Home | Log In | Register | Our Services | My Account | Contact | Help |
Tern – after the ramp to 27p comes the Placing at 12p. But what’s this?
By Nigel Somerville, The Deputy Sheriff of AIM | Monday 10 August 2015
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.
Well surprise, surprise! As expected (see HERE) AIM listed Tern plc (TERN) has announced a placing in the wake of the monumental rise in the lead-up to its Interims last week, and the explosion following chairman Angus Forrest’s mega ramp of an interview with paid-for Proactive Investors. With the shares having peaked at 27p on Thursday, the company announced a placing of shares this morning – at just 12p. One might only imagine how anyone who was sucked in to paying 27p last week might be feeling now.
As I write, the share price is down 30% today at 11p (mid) - below the placing price and not a good sign.
Of course, one cannot blame Tern for taking advantage of a strong share price so as to shore up the balance sheet. Although the Chairman’s Statement in last week’s interims noted a “healthy level of current assets” it was clear to me that the company needed to raise cash in order to meet its funding commitments to Cryptosoft whilst still being able to keep the lights on. And so now the company has brought in £720,000 before expenses (perhaps around £684,000 net). Certainly, now, the company is well enough cashed up for the time being – although suggestions of further investments on the horizon may see that change.
What is clear, however, is that the Proactive interview was just a bare-faced ramp and now we know why. Placing discounts on AIM can be steep, but this looks particularly savage. Even against the close last Friday of 15.75p (mid) a placing at 12p is a 24% haircut. Anyone who bought at 27p last Thursday has just watched a few people walk off with about 12% of the company having coughed up 56% less per share. Now they are watching people able to buy shares 59% cheaper in the market than they did.
As to the Proactive interview, it all sounded jolly exciting – as one would expect from a piece of PR puffery. Discussions with household names, members of the Fortune 500, expectations of a portfolio sale in the next six months and another in the next twelve are mentioned. Maybe.
When asked about contracts for Cryptosoft the reply was “I can’t tell you who it is talking to and signing with…” er, so there are contracts being signed? Should that not be in an RNS, then? But remember, this interview is not Nomad-approved, whereas the Interims (which were released the same day) were. The Interims referred to “major c
-----------
TERN eye opener report............MickTKipper Sun 15:07
Tern rockets on Interims and a Proactive Interview but Hargreave Hale sells again
By Nigel Somerville, The Deputy Sheriff of AIM | Sunday 9 August 2015
Phew - what a ride! One moment share of Tern plc (TERN) are drifting at around 6.5p a share and then in the blink of an eye they have rocketed to 15.75p, having peaked at a whopping 27p. Ahead of Wednesday’s interims which showed a balance sheet of just £1.2 million, the Tern rocket had ascended to about 15p a share to value the company at around £7 million. They slipped a little on release of the RNS before a paid-for interview with company chairman Angus Forrest on Proactive Investors ignited the booster rockets and off we went again, up into the clear blue skies above, notching up a peak of 27p (market cap £12.3 million), and a four-fold re-rating. Post-excitement slippage then saw the shares close a wild week at 15.75p, a market cap of £7.2 million. What was all the excitement about?
Of course, this is all about investee company Cryptosoft which has recently appointed Mr Darron Anthill as CEO. We have had news of a tie-up with ThingWorx (although no financials have been released) after Cryptosoft’s newly improved security platform had been formally launched. Mind you, for all the fireworks of last week, Cryptosoft remains pre-revenue. Tern has announced funding of £700,000 in total to fund the jewel in its crown although the actual funding delivered thus far looks to be of the order of £375,000. Never mind all that, Tern appears to be the talk of the town down at bulletin board central, where commercial success for Cryptosoft seems to be a given. I think that is a dangerous assumption to make.
Tom Winnifrith has highlighted the current penchant of the market for giving sky-high valuations to pre-revenue technology companies. I would suggest that Tern is a case in point. Its interim balance sheet showed net assets of £1.2 million. First half revenues of £60,000 are recorded, although this looks to have got only as far as the receivables column rather than cash in the bank. It would also appear that these revenues are simply fees and charges levied by Tern on its investee company, Cryptosoft, paid for out of the cash that Tern is investing into it. Out of approx. £375,000 pumped into Cryptosoft since last autumn, it seems that £96,000 has been booked back out again in fees. All a bit of a merry-go-round, but which conveniently swells Tern’s balance sheet.
At the peak, this investment company with a £1.2 million balance sheet was somehow worth £12.3 million. In fact £300,000 of convertible director loans which are expected to be converted in due course at 1.25p (£270,000) into 21.6 million shares, and 2.016p (£30,000) into c. 1.5 million shares on top of the now existing c. 45 million shares. That would imply a resulting balance sheet of about £1.5 million and a pea
SUNDAY MAIL = 23 August 2015
Thousands exposed in massive new data hack: It's not just adulterers outed on web - if YOU own a PC hard drive you are at risk from the 'Google for hackers'
Photographs, medical records and bank statements are all downloadable
Due to glaring security flaws in hard drives used to back up and store data
The website, called Shodan, also has confidential files of a High St law firm
It comes after hackers exposed names of people using Ashley Madison site
Thousands of Britons have been made vulnerable to cyber crime after the secret contents of their computers were exposed on the internet by a vast website dubbed the ‘Google for hackers’.
Family photographs, medical records and bank statements can all be easily downloaded from the site because of glaring security flaws in hard drives used to back up and store personal and business data, a Mail on Sunday investigation has found.
Highly confidential files belonging to a High Street law firm were also freely available on the website, called Shodan, including full details of their clients’ financial affairs, passports and driving licences.
Hack: Thousands have been made vulnerable to cyber crime after the secret contents of their computers were exposed on the internet by a vast website dubbed the ‘Google for hackers’
Hack: Thousands have been made vulnerable to cyber crime after the secret contents of their computers were exposed on the internet by a vast website dubbed the ‘Google for hackers’
Last night, security experts said millions more British companies and internet users are also at risk of being hacked because the US-based Shodan website provides crucial information about their web-connected devices.
Even private servers run by the world’s biggest and most expensive science lab, CERN, can be viewed and potentially tampered with.
The revelations come just days after hackers dumped online the names, email addresses and sexual preferences of millions using affairs website Ashley Madison.
Following our investigation, consumers are being urged to check all PCs and gadgets have the latest software updates and are not relying on easy-to-guess passwords.
Professor Tim Watson, director of the Cyber Security Centre at the University of Warwick, said: ‘What Shodan does is shine a light on some of the more insecure aspects of this new interconnected world.
‘We are buying kit connected by default to the internet, because we love the fact we can use it anywhere. But this comes at a price – we’re buying these features but we’re not buying security.’
Access: The Shodan (logo, left) website, founded by John Matherly (right) gives entry to millions of private computer devices worldwide
The personal files are all publicly visible because the Shodan website trawls the world looking for all open connections to the internet.
It has found details worldwide of more than 100 million computers, smart phones, web cameras and even building control systems like air conditioning units. An estimated 11 million of these are in the UK.
Shodan can identify the rough physical location of each piece of equipment, a unique identifying number known as an IP address, and often what type of software is powering it. This in itself is a boon to hackers because it gives them enough information to carry out a targeted attack, experts say.
‘Shodan is basically a Google for hackers,’ said Henry Dalziel from cyber security training firm Concise Courses.
Shodan also looks for devices that either have no password protection or are guarded by obvious default settings like ‘admin’ or ‘1234’.
It identified a particular problem with external hard drives made by a company called Iomega, since taken over by Lenovo, used by thousands of families to provide extra space for their treasured photo collections or to back-up important documents.
As many as 20,000 of these storage devices worldwide can be viewed on Shodan, 1,600 of them in the UK, simply by searching for the term ‘Iomega’. Most do not have any password protection. In two cases, the MoS spoke to victims whose hard drives were hacked despite setting up unique passwords.
Within minutes of the MoS signing up to the site – which is free to join for a limited number of searches but costs $49 (£31) for full membership – we were able to look at the folders stored on these machines.
Because most files contained the names and addresses of their owners, as well as more confidential information such as medical records and credit card statements, we were able to track them down to warn them of their exposure to cyber fraud and ID theft.
We took care only to look for enough information to allow us to contact the drives’ owners.
A family in Oxfordshire were shocked to find their bank account details, medical documents, insurance information, passwords and photos were available for hackers.
Maxine, 39, and Helen, 43, who are in a civil partnership, were staggered to learn the Iomega hard drive they bought two years ago to keep personal information safe had left them exposed on Shodan, despite a unique password.
The couple, who have a nine-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy, immediately disconnected the drive.
‘I’m more concerned about the fact it’s got our children’s names on it,’ said Maxine. ‘It’s got stuff about how we went about having children and things like that.
‘We felt like we’d made an educated and informed choice. It won’t ever be the same again.’
Father-of-two Hars Member, from West London, said he was considering taking legal action after discovering that his family’s private details were also exposed on Shodan.
Mr Member, 50, who runs an online eBay business selling cosmetic products, unplugged his machine after learning the private details of his wife, son and daughter were vulnerable.
‘Anyone can do anything to me,’ he said. ‘All the family’s details are on there. It’s really scary for me. It’s unbelievable.’
Victims include two tech-savvy women who specifically bought their Iomega Home Media Network hard drive – model number HMND2 – because they believed it was the safest way to store family records.
By searching Shodan for unprotected devices in Glasgow, we discovered a hard drive containing the business files of a solicitors’ firm.Folder titles included ‘cash’, ‘clients’, ‘powers of attorney’ and ‘money laundering’, with the individual files giving full details on everything from house purchases to visa letters and even customers’ passports.
One of the main folders was titled ‘MacKaur documents’ while others gave the names of the two partners and a secretary working for a Scottish law firm called MacRae & Kaur. But it denied its data had been leaked.
The firm’s lawyer said: ‘Those I represent have clarified with their IT support organisation that the computer system they employ, in particular that which deals with the storing of data securely is lawful and in accordance with legal requirements as a law firm practising in Scotland.’
A MoS investigation last year revealed how a website was broadcasting live security camera footage from inside homes, offices and shops across Britain on the internet.
Hard drive manufacturer Lenovo admitted there had been a problem with some of its devices’ folders being available online but said new products no longer have this flaw, while existing customers have been able to download a security update since last year.
A spokesman said: ‘Lenovo addressed these concerns in 2014 whereby new devices did not have this problem and a fix was made available to existing customers.’ But it refused to say if all hard drive owners had been made aware of the security breach.
As well as downloading the latest software updates, the Information Commissioner’s Office, Britain’s data watchdog, urged computer users to check their passwords.
A spokesman said: ‘The first security step anyone should take when getting any new device, is to set a strong password.
‘The default passwords many manufacturers use are freely available online so it’s important to get these simple passwords changed.
‘If the device doesn’t have a password, then as a bare minimum, you should set one up, making sure it’s not one that can be easily guessed.’
Shodan’s American founder John Matherly, 31, defended his site’s service, although he admitted some individuals had been banned for abusing it.
‘I don’t believe in shooting the messenger. Shodan is the right answer to the problem,’ he said.
‘People should be upset that the product they purchased didn’t provide better safeguards to protect their data and prevent it from being leaked on the internet.
‘The way we fix these insecure-by-default devices is by raising awareness so consumers demand change from companies.’