Photo Article: PureCircle - doing the stevia taste test

It may surprise you but I have not had an alcoholic drink all week. I have just been too tired to hit the ouzo which will please my GP greatly. It is skimmed milk for me. But last night as I wandered to the kiosk to buy that milk I noticed something else in the fridge: Green Cola. It turns out this is like Cola light but uses Stevia as its sugar substitute. I do not know if this is Purecircle's (PURE) stevia as there are many folks in this game but I thought it was worth a taste test anyway.

Purecircle. Moving in the Right Direction - DOWN!

I have never been a fan of Purecircle (PURE), particularly in 2012/13 when its shares rose six-fold from £1 to £6 on hugely overblown dreams of the potential of its plant based sweetener product to replace sugar and cure America of its obesity problem.

Purecircle gets Curiouser and Curiouser

Last year Purecircle (PURE) earned $4 million. Since then it has lost its finance director, its chief operating officer, its broker and its auditor. There has also been no shortage of insider selling. Its market capitalization? £555 million. Welcome to the whacky world of Purecircle, purveyors of stevia, a plant-based sugar substitute.

PureCircle (#PURE) – Chief Operating Officer walks “to pursue a non-conflicting business opportunity”

PureCircle (#PURE) COO walks - company says amicable & orderly

#PURE Circle – FY16 “net profit” to be up - to $15m, though net debt also up – to $51m

PureCircle (#PURE) - probs with US customs, hopes to resolve soon but could impact FY result

Bad 24 hours for Mirabaud, its "best" client Phorm goes bust now fired by Purecircle (#PURE)

PureCircle (#PURE) -bullish FY Trading update, will meet forecasts

Purecircle, A Mad Valuation for an Unsuccessful Commodity Play with an Awful Track Record - sell

Readers may recall that my nap bear for 2014 was Purecircle (PURE), the natural sweetener company, at 610p. It ended the year at 510p and was also my main bear tip for 2015. It finished last year at 410p for a 33% decline in two years. Not bad but nothing spectacular.

Purecircle (#PURE) upbeat H1 Trading statement - all metrics ahead

Purecircle (#PURE) H1 Trading statement - says on track but numbers will be H2 weighted

Lucian Miers share tips of the year Number 1 – Short Purecircle

I last wrote about Purecircle (PURE) in March and predicted that 2014 would be the year for the big collapse.  I was wrong: the permascam that is Purecircle has remained rock solid while all around it our favourite bear trades have borne fruit.  Indeed, for the price of Purecircle  (£940 million) you could now buy Quindell. Gulf Keystone Petroleum, and Globo combined and still have change left for Iofina.

PureCircle (#PURE) increases placement at £5.50 by 2.5m shares to 27.5m

Purecircle: The Last Shoe Yet To Drop?

In the last two years my seven most covered bear selections have been: Gulf Keystone (GKP), Iofina (IOF), Cupid (CUP), Quindell (QPP), Globo (GBO) Avanti(AVN) and Purecircle (PURE). With the exception of Purecircle, the other six are all firm retail favourites and I often wonder what it is that draws the private punter like a flame-bound moth to such eminently shortable stocks. One can highlight various useful themes but all seem to throw up exceptions – modestly I point oiut these have all bar one (so far) been great short calls by my good self.

PureCircle - the most obvious short in London

Investors of all types often fall into trap of the following mistaken logic:  Thing A is going to be huge. Company B is involved in Thing A, therefore the shares of Company B are a buy. Hence with Tanfield (LSE:TAN) – at 15p worth £20 million, a former stock market darling:  Electric vehicles are the thing of the future. Tanfield make electric vehicles. Etc.  I warned recently about Tanfield and note that it admitted last week that its investment in Smiths Electric vehicles is probably worthless.  It happens all the time.  But it’s fun while it lasts. 

Purecircle – new revelations: my nap short for 2014

Back in November I suggested that the share price of Purecircle (PURE) might be ready to unravel, citing mainly its whopping inventory levels and its inability to generate cash or profits from a story (natural  stevia-based sweeteners) that was beginning to get a bit long in the tooth. Then the shares were 420p. 

Lucian Miers shares to short tips of the year 2014 Number 1 – PureCircle

The share tips of the year for 2014 from HotStockRockets is delayed until tomorrow – instead, the Bard of the Boleyn, infamous short seller Lucian Miers has returned from Scotland and has revealed exclusively to his Nifty Fifty colleague Tom Winnifrith his FIVE tips of the year to short, to sell as he predicts disaster ahead. Number 1 is Purecircle (PURE).

Purecircle is an accident waiting to happen & Champagne Competition

I have taken Quindell Portfolio (QPP) off my “accident waiting to happen” list as it is now in the slow motion car crash category after a set of prelims that contained some very strange items, followed by two obfuscatory “clarification” statements.