UK 21:28 Saturday, 7 November 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from ShareProphets). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Last year Optimal Payments (OPAY) was forced to come (semi) clean over a loan package between its CEO, Mr Joel Leonoff, and Equities First Holdings LLC (EFH). Optimal originally told that market on 1 April 2014 that Mr Leonoff had pledged 1.5 million shares in the company as collateral for a loan of approx. £4m, but failed to mention a few details such as the non-recourse nature of the package and that EFH was free just to dump the stock into the market. This did not become clear until it was exposed on ShareProphets last autumn and resulted in a number of clarifications from Optimal, along with AIM-listed Igas (IGAS), Cloudbuy (CBUY), Quindell (QPP), IQE (IQE) and Angle (AGL).
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Comments
its me
The shares are SOLD into the market PRIOR to the RNS announcing the loan facility. Its a way of Directors selling down their holding without smashing the share price. The 80% for three days and margin call points are all fluff to give the contract an air of credibility.
DUCK AND DIVE
OPAY was one of my 1000 percenters (© Chris Oil) when I sold out last year so please keep on their case and I might be able to re-buy at sub-50p since it isn’t a POS stock like most of the other EFH players.
Struggling to see the connection with Greece though.
nigel somerville
D&D – connection with Greece is indirect in that markets have been a bit twitchy of late (also re China). My point is that a bad outcome to this w/e negotiations could send the markets lower and with both OPAY and CBUY within spitting distance of where we think EFH margin calls lie it could be enough to pull the trigger.
OPAY has delivered good returns as you point out, but not since the EFH thing broke. I daresay there is much to deliver in the wake of a string of acquisitions and it could all come good in time. What I disliked so much was the manner in disclosure of details had to be dragged out of them. AIM rules are clear and I don’t think, still, that all has been revealed as it should be. Others have been more forthcoming – AGL and CBUY much more open (once outed)
Its Me – a great way of hedging the risk of owning shares in a company you run, as I seem to recall!