Michael Edelson, serial director, and amongst other current directorships on the Board of Singer & Friedlander AIM3 VCT plc, has been appointed to the Board of WRN to assist Joe Dwek, current chairman, holder of over 17% of the equity and currently ubderwriting WRN's term loans, in seeking to merge, acquire or reverse WRN into a new business. WRN already has valuable property assets which have Change of Use potential, so the company might readily appeal to a private property company seeking a full listing.
The shares are thinly traded and have already responded to this recent appointment in anticipation that a deal will not be long in coming. The right deal should make this stock motor.

If the budget contains the proposal to allow disused retail and warehouse sites to be used for residential development without the need for planning consent to change the designated use of the site this should benefit Worthington which has been trying for years to do just that with its former textile buildings. Recent interest in the shares would suggest that others recognise this as an asset play. It also has new mgt in the last year - reaching 28p on that news but dwindling since on the absence of any planning consents or other deals being found.

See today's RNS re planning application for 150 -200 residential units at Keithley. OK, so unit values are not going to be huge but then the mkt cap of Worthington is only £1.0m. even at £20k/unit that makes it worth £3-£4m on this site alone. Has to be worth that which implies a 30p-40p sp. over the next 2 months or so.

Ignore post 29. Today's RNS needs to be assessed for its impact first.

A deal at last. Looking good.

fantastic day and expect more blue next week

strong news flow here imminent

Surprised no press comment in Times today.

indeed especially as likely more blue Monday on the continued rerate

Worthington Group PLC announce first half profits of £8.7m

29/08/2014

By Jonathan Davies

Worthington Group PLC has released its Interim Financial Statements for six months ended 31st March 2014, reporting profits of £8.7m.

The £8.7m profit compares to a £5.3m loss in 2012/13. Worthington Group PLC's net asset position is now £5.9m as of 31st March 2014, up from -£3.5m for the 18 month period ended 30th September 2013.

Doug Aware, Chief Executive of Worthington Group PLC, said:
"I am pleased to be able to say that in the period covered by this Interim Report and Accounts the Company has made considerable steps forward.

"We are acquiring substantial assets in a diverse portfolio of industry sectors in the UK and world-wide. We are in advanced discussions with partners in the energy, mining and media sectors and expect to make a number of announcements very soon which will add to revenues in the next six months."

"Worthington Group PLC is close to completing a major oil and gas investment and expect to be able to announce details before the end of September," Doug Aware continued.

"At the time of writing we have reached agreement in principle to acquire a significant interest in an exploration company with exciting prospects in the rare earth sector. We expect to be in a position to make an announcement in relation to this transaction with the next seven days."

Worthington Group's portfolio of acquisitions and pending acquisitions stretches far beyond various aspects of the energy sector, as Doug explained: "We have reached broad agreement in principle to acquire a portfolio of media businesses and negotiations are expected to be completed shortly.

"Finally, we have broadened our legal claims portfolio so that claims in our litigation division now include both UK claims and also international claims with a total claims value of more than £30m. We expect to be able to update shareholders in relation to our claims portfolio shortly."

http://www.freshbusinessthinking.com/news.php?NID=23471&Title=Worthington+Group+PLC+announce+first+half+profits+of+%A38.7m#.VAGpdMlwbqA

Is this a Joke?

lol rob

good news out tomorrow morning - how many times will this bag from here?

https://twitter.com/WorthingtonPLC


Worthington Grp plc @WorthingtonPLC · 4h

Worthington team spending weekend preparing for more news Monday morning! Watch this space

Missed out on this one...but a sharp pullback is bound to come leaving some people with losses....careful....

depends rf - that twitter leak suggests a good news rns today - bbs are buzzing in anticipation - if not out by 8am will be blue - if out and more good news likely be blue again - there is a strong stream of news due here anytime from today as per the rns
gl

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

It is a joke

Wait and see. Someone has bought Dwek's shares. I suspect that his decision to sell has more to do with personal circumstances than any reflection on where the company is headed.

Last Friday the RNS stated that news was expected within 7 days on parts of the forward plan for the company. Today or tomorrow then?

Up 33% today well done to all connections

up again today mitzy and expect more - barx not working this morning seems to have delayed buyers - working now buys coming back in
strong news flow still to come here anytime
gl

WOW! fantastic rns:

Worthington Group plc to expand global legal claims business with acquisition of £43m legal claim.

AND

Where fees paid to verify the claims delivers at least a 50% gross profit margin to Worthington
MOVING

more good news ref rangers
http://www.investegate.co.uk/rangers-int-f-c--plc--rfc-/rns/statement-re--settlement/201409120700104785R/

big news rns imminent - wont be this cheap for long - gla

Ask the CEO

An occasional series of Q&A’s with Doug Ware the Chief Executive of Worthington Group plc



Q. So the Company was restored to trading on the LSE main board about two weeks ago. How’s it gone?

A. Well the restoration has really been the culmination of a great deal of time and hard work by the Worthington team. It’s involved a complete revision of our strategy and our investments. In many ways the restoration was a major achievement, in some ways it’s just the start. I must say it’s been very exciting and a lot of midnight oil has been burned!



Q. The share price shot up in the first few days. Was that expected?

A. Yes it was expected as the company’s prospects have been completely transformed. It will obviously take some time for investors to get used to the new Worthington. We are not a fly by night newbie stock – we’ve been around for many years and we want to be around for many more years to come. We are here to build an international company, and there are few companies which have been on the market for 60 years with Worthington’s heritage.



Q. We notice that shares are down from their peak. What is the reason for that?

A. Two factors are at play. Firstly, when the share price has gone up by almost 1000% there will inevitably be profit taking from shorter term holders but, as the market wakes up to Worthington’s global ambition and pipeline of investments, we expect continuing investor enthusiasm.

The second factor is that actually being an old company we have lots of long term shareholders who, to be frank, have seen the price in the doldrums in recent years prior to the new team’s involvement. Many, understandably, have taken the chance to cash out but most of that appears to now have been absorbed by the market.



Q. You announced a Rare Earth deal. That’s an interesting move. Can you explain how it fits?

A. Yes it is interesting, and part of building a portfolio with the prospect of truly outstanding returns. Rare Earths are fascinating minerals which are used in a whole bunch of things from mobile phones to automobiles. It’s a super-fast growing market partly driven by the growth in technology applications and economic growth particularly in China. Greenland is almost unique in the world having virgin territory still to explore with what geology suggests could be world class potential reserves.
Any mining activity is not about quick revenues but it is about finding opportunities for long term returns. Mining costs are huge and you need deep pockets. We are following a tried and tested investment approach whereby we and our partners are investing in early stage exploration which is relatively in-expensive. Once reserves are proven we will look to exit to one of the big mining groups with deep pockets who will go on to exploit the reserves. If we do find the sort of reserves we are hoping for in this province then an on sale to perhaps a Chinese buyer is likely to result in a return to Worthington shareholders that is a multiple of Worthington’s current market cap.



Q. And what about your litigation portfolio?

A. We think this is really exciting with enormous returns. Briefly it’s a relatively simple business model where the outcome of the claims can only be in most cases: win, lose or settle. The risks and rewards are more clearly defined than in most businesses – i.e. how strong is the case and can the defendant pay? In an increasingly litigious world legal claims can distract claimants however big or small and lead to wasted management time and unplanned costs. By working with us clients are able to cap their costs and time input allowing them to move on with their day to day business. We understand that’s new territory for many investors to follow so we’ll be explain a lot more about litigation funding as an investment sector as we build our portfolio.



Q. How many claims do you expect to have per annum?

A. We would expect to have between ten and twenty claims in the next 12months. As we said, our minimum claim criteria is £5m



Q. What are the chances of success?

A. After screening the claims we receive, which knocks out most of those who come forward, our business model assumes 30% of claims will be successful 30% of claims will be settled and 30% of claims will fail with 10% of claims reaching no particular conclusion. We expect some cases to be settled within a year of our involvement whilst others will take longer.



Q. Your restoration announcement talked about oil and gas. Can you tell us anymore about that?

A. As we have already said we expect to make another announcement before the end of September and perceptive investors will have noted from the announcement that this is likely to involve a major investment.



Q. You also mentioned something about media investments?

A. In today’s world if you don’t have a clear understanding of and interest in modern digital media however persuasive your case is it’s unlikely to be heard. We believe that assembling a portfolio of fast growing media investments will ensure that we are both understood and that clients know that we are open for business. It’s also important while building a portfolio of investments to balance those producing potentially big but medium term investment returns, for example mining and litigation, with those producing predictable short term cash and profits. The media sector traditionally offers good cash flow and good profits from day to day trading as well as of course longer term profits from developing and selling on products.



Q. A lot of smaller investors have been burned by companies issuing shares at a discount. Can you give investors any comfort on this issue?

A. We believe that treating our existing investors fairly is a paramount consideration. We have already said that we will not issue shares at a discount. Investors will have noted that all of our transactions since I have been CEO have been at a premium to the prevailing market price – including the issuing of convertible loan stock at premium to the price when the shares were actually suspended. Any dilution of existing investors whilst I am the CEO will never be at a price that favours new investors at the expense of existing holders.