Donatron
22 Aug 2018
Ownership It’s interesting as well to highlight the fact that the VLS website discloses all shareholdings above 3%, irrespective of the 5% exemption. Hargreaves Lansdown (4.91%) are therefore shown on the VLS website but this has never needed to be disclosed via RNS. If the theory about lots of new investors is correct, then we may find out more from the next update to the VLS website than we do from the RNSs.
Donatron
22 Aug 2018
Ownership If that really is it then here’s what would have needed to happen: Hargreaves Lansdown still aren’t reportable. Totally plausible. They were already below 5%, which I have now learned is the level at which a fund manager has to notify the market about their holding. Their previous shareholding was around 16.2m (based on 4.91% of 330m shares at [link] The new notifiable threshold is 5% of 390m shares = 19.5m shares. Invesco’s share change isn’t reportable Again plausible, but a little surprising. Their previous shareholding was around 23.6m (based on 7.14% of 330m shares at [link] They could therefore remain above the 19.5m threshold calculated above without having to report. Personally I would have assumed that they had been unloading throughout the year, so this is surprising. I think you’re probably right therefore. The 3% threshold does still apply for investors that are not fund managers, so their reportable threshold is 11.7m (3% of 390m) and the threshold for fund managers is 19.5m, so there would have to be a minimum of 4 fund managers/6 non-fund managers/a mixture of the two.
Mikemine
22 Aug 2018
Ownership I think its been enough time for all the holdings notifications to be in and we’ve heard no news of new or increased holdings. Given that the remaining substantial holders only represented just over 20% of share capital I find it odd that 60 mn shares have not been accounted for. I can only think that the shares have bean very thinly spread.
investmaster
21 Aug 2018
Interesting read I would not be surprised to see a tie up with Fulcrum in some form or another. In the meantime I think there may be some news on the strategic investor/s in the next few weeks.
spannermonkey
20 Aug 2018
Interesting read I do wonder if Fulcrum will enter the UK market and muscle in on the VLS plan. I’m not sure that would be very helpful for VLS as clearly Fulcrum are more advanced in this space, particularly with their blue chip investors.
JAMMY
17 Aug 2018
Interesting read Fulcrum covers also the lower capacity range since the plant under construction will be 800 bpd. The Natchez plant will be 1400 bpd. Both Fulcrum and Velocys are competing in the same capacity range.
Mikemine
17 Aug 2018
Interesting read They plan to process 12K bpd which is not the market VLS is targeting. Fulcrum can handle larger amounts than VLS so is said but VLS is better placed to handle smaller amounts. Might be appealing to Fulcrum to offer a range of capacity options. Bid anyone?
DaveHughes
17 Aug 2018
Ownership Isn’t it quite likely to be De Nora?
spannermonkey
17 Aug 2018
Interesting read Andeavor is partnering with Fuclrum…co-incidence? [link]
spannermonkey
17 Aug 2018
Interesting read Andeavor is partnering with Fuclrum…co-incidence? [link]
Donatron
17 Aug 2018
Interesting read Interesting - shame they aren’t using VLS’ tech though!
Donatron
17 Aug 2018
Ownership It’s a nice theory, but were that the case then the placing would have likely been at a premium to the share price at the time it was announced. It was actually at a 5% discount (10.5p market price, 10p placing price). If the company didn’t solicit the offer then they wouldn’t do it at a discount, as that erodes shareholder value. Like you say, were someone to try to buy £6m in the open market, the price would have quickly risen to stimulate people to sell. I could see it hitting 15-25p in that kind of scenario. The company would hold all the power in any negotiations, because they could easily walk away if they didn’t like the price. I imagine what happened is that they put some feelers out to some potential investors that have expressed interest in the past and said “do you want to come in at the same price that people were offered in Januaryâ€. We know that since January it’s touched 17p, so to still be able to come in at 10p given all that has been announced since then is a pretty good deal. It doesn’t tick off the people that bought at 10p in January, it’s not hugely discounted (5% is neither here nor there in my previous experience of companies that have done placements) and it gives us an extra £6m in the bank to push forward the various projects.
Donatron
17 Aug 2018
Ownership An interesting article here if you fancy a read: ShareProphets FCA must clampdown on abuses of major shareholding notification rules The procedure for notifying the market about holdings above a certain level in a company is supposed to make everything more transparent, but at times the opposite would appear to be true. I was unaware that fund managers only need to disclose at 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, 50% and 75% and only within four days (rather than two). That is actually quite a big deal, as it means that these funds can quietly sell a huge number of shares while still staying between those thresholds. We only really hear about it when a placing happens, as it causes a jolt in the % shareholdings. It will be very illuminating to see how many of the shares Invesco held in February (23.6m) are still held.
Mikemine
17 Aug 2018
Ownership While we wait I’d like to run this past you. I always thought that, while the Envia situation was unresolved, the timing of the latest fund raise seemed odd. I didn’t think VLS especially needed the money right now and it was bound to upset the Market. So why go to the Market when the SP was under pressure. The answer might be that they didn’t, the market came to them. If a new player wanted a decent stake they would hardly try to buy millions of shares in small batches which would inevitably boost the SP. They would go to VLS and say “Here’s £6mn. Issue some new shares.†VLS is unlikely to have turned it down and it explains why 3 existing shareholders didn’t participate. Remember the SP was sub 10p at the time of the placing and it went through very quickly as though the deal had already been agreed. If notification of new investors comes through it supports the story. I do like a conspiracy theory. You can see i have quite a bit of time on my hands.
Donatron
17 Aug 2018
Ownership The regulated companies in the list above are Lansdowne Partners (already heard), Henderson (already heard), Invesco (awaiting) and Hargreaves Lansdown (awaiting). So we know there will probably be two TR1s just relating to Invesco and Hargreaves Lansdown to describe the change in their holding. There will then be further notifications depending on who else has bought in. Either way, we can expect a number of RNSs in the next few days.
