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.
On 21st December - as all normal folks were not watching - much ramped AIM casino telematics play TrakM8 (TRAK) announced the £9.1 million purchase of Route Monkey Holdings, a transaction which is nonsensical - if one bothers reading Monkey's 2014 accounts - but given that Trak's own shares are ludicrously overvalued who really cares?
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Comments
Simple Moving Avarice
Did you link to the 2013 accounts by mistake?
“Amounts recoverable on contracts” is a standard financial reporting term which crops up when recording PNL for long term contracts. See appendix 3 of SSAP9. It represents the work done on the contract in excess of payments on account.
Tom Winnifrith
SMA
I shall fire darren in the am. Link to be fixed asap. The numbers in the article are 2014
So this is work invoiced but payment not yet collected. The increase in bank debt suggests customers not gagging to pay for it are they?
T
Johan Cruft
Well done TW for getting to the heart of Trak. Good work, but you actually were a bit slow. Why did you not come out with this before. Also you were a bit slow with Globo also. I have the feeling that you are jumping on s*** companies after the suspicions have been raised by others. At the end of the day you are a modern day internet journalist trying to make a crust, and looking and finding and then reporting on suspect companies.
But seeing as Trak is the same area as Quindell, remember all their talk about telematics, you should have been faster to link the 2 together. Even through geography since Shaftesbury and Fareham are actually quite close to each other.
Simple Moving Avarice
Reading between the lines, I’d say they bought Route Monkey for the people rather than the business in its current form. Route Monkey’s website is all about ‘bespoke algorithm creation’ and ‘strategic consultancy’ – in other words a bunch of very clever people who are maybe not that clued up on how best to monetize their skills.
‘Bespoke’ is just about the hardest possible way to make money by writing software. The great thing about software is that you pay the (high) development costs, but then if you can sell the same software to thousands of people (instead of just one client) your gross margin can be nearly 100%.
If Trakm8 have some specific products in the pipeline which need a sophisticated software component these guys might be the quick way to buy a top quality development team. Because the other really difficult thing with software is building a decent team if you need specialised skills.
Buried Treasure
Tom
Just ro clarify, if this had been invoiced and not collected it would by definition be trade receivables.
This is work done but not yet invoiced, i.e. work in progress.
Your conclusions are still thoroughly sound though. Generating operating cash has been difficult, and by all information given up to this point it is likely to remain that way. If there are issues with the earnings, and concerns over its visibility to suppress the multiple, it doesn’t take much working out which way the price will be going.
Tom Winnifrith
Johan
Have you checked when I first penned bearish notes on Globo? Fuck you it was yonks ago. I was getting lawyers letters from this company back in 2014. And had the balls to publish Gabriele when no-one else had
I admit I had not heard of TrakM8 until yesterday. There are a lot of companies out there and I cannot do everything. But am on the case now. If it slumps no doubt the FT will pick up on it at he end and claim all the credit
T
Ian Rhodes
Zak has featured this share several times on this site. Why haven’t you heard of it. Don’t you two talk to each other?
Johan Cruft
Tom,
Keep Calm, I am sure that Trak will head South and no one will need a Telematics device to watch this journey!
Remember Grant Thornton from the Globo days. They gave TRAK a prize a few days ago! Now what colour flag does that earn them?
Surely The Sheriff of Aim should know which were the top performers on this Exchange(AIM) last year?
Globo started it´s downward path in October 2013, I still say you could have been faster!
But overall your doing a great job, I´m a fan and you entertain me!
Love from
Johan
Ed Miller
Johan,
If you can do better than Tom, and do it quicker, then you will certainly have also have my gratitude. Tom and his colleagues have even provided this forum which, if you choose, would allow you to do it very publicly. In the meantime, why not have a pop at AIM Regulation, the London Stock Exchange and the FCA instead of berating a man who does as much as anyone to expose wrong-doing, corruption and fraud on AIM, and does it more courageously than anyone else, including those with deeper pockets, such as the FT? That said, I note and applaud your comments of praise for Tom, and I second them.
Johan Cruft
Ed,
Please don’t be so serious. We are only having a bit of fun. This is AIM, it’s the place to have entertainment.
Whilst I am writing, how about you check out the date when Quindell’s downtrend started and then have a look at the date of when Tom’s first negative article was.
All 3 of these stocks had made stellar returns in a short space of time, those in the know sold them at the top, then the stories spread on the grapevine. People knew.
Perhaps one day some journalist/Website might tell the World to short stocks like these while thry are still in the uptrend. Just imagine how Smart you and me would think this person is then!
Tom is the closest we have at the momento, but don´t forget Gotham(QPP), and the New York outfit(Globo) were the ones that really caused those 2 to die. So far no USA outfit has said anything about TRAK, so Tom is really on his own with this so far. If he gets this one right, it will be a major coup for him.
Have a good weekend
AIM HIGH,AIM LOW!
Johan Cruft