UK 20:58 Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from ShareProphets). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
The latest shocking revelations from Tom Winnifrith (HERE) made it clear that EFH has indeed dumped all of the 2.25 million shares transferred to it by Cloudbuy Chairman Mr Ronald Duncan. There are serious implications for Optimal Payments (OPAY) and its forthcoming rights issue, as well as the acquisition classed as a reverse takeover announced earlier this week.
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Comments
Don
Mr Somerville, You really are flogging a dead horse now. If EFH have sold these shares it just means they will have to buy them back before the 14th of April so that Mr Leonoff can participate in the rights issue.
nigel somerville
Don – I can’t see any reason why EFH would have to buy the shares back (assuming they’ve sold them) until they have to settle up with Mr Leonoff at the end of his deal with them. The rights issue shares referred to arise from Mr Leonoff’s remaining holding, not from the EFH shares.
The point is that the rules say that Mr Leonoff has to declare an interest in 1.5m shares he has sold, has no enforceable commitment to buy back and which (if EFH has followed the same model as with CBUY) have since been sold on to someone else. Since there is no mention of the rights shares re the 1.5m shares in which Mr Leonoff supposedly has an interest, might we assume that those shares indeed have long since been dumped? Yet Mr Leonoff has to tell investors that he retains an interest in them, as if he owns them still. This is what has gone into the admission document and I would argue that it is misleading.
I can’t at this stage even claim that Mr Leonoff being dishonest in some way – it seems to be just the way the rules are being applied by the regulators (or, at least, the regulators appear happy to accept it). But this whole EFH thing makes a mockery of the disclosure rules.
I have pointed to the illogicality of the way the rules appear to apply at the moment. It is complete nonsense as far as I can see, and offers no transparency at all. That is the problem.
drunken sailor
Don,
Please point out the clause in the EFH contract with Joel that says that. EFH have an obligation to give Joel his shares back at the end of the period, only if there has been no default along the way and Joel pays for them.
Will EFH still be around as a company at the end of the period? Or will Joel be trying to pay a bankrupt company money to get his shares back?
DUCK AND DIVE
I have some sympathy for directors as they can’t sell any shares without being hung, drawn and quartered by PIs who can and do top slice to bank profits whenever they see a good opportunity. But this doesn’t justify deception.
Directors should be able to sell some shares without causing panic in the market and I think the regs should change to allow all directors to sell up to 20% of their holding in any financial year without issuing an RNS, their only obligation being to publish their updated holding in the annual report.
drunken sailor
Nigel,
If current pre ex rights price holds then Joel’s sale of his rights would more than fund his take up of rights and leave him holding a nice profit from the deal, he would not be putting in any of his own money at all.