As recently as mid January Stanley Gibbons (SGI) said that it would be comparatively unattractive to raise by way of new equity the 10m funding, which it desperately needed. So here we are less than 6 weeks later and guess what? The funding is being raised by way of new equity. Otherwise it would be unable to repay its additional overdraft facility of 6m., by the end of March.
The nonsense does not end there. The company now expects to make a full year loss of between 1 and 2m. due to lower revenues and failing to achieve the planned cost savings.
The auditors have resigned because the risks and uncertainties of doing the audit, exceed what they regard as acceptable. Unfortunately the board still seems to be in situ and senior management is still clinging on but for what purpose, one can only guess.
Ladbrokes (LAD) has slashed its 2015 dividend by 66.3% as profit before tax plummets by 46.4% and group operating profit by 35.7%. It claims that this is a good start to the delivery of its new strategy.
Drax (DRX) has decimated its final dividend with a cut from 7.2p to 0.6p meaning that 2015 total dividends have halved from 11.9p to 5.7p. Earnings per share are down 52% from 23.7p to 11.3p. The disastrous performance is all due to severe market deterioration and believe it or not, difficult regulatory challenges.
As on every bad day, there is some good news and of course it comes from the property sector, where else? Unite Group (UTG) which now has 46,000 operational student beds is raising its full year dividend by 34% to15p after profit before tax soared from 108.4m. to 388.4m and earnings per share rose by 66%
Croda International (CRDA) also delivers good news with record sales and pre tax profits. The full year dividend is being increased by 5.3% in addition to which a special dividend of 100p has already been paid. The company made strong progress, driven by innovation and by sales growth in all four divisions and in all its geographical regions.
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