Good morning!

ShareSoc Supper (Richmond) - 1 March

This new monthly investor event is being held a week today, Tue 1 March, a stone's throw from Richmond railway station. The company presenting is Adept Telecom - quite an interesting one.

Details here. As with all these "Mello-style" events, they're friendly & enjoyable, and well worth supporting, if you can. A good way to meet company management, and to network with other investors. There are still some places available, if you're interested.


Stanley Gibbons (LON:SGI)

Share price: 43.5p (down 32% today)
No. shares: 47.1m
Market cap: £20.5m

Funding & trading update - I last looked at Stanley Gibbons on 13 Jan 2016, when the company said it needed more funding, but was looking at alternatives to a "relatively unattractive" equity fundraising (given the discount to NAV).

Today's update indicates that they've changed their mind;

However, having considered the various alternatives, the Board is now confident that an equity raise is the most expedient and efficient method by which to raise the capital necessary. Accordingly, the Group is in the process of raising approximately £10.0 million of new equity (the "Fundraising"). The Board intends that the Fundraising will be executed in a manner that recognises the pre-emption rights of existing shareholders insofar as is possible and will make a further announcement regarding the Fundraising next week.

So a £10m fundraising, with the mkt cap now at £20.5m (at 8:12 on 23 Feb 2016 - the price may move about a fair bit today) means quite a bit of dilution, especially if investors injecting the new funds play hard ball on price - they might demand a deep discount, who knows?

The "insofar as is possible" comment regarding pre-emption rights suggests possibly an Open Offer attached to a Placing, perhaps? I doubt whether they would go to all the costs, and time, of doing a Rights Issue - a much more involved process, since it requires publishing a detailed prospectus. It sounds as if the fundraising process is well advanced, with another update next week.

Cost-cutting is underway (better late than never);

The Board has already initiated a review of the business, particularly its cost base and effective utilisation of properties and other resources. The Board has identified and begun to implement cost savings which will amount to at least £5.0 million on an annualised basis

It's rather concerning that the…

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