According to City AM the owners of AIM listed POS bars chain Nightcap (NGHT) are Sarah Willingham and Michael Toxvaerd. Funny, I thought that it was long suffering shareholders who owned this financial abomination where every single person who has ever bought a share and held is now out of the money with the shares trading at just 8p-9p.
On 12 September 2022, as Sarah Willingham’s Nightcap (NGHT) announced the opening of a new bar in glamorous Watford, the former Dragon’s Den star proclaimed “Nightcap now has 37 sites within its estate and a further 19 premises under offer or in legal negotiations for all its brands.” Less than two months later she said that the new openings programme was on hold. What changed? It is all to do with “Project pound.”
I noted yesterday how the bars chain Nightcap (NGHT) has had to halt its planned rollout because of the cash crisis it faces. In the year to July 3 2022, on sales of c£35 million it reported a pre-tax profit of just £238,000 and the operating cashburn was a stonking £7 million. But boss Sarah Willingham described the year as “rewarding and fun”. Just how Rewarding and fun? You will be horrified…
Dragon’s Den “star” La Willingham tells shareholders in Nightcap (NGHT) that for her the past year has been “eventful, fun and, at all times, rewarding”. With her bonus scheme and that for her husband Michael Toxic, that may be true for her family. The shares listed at 10p, peak ramped at 33.5p and the last placing was at 23p. The shares are now just 9p-10p after today’s dire results. So anyone who has ever bought a share in this company since its January 2021 listing and who still holds is now out of the money. Do mug punters in Willingham's vanity PLC regard this experience as “fun and rewarding?” It will only get worse for them.
Nightcap (NGHT), the bars chain floated in a deal to save face for Dragon’s Den star, the ghastly Sarah Willingham, has a curious period end 27th June and December. I have previously noted how this allows the company to mislead investors, as its period-end balance sheet will always include a full month’s cash inflow, but not the final month's wages.
Dragon’s Den star, Sarah Willingham, cannot contain her excitement as she gushes about “further positive trading” in a Q3 statement, out today. She is, however, a bit shy on the record cashburn and looming cash crisis at Nightcap (NGHT), which means another bailout placing is imminent.
It is now ten days since I put 1 simple question to Nightcap (NGHT) the bars chain run by Dragon’s Den Star Sarah Willingham and her husband Michael Toxic which is lurching towards a cash crisis. And guess what: no answer!
Like all piss poor companies, in the end NightCap (NGHT) will run out of other folks’ cash. But there are also massive corporate governance red flags to address. In my article of Saturday 20 November 2021, A GROWING SCANDAL: Sarah Willingham’s Nightcap: questions for the independent non executives and the auditors, I focused on two payments made to Sarah and her husband Michael Willingham-Toxvaerd being:
We shall come to the matter of the £167,500 and other ESG red flags later, for now let’s focus on interims from NightCap (NGHT) which show very clearly that a cash crisis is imminent. The half year is to 26 December. That means you get a full month’s takings in what is the busiest month but since you don’t pay suppliers for at least 30 days and avoid 5 days of largely income free costs, the balance sheet flatters to deceive. I have asked NightCap on what day it pays its staff but so far it has not responded. I wonder why. Even with the bodges the numbers are dire.
AIM sewer posterboy NightCap (NGHT) still has massive questions to answer over misuse of shareholders cash by CEO Sarah Willingham and her husband Michael Toxic. But there is a another elephant in the room: how it is misleading investors as to just how poor its underlying trading position is. This matters as we head rapidly towards the next bailout placing.
