Thanks Tapdancer for the informed comment.It helps clear the...

First 7 Last

Share
Profile

Follow
debdeb

228 Posts.

1

08/07/17

07:09

Post #: 25741626
Share

Originally posted by Tapdancer ↑

The Top 20 share register, comprising mostly directors' interests, employees and a handful of value investors, had hardly changed since delisting from the Newcastle Stock Exchange about a decade ago.

PTB has been relatively illiquid over this period. Steve Ferris has been wanting to exit or reduce exposure for a while; Keybridge - even before the change in control - have been waiting patiently to recover some value ever since they'd helped finance a deal for the company years back; River Capital got quite a good exit price at the time; value hunter Troy Harry for all we know may have thought this too is a good time to reinvest capital gains elsewhere.

There was agitation for change a couple of years back in an effort to improve the share price. Instead of taking on risk to achieve this, the sensible hands at PTB held sway in taking the low-risk high return path that we're now seeing, sticking to their knitting with forays into the U.S. and connections with Japanese financiers. These latest transactions now shed much more light on Asir and Nek's involvement.

If one looks at their history, financing for growth under the handcuffs of their banker has been the real sticking point. But now they have two new major regional growth opportunities, and funds to increase operational efficiencies (e.g. test cell).

With Steve Smith taking over the reigns, nothing feels sinister to me. One should soon see decent volume and margin growth, and I don't think it's any coincidence the next wave of big investors is getting set.

I think the unusual enthusiasm of late ("we're excited", "understatement to say we're optimistic") coming from what is ordinarily a conservative, shareholder friendly company, should not be ignored. The risk to me is clearly on the upside.

Expand

Thanks Tapdancer for the informed comment.It helps clear the mist re:latest announcement.

PTB Price at posting: 53.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
1 Upvote

0 Great analysis

Reply