Show me the money, AIM-listed Vast Resources (VAST)! Eight days ago at 3pm the company slipped a small statement with regard to its long-awaited death spiral financing first announced way back on 1 October 2019 into its no-one-is-watching o’clock Interims to October 2019……and we’ve heard nothing since. Is the deal off? What is the problem? Was there ever a deal? Has the lender got the cash?

There is no answer to the question as to whether AIM-listed Catenae Innovation (CTEA) was trading whilst insolvent, as posed here. But what we do know is that the fat lady has finished her warm-up and is coming on stage: we learnt at 1.20pm on a Friday afternoon (AKA no-one-is-watching o’clock) that there is still no sign of the rescue bail-out funding hoped for on 11 January. And Catenae isn’t even sure whether the funds it hopes for will be in the form of equity or debt even if it does arrive. It doesn’t sound as though discussions have advanced very far, does it?

Hello Share  Peekers.  Lithium, as my sharp-witted colleague Gary Newman observes, is not that rare a metal. Which has made me wary of buying shares in lithium miners and explorers. Ah, yes, you say, but lithium batteries are needed for the new electric cars. Not to mention the ubiquitous phones, laptops, tablets, electric bikes and all that jive. 

My training for the Woodlarks 34 mile walk is going okay. This weekend I will do eight miles up and down Moel Famau twice.  Come on: start sponsoring me please HERE. But, as Brokerman Dan kindly points out, the walk would be easier for me if I was not carrying two or three stone of surplus fat along with me. He is, I fear, for once, correct. So …

I start with a lecture for Graham Neary. then I look again at Jim Mellon's Agrinomics (ASPI) after today's placing. I explian why I scratch again at the sore that is Versarien (VRS), look at Finablr (FIN), LightwaveRF (LWRF) and the next Chris Akers spoof Dev Clever (DEV)

Versarien (VRS) insists that it has one full time employee in the United States, a Mr Brian Berney. But does it?

ShareSoc wants your money. Will you make a donation of £500, £100, £10 or whatever you can afford or will you join for £45? Er No give the cash to Woodlarks instead. But the appeal comes at the bottom of news that ShareSoc has launched the ShareSoc Sirius Shareholder Group to provide whatever support it can to 85,000 investors in this company.  The appeal is disingenuous at two levels.

The job of a bank boss is very simple. It is to lend money to folks who have a good chance of paying it back so that shareholders see a net return, the bank stays profitable and staff keep their jobs.  It is not to change society. No doubt RBS boss Alison Rose will be praised for risking £1 billion on ultra-woke virtue signalling. MBE, Member of the House of Lords, it all looks more likely but this is folly.

This week private investors seem to be very excited about shares in a company called 7digital (7DIG) and the share price has rocketed, but at this stage I’m finding it hard to see how a rise of this magnitude is justified or sustainable.

The par value of Plutus Powergen (PPG) shares is 0.1p. The shares now trade at 0.08-0.09p making it almost impossible for this £700,000 capitalised worthless piece of crap to get a bailout placing away which begs the question of how Nomad Allenby, how on earth did it verify the last RNS?

KEFI Minerals (KEFI) “is pleased to announce that the initial drilling programme at the company's Hawiah prospect in Saudi Arabia has demonstrated the continuous presence of massive sulphides directly below 4km of the gossanous Hawiah ridgeline”…

Hello, Share Scrunchers. Though Gear4music (G4M) is a horrible name, I did like the cut of this AIM company’s jib and bought the shares after what I thought was an unfair decline. Sadly they plunged further. But I was gratified to see the other day that they had begun recovery and my holding showing a 10% profit. Now comes more good news...

ADVFN (AFN) sister company Online BlockChain (OBC) shares a Nomad in Roland "fatty" Cornish. If you read the 2019 accounts you will be squealing with laughter yet the shares have rocketed 58% today. Why? No doubt Roland is on the ball and a statement will be forthcoming. I look at the madness at Davos, signs of peak bull market insanity and at the news from Westminster Gtroup (WSG) chaired by repellent pig The Right Honourable Tony Baldry of 3DM infamy.

Ariana Resources (AAU) has updated including MD Kerim Sener emphasising results which “demonstrate that the sampled areas of outcropping mineralised jasperoid are typically higher grade than the overall resource. Some of these results are exceptional, such as 18.2m @ 5.03 g/t Au, suggesting that there is an opportunity to identify several rich zones of structurally-controlled mineralisation within the orebody as a whole, and that these higher-grade areas are likely to be encountered from surface to a depth of 10-20m below surface”…

A “Trading Statement” from 'Integrated Space Management Software' company Smartspace Software (SMRT) commences “in its interim statement, published in October 2019, the company noted its expectation that the year would be second-half weighted whilst also highlighting the unpredictability of the group's enterprise business”… Uh oh…

Thanks to Winnileaks I now have in my possession a damning email sent by London’s worst Nomad, the restauranteurs saviour, Mr Roland “fatty” Cornish to his client ADVFN (AFN) advising it to take a course of action in direct breach of AIM Rules. I do not blame ADVFN for this at all but surely Fatty needs to be given an almighty bollocking by AIM Regulation for his latest crime?

This morning we were treated to an RNS Reach from AIM-listed and surely running out of cash Yu Group (YU.). We are told that it has agreed the commercials for its new purpose-built office facility in Leicester describing it at a state of the art sales and innovations office to house growing sales, marketing and product teams. Well, woopiedoo! But how will Yu pay for it?

Two days ago Versarien (VRS) was forced by AIM Regulation, following a complaint by me, to ‘fess up that its much vaunted US “hub” was in fact an empty serviced office where nobody works. But in that ‘fess up RNS it made another claim which may or may not have been verified by the hapless Nomad, Bobbie Hilliam of Quindell infamy, now working at Canaccord. Thus, I have again written to AIM Regulation as you can see below.

Shares in self-styled “the premier technology solutions provider to leisure, entertainment, hospitality, attractions and cultural markets”, accesso Technology Group (ASCO) were already down from circa 3000p reached in 2018 and more than 1000p as recently as August to 445p – but are currently down further to around 350p on the back of “End of Formal Sale Process and Trading Update” and “Intended Changes to Board Composition” announcements…

I have written a couple of times on Hotel Chocolat (HOTC), most recently back in September when I loved-up the strategy and style...but struggled to get excited at the prevailing share price valuation. Back then I hoped for a pullback to create a buying opportunity at or below 325p a share...but this morning the shares are a little over a quid above this level. Generally the tone of the update for the 13-week and 26-week periods to the end of December reads well…