What nonsense was I talking about in December? Let’s find out, shall we …
I proposed Agriterra (LON:AGTA) as a short. It is down 50% YTD. I haven’t been keeping tabs on it, but late June seemed to be a particularly turbulent time for the company. Catching up briefly … an operations update on 11 June announced all kinds of goodness, including successful expansion of cattle operations, strong trading at retail units, and a “transformational year”.
On 28 June, it gave an update on Mozambique saying “all progressing well and continue to perform strongly”. EXCEPT, “there have been a small amount of isolated incidents on the road from Chimoio to Maputo and the Company has taken the decision to refrain from sending transporters to the capital as a short term measure.” Oops.
PV Crystalox Solar (LON:PVCS) is in the alternative energy sector. It looked like an interesting special situation. “The Group expects to return cash to shareholders during Q2 2013 in a manner that will provide shareholders with an element of choice as to the form in which they receive the cash” I was confused as to what that means, but I’ve discovered that it means that shareholders can opt to receive the cash in a way that either creates a capital, or an income gain.
The share price is up 3% YTD, about in line with the Footsie.
“After careful consideration and after making appropriate enquiries, are of the opinion that the Group has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for at least twelve months from the date of approval of the financial statements. Thus the Group continues to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the annual financial statements.”
It’s not, perhaps, ideal, when a company has to think about whether it’s still a going concern or not. There doesn’t seem to have been any particular profitable angle to this situation, although admittedly I haven’t been paying attention. Maybe someone who is familiar with the situation can fill me in with what’s going on.
The bull case seems to be that spot price for wafers has likely bottomed, with the share price supported by cash. 7.25p will be returned, and the cash after the return will be about 11.5p. Current share price is 11.87p.
DYOR on this one, as…
