Thanks to Winnileaks I now have in my possession a letter sent to the directors of Oxford Cannabinoid (OCTP) by holders of c8% of the equity demanding that an EGM be held to sack the entire board. Natch Oxford has yet to tell investors of this via an RNS so let me bring you the highlights

Of course this is good news for UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) though it does not change the elephant in the room, that is to say the looming cash crisis.  Already this company has insufficiet cash to meet its liabilities and commitments and each day it burns another £5,000 to £10,000.  The share price reaction today, a gain of 29% to 0.1475p is, thus, wholly unwarranted. The news is a positive but not that much of a positive.

Even by the standards of other paid for interviewers, Proactive’s Katie Pilbeam is in a class of her own, making Juston the Clown seem like Jeremy Paxman on Steroids.This week she met up with Harry Adams of Kefi (KEFI) where I am a loyal shareholder and expect great things. But , suffice to say, Harry was not exactly sweating like Prince Andrew as he dealt with Katie’s quizzing. Enjoy.

Are shares in Hurricane Energy (HUR) overvalued at 7p,amarket cap of £141 million. On fundamentals, you bet. But…is it a stock to short. I asked the question to the Professional Northerner Bear, Waseem Shakoor whose expertise includes the study of small oil plays. Waseem says:

Shield Therapeutics (STX) has the status Omega Diagnostics (ODX) once had as a darling of the Bulletin Board savants. And like Omega was this company is heading for a cash crisis and its shares will tank by 80%. Though this will enrage a shareholder base with the collective IQ of a cheese sandwich, the shares are a stand out short at 25.5p with a 5.5p target.  Chaps and gals ,before you start the hate attacks on me learn from the Omega debacle HERE. Now as to why Shield shares will collapse, here’s why.

Is it time for me to sell my (extremely small) NatWest Group (NWG) shareholding? The last time I wrote about the stock in August 2020 with the mad world of stimulus and ultra-low interest rates – and despite the government’s still 60%+ shareholding in NatWest then - I thought the sector was cheap. Since then the shares have approximately doubled to their current just shy of 235p level. So time to sell the NatWest holding or not?

On 4 February, as Grant Thorton’s resignation as auditor to DX Group (DX.) because of corporate malpractice was announced, the company said that “The Board intends to provide further commentary to shareholders on the Reasons and to provide an update on the progress made with the Inquiry. Further updates will be made in due course.” In fact it seems that its intent is not to tell folks what is going on but to stop folks knowing what great corporate sin has occurred.  DX has written to its shareholders enclosing Grant Thornton’s resignation letter as you can see below.

There was good news this morning for shareholders in AIM-listed Ariana Resources (AAU) as it confirmed dates for the second tranche of its special dividend. As a loyal shareholder, I am looking forward to topping up my supplies of Ouzo o the proceeds.

Hello Share Breakers. Recently, I suggested Primary Health Properties (PHP) was worth a look. Well, the full year results are out and show that underlying net profit improved by 13.8% to £83 million. The company has delivered reliable growth for the last 25 years and with the increasing demand for health services, it’s easy to see how profits will continue the upward path.

Provider of business technology jargon(oops) an “intelligent operations platform for the deskless worker”, Checkit plc (CKT) has announced a trading update including “the group delivered bookings growth of 95%… Cash at 31 January 2022 was £24.2m (31 January 2021: £11.5m)… The board remains confident in the significant opportunities presented by the growing deskless worker industry”. So what of a share price of 46p, down from 66p reached last year?…

AIM-listed Ariana Resources (AAU) has released details of Gold discovered at the Klirou sector of the Magellan project in Cyprus, owned by 50% investee Venus Minerals which is itself set to list in London.

Institutional investors, retail investors and myself laid into Andrew Piggy Austin at Kistos (KIST) when the company announced a “Value Creation Plan” which would have created no value for the company but simply transferred up to £25 million each from ordinary shareholders to Piggy and two of his fellow fat cats. But at least one commentator saw nothing wrong in the scheme and has rushed to tell lies to defend it.  Step forward Fat Bastard.

I want to be 100% transparent with you so I explain why, as of 8 AM today, Peter is no longer a member of this parish after apologising for yesterday’s poor sound quality for which there was a good reason. I look at two shocking economic statistics and what they mean. I then cover: SkinBiotherapeutics (SBTX), Bluebird Merchant Ventures (BMV),  AEX Gold (AEXG), Novacyt (NCYT), Avacta (AVCT) and Cake Box (CBOX). 

Previously writing on John Menzies plc (MNZS) I noted possible offeror trying again… though only with a reiterated price. That was of 510p per share and I considered ‘NAS is unlikely to get anywhere with its latest engagement attempt there. The shareholdings in John Menzies are also disparate, with even the top shareholder having a less than 7% stake, and with the current vociferous opposition by the John Menzies board, a deal at the currently suggested level looks difficult’. Today from possible offeror NAS, “Statement re Acquisition of Shares in John Menzies”…

Last October I observed that Reckitt Benckiser (RKT) ‘without working hard offers the scope for a £60-70 share price plus picking up a dividend’. In short a holding in the ‘home to the world’s best loved and trusted hygiene, health and nutrition brands’ group theoretically for FY22 is probably over ten times more interesting than government bonds or money in the bank. How many times a month do you – or someone in your household – use Finish, Dettol, Air Wick, Nurofen, Vanish, Harpic, Calgon or Durex products? My guess is more than once. So what about the shares today post the group’s full year numbers publication?

Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI) has made a Tulu Kapi gold project (TKGM) update including that “the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines has allowed until 8 July 2022 for full project financing and launch commitments to be achieved”. So what of a share price still around 0.70p?

One of the best things about not being an institutional fund manager (in my case for nearly nine years now) is being able to manage your own pension fund. One of the first shares that I purchased after switching all of my corporate pension fund away from the terribly boring investment structure that used to run it was Randgold Resources. The west and central Africa gold mining business had already been one of my top institutional holdings for about six years at that point although – if I recall – most other people thought I was a lunatic buying it, especially when there was a bit of political excitement in places such as Mali and the DRC. It was much better than buying an index fund then and that good run continued before it culminated with the company leaving the FTSE 100 index…as it had been purchased by the Canadian giant Barrick Gold (NYSE – GOLD). Very sensibly the Canadians asked the Randgold management team to run the whole business, so I took the shares rather than cash, which brings us four years later to today and full year 2021 numbers…

Given the hysteria surrounding the situation in Ukraine over the weekend, the falls in Western-listed Russian names were relatively muted with most being down low single digit percentages on Monday. The exception to this appeared to be FTSE 100 constituent Evraz plc (EVR), the steel producer and coal miner with major operations in Russia and Ukraine. The stock which had closed on Friday at 444p opened at 285p, showing a decline of 159p or 35%. The press was quick to latch on to this “carnage”:

Hello Share Turners. As we on this spiffing website are a discerning bunch, there’s a high probability you’re familiar with ‘Scandinoir’. That’s the hard hitting crime TV we can watch from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. I’m a huge fan, which leads me to look at AEX Gold (AEXG). This mining outfit has a big cheese from Iceland and operates in icy Greenland. And it’s been commended from time to time by Steve and Tom.

Franchise Brands (FRAN) and Filta Group (FLTA) “are pleased to announce that they have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended all share offer by Franchise Brands for Filta”. However, shares in both are currently down on the news, so what’s the story?…