’s PR man is Dominic Barretto who is a prize shit so his public execution would make the City a better place all round. But my point is that a company that communicates information in a quite dreadful way, I really do not believe it anymore.
3993 days ago
I met up with sally Schofield the chairman of Edenville Energy (EDL) the other day for a catch up quiz session on how her company is going.
Q. Sally I did not see you at the Women in Mining champagne reception at Mines & Money last week. Do you not regard swilling champagne with a bunch of City tossers as part of your job?
A. We’re lucky to have an intelligent and supportive shareholder base and very professional corporate support. There may be ‘tossers’ out there but I don’t meet that many of them! We do circulate at these events whenever possible; by its very nature the Women in Mining remit meant Rakesh or Rufus were not great candidates to stand in and represent the Company. However, Halimah Hussain from Blythe Weigh (our newly appointed PR Company) passed the gender test and she did the rounds on behalf of Edenville.
Q. You published an update on your Rukwa coal project the other day. There seems to have been good news from Tanzania on the construction of a national grid. Can you explain what has happened and why this assists Edenville?
4021 days ago
I have received a massive response from investors, CEOs and Nomads to my articled on the Crony Capitalism that is destroying AIM. So what is the solution? Let us start with how money is raised: bring back the rights issue.
Right now for companies on AIM, money is raised by ramping the share price by paying vast sums to PR/IR people to ramp away. Private investors buy shares in the open market. At that point new shares are issued at a huge discount to City insiders who then flip.
4054 days ago
A foxy PR bird called some weeks ago and asked if I cared to meet up with Philip O’Quigley the CEO of AIM listed Falcon Oil & Gas (FOG). The name O’ Quigley rang a bell, and the PR bird was a foxy tease, and so I agreed. I can see the speculative upside in Falcon’s tale, it is not one to bet the ranch on but it might be worth a flutter.
4054 days ago
On the 4th October I published an explosive dossier on AIM listed Green Dragon Gas (GDG) which contained photos of environmental destruction and bloodied Chinese villagers. The company had been passed the dossier 5 days earlier for comment and its spokesman (Mr Philip Dennis of uber expensive PR firm Bell Pottinger) promised a response on 4th October. There has been no comment.
4068 days ago
I realized last week that I had ballsed up my diary and had arranged to have 2 lunches on Tuesday at the same time. I juggled and so arranged lunch one for 1 PM and lunch 2 for 3.30 PM. Still not feeling 100% I trekked up to London for a meeting with Enables IT and braced myself for lunch one having just enough time to check my emails. Bugger. Hell's Teeth.
4081 days ago
EMED (EMED) has today announced that CEO and company founder Harry Adams has resigned with immediate effect. Yeah right…time to get out some piano wire for another PR man who is being economical with the actualites. Step forward my old mate Nick Rome...
The release goes on with the usual corporate bullshit: “The Board would like to thank Mr. Anagnostaras-Adams for his dedication, leadership and contribution to the Company during his tenure as CEO.” Oh please, pass the sick bag.
4100 days ago
It is 9.30 AM and I am sitting outside a small café in Russell Square, decked out in my West Ham hoodie contemplating today’s match against Stoke and tapping away at my PC, enjoying a latte and a fag and reading Jimmyliar’s latest lies in The Times. “How’s Sefton going? Said a voice. Rather fearing that Jimmy had sent a hit man to track me down I looked up.
“I am sorry”, said I to the complete stranger,” how can I help?” It turned out it was a journalist from Growth Company Investor who had followed the case and thought it was fascinating. Well done said he and we chatted about the amazing tale, the revelations and also about executive greed on the AIM cesspit. And then he scuttled off promising to pop into Real Man in a few weeks’ time for a longer chat.
Having other journalists say well done is always a good feeling so many thanks to him for that professional courtesy. I wish him well with his career as he strikes me as a knowledgeable chap who knows his stuff and enjoys writing and is not doing it merely as a stepping stone to the dark side (financial PR).
And many thanks for the dozens of kind emails, tweets and a couple of personal visits yesterday. Now to what really matters: Can West Ham triumph (without a decent striker available) against a piss poor Stoke?
4101 days ago
I am not sure that those singled out for praise will appreciate it coming from me. Neither will those who receive rightful opprobrium in what follows – my mind this afternoon turns to the world of financial PR. The dark side.
4101 days ago
Sefton Resources (SER) has this morning fired its chairman Jim Ellerton from the board. He has been shown to be a liar, a criminal, a man not fit to run a PLC and there will be worse to come for him as the Serious Fraud Office, the US Internal Revenue Service and the Colorado Department of Justice Enquiries get underway. All three have been or will be provided with full dossiers. Ellerton will try to grub whatever cash he can from Sefton but he is toast. Toxic toast.
Sefton sued Daniel Levi (aka Brokerman Dan) and Tom Winnifrith for libel and also reported them to the FSA for market abuse and then accused them of market abuse and libel via an RNS. Sefton also briefed The Daily Telegraph that we were shorting the company for a monetary gain. All was part of their malicious Black propaganda campaign. Sefton is today negotiating with Dan and Tom.
It will be paying their costs in defending this case but also damages for defaming them. The only issue is how much will it be paying.
Those Bulletin Board Morons
4108 days ago
Another day and another RNS from Sefton Resources (SER) but with two names missing. The liar and crook Ellerton is off the board temporarily until he is fired permanently next week while PR guru Alex Walters of Cadogan has also been hung out to dry. As to the content it is pitiful and misleading. The fingerprints of IR buffoon Doc Green are all over this.
First up the company has raised cash via its death spiral but only £70,500 at 0.441p. That is dire. Last time the death spiral kicked in almost £700,000 was raised ( at 1.1p). Until Jimmy Liar is booted firmly into the long Hawaiian grass (or even better into a cell in the Denver Penitentiary) that will not change
4111 days ago
I am smashed. 36 hours on the lash has taken its toll. Tomorrow Jim Ellerton will be leaving Sefton in abject disgrace. Seven months of corporate bullying is at an end.
Today has seen an alocohol fuelled blur of activity. Jim Mellon's PR man was here boozing at 8.30 AM and also at 11 PM, a mate of Evil's popped in and an ex RSH PR head honcho was on the lash as well. There were some very cute models hanging out at RMPC tonight and some Australian bloke tried to get a bit too friendly with me but got no joy. I enjoyed extensive table dancing with a Greek bird. Champagne, martini, lager, bitter, red wine, lemoncello, ouzo, whiskey, and now it is New Order blasting in my ear. I am not in a good state. Do not tell my deluded lefty's parents'!
Tomorrow we discuss the damages Sefton/Pinsent Masons owes to me & the Rebel Alliance and the deluded lefty bird arrives in London so due to hangover/a need to focus on what really matters (i.e. the deluded lefy) it will be light/zero blogging.
For now, off to bed. I win. Fuck you Jim Ellerton. Fuck You Pinsent Masons.
4115 days ago
Fully listed financial services group City of London (CIN) has lost a court case against former employees, the details of which are hilarious and make City’s bosses look like utter clowns. Oddly it has yet to fess up with any details. I wonder why?
The former employees are Michael Padley and Gary Middleton of Lothbury PR who decided to leave City’s PR outfit and set up on their own. City took them to count on 94 counts including the alleged theft of the office kettle and the alleged theft of two Guinness beer glasses. And City lost to the highly respected PR men on every single count.
The costs for City (of which well over one hundred thousand pounds remain unpaid) are thought to be in the region of £750,000. How embarrassing. Perhaps
4128 days ago
My partner’s parents would rather she had hooked up with a nice respectable dentist or accountant than with myself. I really don't blame them at all. And if they could only have seen the mayhem last night in The Corner of Clerkenwell that is Real Man Pizza their doubts and revervations would have gone off the Richter scale. Put it this way, I awoke to find myself lying fully clothed on a sofa just inside Real Man’s front door. I cannot remember how I got there and I do not feel terribly sharp today.
Colourful James was an early arrival at Real Man with two women in tow. As they sipped Camparis and James downed Curious lagers I stayed sober and responsible knowing that the CEO Of an AIM listed company was on his way for a catch up meal with me. He duly arrived and we were joined by a colourful member of the PR community and four bottles of wine later we had put the world to rights.
They trundled off and I was just starting to think that I could do with a sleep when fifteen younger people turned up asking for a pizza. The pizzas flowed, the wine flowed, I was sucked into the conversation by an Irish bird and a bird with a ring in her nose which we all agreed she should remove. The dancing on the tables started, more wine flowed, the limoncella flowed…
And so today is a light blogging day.
4136 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed Arian Silver (AGQ) has overdosed on its equity drawdown death spiral. It failed to attract any interest for a share placing a few months ago as I exposed on this website provoking much anger from its dickead of a PR man. And so it has issued convertible debt which is incredibly expensive – this company really is desperate.
It has not yet actually raised the C$15 million it says that it is doing but has signed up a leading Canadian specialist broker and it says it has one punter who will take the whole lot. I will humour the uber Welsh boyos at Arian by saying that the debt issue will go ahead.
See chaps I am a nice guy. So there is no need to complain about this article. Leave the bleating to your girlfriends. Damn,
4138 days ago
Shares in semiconductor wafer manufacturer and supplier IQE plc (IQE) have offered a volatile ride since I tipped them on my Nifty Fifty website at a 28.5p offer price in December – hitting 36.5p in January and February before falling back, particularly following some (what look misguided) competition concerns to commence the current month at just 18p. However, they have since recovered strongly and have nudged further higher today to 26.75p-27.25p on the back of a bullish update. They are still cheap.
I say that notwitstanding the fact that the PR bird for IQE is uber prudish Kay Larsen of College Group who thinks that I am a pornographer obsessed by sheep shagging. Kay confuses goat milking with sheep shagging. She needs to get out more...
Anyhow, back to IQE who are based in Wales where no-one has ever molested a sheep.
4171 days ago
On 29th January the Daily Telegraph ran a piece suggesting that my pal Brokerman Dan was short of Sefton Resources (SER) and that is why he was writing bearish pieces. The source of that story which was untrue was Alex Walters who acts for Sefton as its PR man. The journalist at the Telegraph has contemporaneous notes of the conversation. The paper has now withdrawn the article and apologised to Dan for its role in this i.e. being duped.
On February 25th Sefton announced that it was suing myself and Dan for legal action but also that it had received legal advice that we had breached the Financial Services and Markets Act of 2000 and that it had reported us to the FSA. Dan obtained the letter sent by Sefton’s lawyers Pinsent Masons on 14 January using a FOI request. It took him two minutes to respond and the FCA has now confirmed to Dan that the matter is closed – he has done nothing wrong. It was a spurious and malicious complaint against him (and also me).
I have also explained to the FSA (and to Pinsent Masons) why the compliant was spurious and frankly anyone with a basic understanding of the FSMA would know why it was spurious. As such, to suggest that we had breached the FSMA in a public release was damaging and defamatory. Sefton may regard it as part of a legitimate dirty tricks campaign but I am not sure anyone else would.
Sefton Resources and its agent (Alex Walters) have clearly committed not one but two acts of libel against Dan (also myself). I hope that Sefton will issue an RNS apologising in full to myself and Dan and I’d happily drop the matter there. But I am aware that Daniel is now considering suing Sefton for libel should an apology not be forthcoming.
4172 days ago
And so someone I respect told me yesterday that I was hated in the City. Not by everyone but in certain quarters. Tell me something I didn’t know. Apparently some folks feel that saying nasty things about companies, advisors, PR firms etc. is just despicable. “Other journalists don’t do it…why do you?” And it gets better.
Apparently this person was told by a well-respected City group not to be seen to work with me because I was being sued for libel by Sefton. To give them credit they did ask the City Group if they knew about the case and was told no. There was just the assumption that if listed company issues libel proceedings then the person it is suing must be a baddun.
Where do you start here? Without commenting on the specifics of this case I would point out that I have had legal proceedings threatened and commenced before. The companies who tried it on before have all disappeared or been censured (in the end) because they were liars or crooks or both. Any trade body/City group which in a blinkered fashion believes that companies always tell the truth and so without doing any research automatically sides with the company in such matters is frankly a joke organisation. Perhaps these folks have never heard of Robert Maxwell or Asil Nadir or Bernie Madoff? Some companies are bent…just accept it.
And so why write articles which point out that certain shares are overvalued, that certain companies are – if one analyses their published statements – running out of cash or that certain companies have issued RNS statements that are verifiably false or over optimistic? Let me think for about fifteen seconds:
4177 days ago
Saturday is always our quietest day at Real Man Pizza, our Celtic Italian restaurant in Clerkenwell. Folks come in throughout the day but it is rarely hectic. As it happens, despite the rain, it is far busier than usual today but still there is time for me to amble down the street to replenish my supplies of (legit) tobacco. Generally Saturday is a catch up on writing day.
As I ambled down the road wondering how I was to conclude my (poisonous) Conviction sell of the month for Spreadbet Magazine I heard a loud female voice saying “hello Tom.” Rather startled and not used to strange women greeting me as I ambled, looking a tad “casual” down the road I turned around as blond woman, stuck out her hand “Emma Kane, glad to meet you.”
Emma, is a local resident but has so far declined my offer to pop into Real Man perhaps aware that regular customers include Lucian Miers and Aubrey Brocklebank. For Emma is the head PR bird at Redleaf Polhill, employer of foxy Bex, and indeed stepped into the void when Bex was on hols to look after Cupid. Emma is intelligent which among PR birds is a novelty but is she also psychic? Is she aware of what my sell of the month is?
Foxy Emma has promised to hook up at Real Man soon. I quickly scuttled back to finish my article on…..
4182 days ago
Eric Sprott is Mr Silver. He is a passionate bull of the metal and his funds are the number one funds in the sector. About the only reason for buying shares in AIM & TSX listed Arian Silver (AGQ) was that Sprott was a major shareholder. But, oh dear me…he is selling. How will Arian's prick of a PR man spin this one?
4186 days ago
There is only one thing worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about. So said another writer of Irish descent, Mr Oscar Wilde. Noting erroneous comments made on the ADVFN Bulletin Board a couple of monmths ago that I have lost my marbles as a result of frequenting gay bath-houses I should say that the similarities between mysef and Mr Wilde really do end there.
I see that while it in its latest misleading RNS Cupid PLC describes me as a market commentator the daily Telegraph takes a different view. My new best friend, foxy Fleet Street hackette Harriet Denys gave our AIM Cesspit awards a jolly decent write up in her City Diary column yesterday and describes me as a "maverick share tipster."
Hmmm. Maverick was a classic TV show starring James Garner. I am horrified to see that it was shot before I was born so I guess I only saw re-runs but I was always a big fan of Garner, notably in the Rockford Files when he was also a bit of a maverick
I think I shall write to foxy PR bird Bex at Cupid and suggest that next time Cupid wishes to issue a misleading RNS about one of my articles they should refer to me as a "maverick market commentator." I like the sound of that.
4188 days ago
The last time that online dating service Cupid (CUP) commented on an article by me it just noted that it was comment. This time I have been promoted to the rank of “market commentator” in a statement out this afternoon. Next time? “the UK’s top investigative financial journalist?” Needless to say Cupid is talking utter bollocks and that makes its shares even more of a slam dunk short.
Its RNS is in response to an article I posted earlier HERE
Its statement reads: The Board of Cupid plc. has noted misleading comments posted by market commentators speculating that the Company’s cash position is markedly worse than reported in our RNS on March 25th. For the avoidance of doubt the Board would like to make it clear to the market that we expect to have a positive EBITDA in Q2 and that our cash position at the end of June is expected to be in excess of £10m.
Ends.
I start at the end. I discussed its net cash position (net of trade payables minus trade receivables) as at July 3rd – ie after paying the dividend. I did not say that its cash position would be markedly worse at the end of June. Cupid knows this full well because
a) Its PR team lead by uber foxy Bex (happy birthday again BTW) read the final article when it came out
b) Bex read it before it went out as I sent it to her for comment. I took on board two points she made – as I made clear in the piece – but she did not dispute other facts.
Let us assume, to make this simple
4188 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed Cupid (CUP) shares are off again today at 52p. There are some folks who blather on about the yield of almost 6% and the strong cash balance. But what exactly is the cash balance? And is the dividend sustainable? Well let’s do some sums.
On March 25th the company stated that its cash position was £9 million. So far so good. However I note that tax payable at the yearend + trade payables minus trade receivables was c£4 million. So the real net cash position may well by March 25th have been as low as £5 million. Foxy PR bird Bex who spins for Cupid points out that working capital could have moved either way between December 31 and March 25. So the real net cash position at March 25 could be higher. Or lower. We just do not know.
By the way, Happy Birthday Bex.
4193 days ago
I have noted before that foxy PR bird Rebecca Sanders-Hewett (Bex) knows how to pick ‘em when it comes to clients from the Cesspit. Not only does she spin (i.e. not return phone calls) for Quindell but also for Cupid as well in her capacity as a PR fluffy at Redleaf Polhill.
I do hope that all is well with Bex as I note that while her name appears on the latest hot air release from Quindell it appears not to be on the profits warning release from Cupid – where the team is now fronted up by the top PR spinner at Redleaf, Ms Emma Kane.
Does Bex only do good news releases? Does Cupid feel that it needs a true heavy hitter on board and that Bex is just too soft and cute to deal with nasty writers like myself who are not intimated by threats of legal action and continue to warn that the shares are a sell? Will Emma, unlike foxy Bex, return phone calls or is it Redleaf company policy not to speak to journalists who do not kiss PR arse and ask awkward questions?
Anyhow best wishes to foxy Bex. I know that she is a keen reader of this blog so now that she has a bit more time on her hands maybe she might send me a full list of companies that she personally acts for. I wonder if she only acts for screaming shorts? I’d like to find out.
Meanwhile you can read my thoughts of a few days ago on Quindell ( a sell) HERE and a piece today on why Cupid shares should plunge from 61p to 10p in due course HERE
Hang in there Bex
T
xxx
4197 days ago
The official first birthday of this website is June 2nd. That was the day that the first article appeared. As it happens this is article number 3,248. There is a bit of a cheat in there as links to our required reading count as an article but none the less the output has been pretty heavy on a consistent basis. However it was exactly a year ago today that the domain TomWinnifrith.com was registered.
It took a few days to cobble together the first version of this site. Hence the slow build up to the official birthday party. But none the less what was then a therapeutic distraction for me begun 365 days ago.
I shall try to think of a fitting way to mark the anniversary. Perhaps I should reveal which CEO of a listed company has hookers in Hong Kong down as a business expense? Maybe not. a) his wife might be reading and b) I am not sure I can stand it up although I know it to be true. Anyhow I shall try to plan something enjoyable. For me and you, dear readers, anyway.
So in the build up to the first birthday party, once again thank you for continuing to read in ever greater numbers.
Best wishes
Tom
PS Just for PR Prude Kay Larsen of College Group who is one of those who have made the past year such fun I attach to this article a picture of Britain's most talented chanteuse Ms Cheryl Cole. For you Kay...
4204 days ago
So much news to choose from but what to pick. Naturally if this was Fleet Street I would focus on the two events of the week of global importance: Denmark winning Eurovision and Bonnie Tyler bombing or the retirement of Mr David Beckham, national icon and member of the alternative Royal Family - the posh one.
However I go with news that the Teachers Union has passed a motion of no confidence in Michael Gove. Teacher's salaries have skyrocketed in the past decade ( heck the State does own a money tree after all). Grade inflation masks the fact that School Leavers today have RRR skills that are not a patch on those of 20, let alone 50 years ago. This is a wholesale reward for failure.
Mr Gove wants to make changes. The Teachers want no changes and are also planning strikes over pay. They are greedy and immoral bastards. As such I am rather warming to Mr Gove. And so while all must have prizes in today's schools I will merely award five nominal A*s for the best entry to the caption below
For what it is worth my entry is:
4207 days ago
Oh dear, I fear that I won’t be getting very many Christmas cards from the financial PR industry this year. My book on how many I will receive is currently running at 1-2 but on balance I’d be a seller. I seem to have offended yet another operative because I am not in the business of writing universally nice articles. Such is the self-importance of these folks that they think I actually give a damn. In for a penny…. Let’s examine the role of financial PR in the AIM Cesspit.
You may remember that I had a bit of a falling out with uber-prude PR bird Kay Larsen of College Group who seems to think that I have a thing against sheep shaggers, oops sorry meant to say Welsh people - not that any of them are in fact animal molesters - and also publish pornography. College Hill is now not returning calls made by staff at www.Shareprophets.com . Does this stop the 19 writers on that site covering companies daft enough to pay College Group £10,000 a month to manage its media relations? Not in the slightest. Does it affect our coverage? Er…not in the slightest. Companies who think that writing a cheque to some daft parasites each month means that they can manage how and where they are covered are just kidding themselves.
And so to my next fallout which is with YellowJersey PR, which makes me think somehow of custard and cowardice. Its gripe is that it represents Arian Silver (AGQ) where, on www.shareprophets.com I have flagged up its various funding issues like a failure to get a placing away.
In case you missed that scoop it appeared here
That is apparently not the sort of coverage YellowCustard’s clients want. I am sorry to hear that. And so
4207 days ago
The PR spokesman for Arian Silver (AQG) and I have just had a curious chat prompted by my prior articles and also by a question posed at the company’s AGM. Let’s get the facts straight here and cut the AIM Cesspit-type bullshit – Arian needs cash fast.
I alleged in a recent article that the company had failed to get a placing away – you can read that here.
At the AGM this article was flagged up, my name was mentioned (oooh er missus: infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me) and the company denied categorically that it had failed to get a placing away.
Er…. Up to a point.
4209 days ago
I will try to make this the last Quindell (QPP) piece of the week but I have slept on it and the statement of yesterday threw up far more questions than it answered. I am afraid that I must again start with that £15 million loan AIM Cesspit listed Quindell has advanced and which appeared on the year-end balance sheet.
The company says that its share price is driven down by misinformed press speculation. Such speculation abounds when a company declines to answer a simple question or two. To whom was the loan made, why and when and on what terms? I put the question to foxy PR bird Bex (via her assistant) on Monday morning. On Monday Afternoon I put the question to Twitter obsessed CEO Terry via his assistant. In both cases I was promised a call back with an answer. I have to tell you that no such call has been received.
And I am not the only one asking this question. Why the refusal to explain and to answer?
But I move on.
4210 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed Quindell Portfolio has yet again put out a statement saying that there is no reason for its share price tanking other than wicked shorters and the press getting it wrong. Sorry fellows here is a good reason “you do not fxxxxxg well answer valid questions.”
My top question has always been “To whom was the £15 million loan on the year-end balance sheet made and why?” There is no reason why Quindell should be making loans so what the hell is going on. I contacted Quindell via its foxy PR bird Bex this morning and was told I would get a call back with an answer. I have had no such call. Others have asked broker Cenkos. No joy. I tried the company direct. No joy.
And that is the problem with Quindell.
4213 days ago
With its shares having tanked from 14p a few weeks ago to just over 7.41p with most of the falls following annual results on Tuesday, Quindell Portfolio (QPP) – hitherto a darling of the AIM Cesspit – has put out a statement late last night. It is a truly dismal effort. In the words of Evil Knievil “it is not an invitation to short but now an obligation.”
The statement, crafted by foxy PR bird “Bex” SH who also acts for Cupid (CUP) reads:
The Company is aware of recent press speculation regarding the equity swap and an active short position in relation to the Company’s ordinary shares. In light of this, the Board wishes to clarify that further to its recently reported record results, the Company has a strong balance sheet and continues to trade profitably with significant traction in the insurance sector. The Company knows of no valid reason for the recent share price decline. Furthermore, the equity swap asset, which has also been subject to speculation, accounts for a small part of the Group receivables and is not a material contract in relation to the size of the Group. This was issued as part of the funding for the acquisition of Accident Advice Helpline, announced on 3 December 2012 and was deemed to be the least dilutive funding mechanism at this time. It is not currently being exercised, and the Company believes that the counterparty will continue to not make any material transactions in respect of the Company’s ordinary shares unless the share price is at substantially higher levels.
Er… in plain English what on earth is all of that about?
4215 days ago
On the AIM Cesspit new records appear to be smashed every day and the latest one might just have been set by EastCoal Inc (ECX). It was already listed in Canada but on December 28th it raised a gross $9.5 million at 12.2p per share thanks to Cenkos and dual listed on AIM. On Tuesday May 7th its shares were suspended at 3.875 pending clarification of its financial position. This morning the finance director has quit.
I asked its PR firm (Tavistock) if this was a new record for IPO to suspended going possibly tits up
4222 days ago
I seem to remember that there used to be an AIM Australia Day party. The “cesspit” meets a bunch of folks from a country which started its colonial life as a penal colony. It sounds like a hoot. But I guess that I am not going to get invited if such an event still takes place. Or perhaps it never did and was just a figment of my imagination – a sort of party for white collar folk held in Jabba the Hut’s Bar. Did Princess Leia attend this party? Which PR firm does she work for as I’d like a briefing? And which dodgy mining stock is Jabba promoting today? We need to know.
I slightly digress, but I am a Star Wars groupie and Carrie Fisher is always welcome at Chez Winnifrith to pop on over and drone on yet again about her celeb parents and all that cocaine she took any time. Now,where was I? Oh yes, in that water and snake filled garbage crusher on the Death Star when Luke, Han, Chewie and Leia almost get crushed before R2D2 and C3PO save them by hacking into the control system. I refer of course to AIM.
It seems that barely a day goes by without me feeling compelled to vent my anger about some outrage inflicted on investors on the cesspit. But, it strikes me that a disproportionate number of the stocks that I write about in this vein, are dual listed on the ASX and are primarily Australian companies
4225 days ago
“Tom Winnifrith, well I never.” What the hell… I turned round as I wandered around baggage recalim at Gatwick airport with only one thing on my mind, to see Will Tindall, PR man and active member of the Linedin Cement and Concrete production discussion group. Just back from a week’s skiing he looked in good form. A brief pleasantry followed but I had to ask “Do you know where the loo is?”
In PR you always know the answer and so without a moment’s thought Will stated “It is over there” pointing in a specific direction. Helpful, knowing your facts – the ever efficient PR man.
Except having come from “over there” I knew that “over there” was the one place at Gatwick devoid of loos. And so I headed in the opposite direction, as we agreed to meet for a beer later in the week. 180 degrees away from “over there” turned out to be the right call.
I look forward to that beer Will.
4260 days ago
I may have become a bit of a chinless wonder on this video. Normally I cut off the top of my head. This time I did the reverse. But the light looks good and the sound works and the content...I think I am on form and this is one of the most interesting video postcards for ages. You may disagree. Whatever. It is 15 minutes long.
On the Agenda
1. How companies react to short sell advice or negative comment, lessons learned: Minmet, Cupid, 3DM, Sefton, Caradon
a) The FSA, Evil Knievil, Lucian Miers, market abuse
b) Spin re bids
c) The sordid PR person/established media axis of corruption
d) Play the man not the ball
2. Internet companies, commodity goods, no room for many players
3. The freedom to write - launch of new website.
4290 days ago
I am calling from the ADVFN newspaper – I am going to write a piece there on your client What is ADVFN said the PR bird? Jesus wept. A FTSE 250 listed company is paying this bird’s firm £10,000 a month to handle its financial public relations and she has never heard of what is the UK’s largest financial website with 3 million views a month. I ended up having to spell ADVFN to her.
I will not name the company that employs this bint but truly it is pissing its money away. For £10,000 a month you expect a modicum of knowledge of the financial markets. I don’t expect the bird to read ADVFN but not to have heard of it? She is probably a looker and a very charming bird but still…
And now I am about to have lunch with a PR bird who is a looker but is certainly not thick.
4362 days ago
As private investors we have come to loathe private placings. If the shares are 10p before City fund managers are made insiders they are 8p by the time a placing is completed as somehow word seeps out. about any AIM listed stock. Odd that. And so the placing is done at a 20% discount to 8p and a stock which you were paying a share price of 10.25p a week ago is suddenly being offered to institutions only at 6.4p. It is not as if the fund managers are any more likely to be long terms holders than you are. They will spiv the shares out at 8p given half the chance and so boast of a 25% return in 2 weeks.
4514 days ago
The harmless sweet looking little old lady I chose to sit next on the overnight ferry to Athens turned out to be the Greek national loud snoring and snorting while asleep champion. My night was thus fitful and so I sit in Athens with not enough energy to do anything but too much energy to sleep. The obvious answer is to scroll through the updates of my various LinkedIn connections: you never really learn much but you can pretend to be working (virtuous) and it should send you to sleep. Learning that my pal Will Tyndall had joined the group “Cement, concrete & construction” was fairly gripping – I bet they have some pretty fascinating discussion threads going there – truly a cyber place you’d want to hang out.
