The trouble with Roger Lawson of ShareSoc is that he is too much of a nice guy. As a keen reader of this web site he has more than enough ammo to really stick it to hapless Neil Woodford, the posterboy of the we must reward failure movement. But in his own way, Lawson has today joined we Woodford Bears with his own attack. He opines and the underline is mine.

Altyn (ALTN) “is pleased to announce that it has now reached an agreement with Kazakh bank, JSC Bank CenterCredit, and as a first step has entered into an unsecured loan agreement for a sum of KZT 350m (approximately USD 950,000)”…

Promotional and retail licensing space company SpaceandPeople (SAL) has announced 2018 results and that “since the end of 2018 we have been awarded a new, multi-year contract with Hammerson in the UK, and our investment in venue development personnel is delivering a good new venues pipeline in the UK” and “as a result of the improved margins and reduced overheads across the two German divisions we are confident they will deliver a positive contribution to group cash flow in 2019”. The shares have currently responded… er, to 12p – more than 17% lower!...

Alba Mineral Resources (ALBA) “is pleased to announce” assay results from the maiden 2018 drilling campaign across its Thule black sands project in Greenland and has followed with a “Brockham Update”…

Notifiable short interest has re-emerged in Majestic Wine (WINE) since the start of 2019 – and now a “Group Transformation Plan”…

So news today that Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) is going all vertically integrated and looking to expand its nascent utility arm by renaming its 2017 purchase of First Utility as Shell Energy and offering new customers a discount on their fuel bills. As part of an ongoing slow shift away from classic fossil fuels, this approach has some merit to it...but it leads to one very obvious question: how is Shell going to make this business even mildly relevant to its business?

Centralisation works until it becomes the problem. The start of EU disintegration - Expansion, maturation, stagnation and collapse...

Hello, Share Fanciers. There’s still time to get a ticket for the Global Group UK Investor Show at Westminster this Saturday. And you might want to leave your armchair to be there - both to find new investments and to be warned about some of your current babies. It’s the biggest show of its kind and I think it’s the greatest...

Yesterday's bearcast explained the massive red flag of Neil Woodford having to sell his crown jewelsd, shares in Imperial Brands. Today, his most devoted follower on the sewer that is Fleet Street, Jeff Prestridge of the Mail on Sunday has, after 30 years of loyally kissing Woodford's arse at least once a fortnight, abandoned ship. The ship once swarmed with parasitic and, often unthinking, rats. Now there is just one left, Hargreaves Lansdown. I explian what this all means. If you enjoyed this, almost 100% profanity free, bearcast, follow a bloke from the Grim North who donated enough to buy a whole house in the welfare safari and support the Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks HERE.

I noted last month that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) really did not help out Sainsbury's (SBRY) with its aim to merge with Asda and push back positively against some of the negative trends it is facing in today's UK food retail market, by asking for lots of store divestments (300 versus the 150 originally offered).  This is why Sainsbury's shares are skulking around a one year low. 

AIM-listed Cloudbuy (CBUY) released its FY18 results this week and they  were truly awful. The company remains dependent on future improvements in trading performance and/or its ability to raise additional finance, in order for it to continue operating for the foreseeable future, revenues are still falling, cashflow (apart from Mr Sella’s loan) is still solidly negative and profits came in at minus £2.2 million. It is grim reading indeed.

The latest report from the world's best known resource investment group, Sprott, explains why now is the time to buy gold shares. Okay author Trey Reik is talking his, or rather Sprott's, book but the case looks a strong one anyway as you can see below.

Last month one of the five had its denouement as AIM-listed Haydale (HAYD) had an emergency bailout  - as long predicted by me -  at only 2p. That left just four. My suspicion was that AIM-listed member of the Filthy Forty, Walcom (WALG) would be next with its head under the guillotine and the news there was only marginally better as death has been postponed to June.

Is there anything better than sitting back and reading a well-written article on a lazy Sunday? Every week ShareProphets features some long form journalism that you'll find of interest. Grab your cuppa and enjoy these five articles. 

Trading in the shares of Cadence Minerals (KDNC) was incredibly volatile last week following two announcements by a company in which it holds an equity position. 

Tom always tells me that I don't really understand our readers, which is bollocks. So, I assume that most ShareProphets readers were all out in London yesterday demanding a new Brexit referendum, right?

In today's bearcast I look at the almost certain death of Debenhams (DEB) and the wider issues in retail. Then I engage in some very detailed Neil Woodford number crunching as we unearth evidence of the severity of his liquidity crisis.  If you enjoyed this, almost, profanity free bearcast, follow a bloke from the Grim North who donated enough to buy a whole house in the welfare safari and support the Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks HERE.

This is good news. Falanx (FLX) has made it clear that it does not need to place again to execute its business plan and to get itself into material profitability. We would hope for a formal trading statement within the next month or so very much confirming this and an improvement in profitability.

Shares in IQE (IQE) are volatile. In the past year they have traded between 136p and 56p and closed yesterday at 68p. The market can often be unforgiving when companies disappoint but in the case of IQE it seems remarkably tolerant…

Union Jack Oil (UJO) “is pleased to announce that it has conditionally raised £1.75 million by way of a placing and subscription, through the issue of a total of 2,333,333,334 new ordinary shares at an issue price of 0.075 pence”…