After yesterday’s unconvincing statement re the share price movement, this morning it got worse for Optimal as the Telegraph’s Questor column today said sell – see HERE. Perhaps Questor has learned a thing or two from reading ShareProphets!
From the moment Optimal payments (OPAY) announced that its CFO was standing down last Friday morning the shares have been sliding. That just happened to have coincided with questions being raised here on ShareProphets. Following a second double-digit slide yesterday, Optimal produced the following RNS:
On Friday AIM Cesspit listed Optimal Payments (OPAY) announced the departure of its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and director, Mr Keith Butcher – one of just two executive directors on the board. As discussed HERE he had been selling down his holding at above the current share price earlier in the year. The news saw the shares fall an impressive 12.9%.
Taking a look at Optimal Payments (OPAY) 2013 Annual Report has been an interesting experience. Having looked at the remuneration of Andrew Austin at IGas (IGAS) – which looked generous to a fault – I wondered what sort of package Mr Joel Leonoff might be on. I have thus far clocked up no less than seven different routes by which Optimal has been rewarding Mr Leonoff. Now I have no quibble with top-notch work getting suitably rewarded - don’t get me wrong. But the value of his packages does seem to me to be right up there with the best of the snouts-in-the-trough merchants. But first, a big fat porkie pie Gotcha!
With IGas (IGAS) seemingly having to issue re-clarifications every few days (and there will be more I fancy…) we turn once again to Optimal payments (OPAY_. We have already forced out two clarifications (after hours Fri 15 Nov and pre-market Mon 17 Nov buried in a trading statement). It is striking that of the six plcs caught up in the EFH scandal, three have come fairly clean – notably Angle (AGL), but Cloudbuy (CBUY) and Quindell (QPP) have revealed much. IQE (IQE) has been fairly forthcoming too. And then there are IGAS and Optimal, who are having information dragged out of them only with the greatest of reluctance. For those two companies, our rope – like their shareholders – is long and strong.
Today, Optimal payments dished out an upbeat Trading Statement. I’m sure the company is doing just fine, but we have been asking questions about the Equities First Holdings (EFH) deal entered into by its CEO. And buried in the statement came this nugget from CEO Mr Joel Leonoff:
Joel Leonoff, the CEO of Optimal Payments (OPAY) misled investors by selling shares (i.e. transferring title and getting cash) to the hoods at Equities First Holdings LLC. That should be a hanging offence. But worse still he made the transfer when Optimal Payments was in a closed period and so when no directors should trade. Do AIM Rules mean nothing or will AIM regulation Publicly censure Joel or, even better since this is a double offence, force him to stand down at once. I have written a letter to AIM Regulation on this matter.
On Friday, following revelations on this website HERE, Optimal Payments (OPAY) released an RNS which was misleading regarding how its CEO had dumped shares in this fine company. We are helpful fellows and have thus started the ShareProphets Translation service in which we offer up what the RNS SHOULD have looked like.
Yesterday I wondered aloud whether Optimal Payments (OPAY) was going to be the sixth company in the EFH scandal. I was right on the money. The shares fell pretty much through the day, dropping 22% at the close – yet there was no news. All day long. Then after the market had closed, at twenty-one minutes past five GMT on Friday evening (no-one is watching o’clock, local time) out came this statement:
With a very big hat tip to ‘ROB’ who posted a comment on my article “Equities First and a cancer at the heart of the AIM Cesspit” I bring you Optimal Payments (OPAY) which is, according to ADVFN, a £668 million enterprise trading on the AIM Cesspit. I have to say that I have not the slightest clue what this company does, but that is not the point.
The uber-prostitute of the equity research world, commissioned researcher Edison has published a piece of PR puffery, sorry I meant detailed research note claiming that the 446p valuation of its client Optimal Payments (OPAY) can be justified. Yeah…right.
Optimal Payments was one of the AIM stars of the H2 2012 period, with the added bonus that the price action was generally “straightforward” to predict all the way up from below 50p to nearly 200p.
