Originally posted by amg63
Hey Iceman, appreciate the well measured response. I have been vocal in the past about my disdain for management's practices and know full well that I was wrong in regards to my faith in them in the past with their 'promises'. This lead me to a very important lesson and that is no matter how great the technology is, if management are sub par so to is the company. So I respectfully disagree with you when saying that communication with management has no bearing on whether to invest or not, IMO it is the single biggest factor right now when deciding whether to invest or not/sell or hold.
Iceman if you stand back and think about your comment in regards to Steve buying in for 200k just to portray confidence it really makes no sense, we don't need to think about the world in which Steve did not buy into OBJ because he already has and multiple times on market.
Lets break this down. Steve was paid $174,189 for the year, yet he has bought more than his entire years remuneration, if you were just trying to portray confidence and didn't believe in the company this makes absolutely no sense. Not only that but he has dedicated his time and effort to a little company in Perth with a market cap that is probably at least 1/3 of his net worth after selling Becca. Why would anyone waste their time if they did not see one hell of an opportunity to create wealth? He has not sold a single share and certainly not at the height of OBJ's share price as was done by management of old along with countless performance shares that should never of been awarded. If that doesn't smell of real confidence then I don't know how else Steve could show his confidence in the company. That is a big part of the reason why I back management and am not blinking even though we sit at 5 year lows.
IMO the way in which they handle bodyguard will determine our riches in the medium term, I really do hope they get this right. P&G will provide us with a solid baseline as royalty rates have been re-negotiated and more products are to be released onto the market. The blue sky opportunity has always laid in bodyguard and bodycare. As bodycare is 5 odd years away bodyguard is going to be a very real opportunity for us to move well beyond 20cents should it be handled in the right manner IMO.
Doesn't anybody do any research nowadays? Have we all been reduced to blindly 'thumbing up' any post that offers the slightest hint of hope by way of another 'imo'-20 cent ramp based on personal conjecture, where the post is fundamentally flawed? I'll try not to be disrespectful amg63 and apologies in advance if you are offended.
Let's try to stick to the facts.
First up, Iceman is correct, as we have had a Hotcopper member that has consistently and vehemently attempted to sway current holders and non-holders alike, for the last decade with regards to personal conversations with 'Management' or 'Glyn', and practically nothing ever came to fruition. This is a true and hard little fact to swallow for all the long-term holders; but true none-the-less, as OBJ's Share-price has declined over the last decade and more so declined drastically over the 5 years and last year and a half.
Second, Steve started on 01/08/2018, which equates to almost a year and a half (not a year).
Third, 'Not only that but he has dedicated his time and effort to a little company in Perth with a market cap that is probably at least 1/3 of his net worth after selling Becca.'. Where to start here? By stating that you believe that OBJ's market cap is only a third of Steve's net worth; you are valuing Steve's net worth @ well over $100 million. You may wish to do alot more research here, as all the publicly available information indicates otherwise for the once wine-maker. As far as 'time and effort' are concerned, you would do well to accept that OBJ for Steven Schapera is a Part-time gig. Steven holds the exact same role of Non-Executive Director @ Invincible Brands, is also a Non-executive Director @ Wild Nutrition Ltd; but his main gig is Founder and CEO of London Labs - Skincare for Hair. I repeat, OBJ is a part-time gig for Steven Schapera where he is involved in at least 4 (four) similar ventures, with London Labs being his advised core interest.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-schapera-0a889b51/
Tony Varano is also part-time for OBJ, as he is based in New York and also the Chairman for London Labs Ltd (Steven's core venture), among other ventures.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoniovarano/
Fourth, 'Why would anyone waste their time if they did not see one hell of an opportunity to create wealth?' Steven is paid handsomely for his part-time gig by way of salary, Director's fees and will also be 'Incentivised to establish and commercialise new opportunities in the FMCG market'. This theoretically could be by way of performance options approved by Shareholders down the track or possibly via the Consultancy Fees, that Glyn often took advantage of, that appear to not require Shareholder approval.
https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20170706/pdf/43kgpvwl8y5g30.pdf
Fifth, the reason Steven 'has not sold a single share' is obviously because OBJ's share-price has declined since the day that Steven started buying OBJ shares. Steven has patience and is also a business man who would not typically sell shares at a loss. Remember Becca: 'When Steve was giving me a more detailed history of his BECCA Cosmetics brand, he noted that there were 5 seperate occasions where BECCA was struggling through it's Research & Development stage. Each time he kept his firm belief in the BECCA brand and even resolved to further financially support the BECCA brand through these challenging times. History attests that his intuition was well founded, as we know BECCA was successfully bought by none other than the esteemed Estee Lauder for more than 230 million. His patience was rewarded.'
https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/agm-today.3824064/page-60?post_id=28743254
And to be clear here in relation to Becca Cosmetics, Becca was actually sold twice. It was first sold to LBP - Luxury Brand Partners in 2012, where it undertook a 'Reinvention' and then Luxury Brand Partners sold Becca to Esteee Lauder in 2016...'In 2012, Rebecca sold Becca Cosmetics to Luxury Brand Partners, but was still a part of the cosmetic group. The brand went through a “reinvention” process, resulting in a massive reduction of products. In 2016, Luxury Brand Partners sold Becca to conglomerate Estée Lauder. Since fall of the same year, Rebecca is no longer affiliated with the company.'
http://belgradepixie.com/2017/11/14/becca-glow-on-the-go-review/
'Mrs Morrice Williams developed the brand in Perth 15 years ago and sold her holding to New York-based company Luxury Brand Partners in 2012 in exchange for shares. It is understood Becca Nominees will make about $40 million from the deal with Estee Lauder. The transaction is likely to result in a small windfall for the other shareholders, who are mostly in Perth and include business people such as John Schaffer, John Bond, Heather Zampatti and Luc Longley.Several Perth investors were stunned yesterday when contacted by The West Australian, claiming they had not heard much from the company in the past few years, with some assuming it had gone bankrupt. Mrs Morrice Williams has long been confident about the brand’s potential.'
https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/cosmetics-queen-hits-270m-sale-jackpot-ng-ya-122044
Luxury Brand Partners (LBP), a leading innovator in beauty, announced the sale of Becca Cosmetics to The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. LBP has been the majority owner of BECCA Cosmetics since 2012.
https://www.modernsalon.com/article...a-cosmetics-to-the-estée-lauder-companies-inc
Luxury Brand Partners have also offloaded ORIBE and PULPRIOT:
https://www.luxurybrandpartners.com/brands/
We often see individual people try to take a little more credit than history affords them, by way of embellishing. Rebecca and Steven both did a marvelous job, but they weren't the only ones that should be credited for Becca's transformation between 2012 to 2016 and they certainly didn't pocket all the money from Estee Lauder.
One aspect I would like to know from OBJ's current BoD is why one of the new Director appointments was not an Executive Director Appointment as promised. We have Steven Schapera - Non-Executive Director. We have Tony Varano - Non-Executive chairman. And we have Cameron Reynolds - Non-Executive Director. Where is the promised 'Executive' Appointment? On 23/05/2017, OBJ announced that the BoD would be bolstered with 'OBJ expects to add to its current three person Board with an Executive Director as well as a Non-executive Director'. Instead Shareholders got all Non-Executive appointments.
https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20170523/pdf/43jfrmyqf9fz3d.pdf
I'm not saying that I think Steven or the new BoD are not the right people to be taking OBJ forward. They may well be. I just hope OBJ Shareholders don't become like some Becca Shareholders who are on record as stating that they hadn't heard anything in years and assumed Becca had gone Bankrupt. Chilling thoughts.
I have been quiet lately as I have just successfully completed the removal of 7 (yes seven) solar keratosis (skin cancer sun spots) from my face, via a very annoyingly painful process of applying a cream called efudix (Fluorouracil cream) to my face...which is a chemo cream. All good now after 3 months healing...thankfully. It was a mini scare and too close to mum passing from a brain tumor for my liking. But all done now.
Collectively, OBJ now have a team that is better than before, so on this front we are moving forward. I continue to be one of the most patient people in our known universe because of OBJ.
Happy festive season to all OBJ Shareholders.
(20min delay)