Photo-Me International (PHTM)

[Bouleversee]

Tibergeist PTE Ltd, an entity closely associated with Serge Crianski (CEO and Deputy Chairman of Photo-Me) has bought another 60,000 shares in Photo-Me and since he is the beneficial owner of Tibergeist which now owns 89,733,217 shares in Photo-Me, he effectively owns 27.73% of the company. At what % does he have to make an offer? Is it 30%?

Am I the only Fool who still holds shares in this company? I suppose I might as well hang on for the ride, hoping to lose slightly less than I would otherwise do. I don't recall another case where the boss takes over the company but I dare say it has happened. Should I be buying more at this juncture or is it just a confidence booster to get the price up a bit at which point he will sell, leaving me gasping?

[Bouleversee]

On or around 21 January, there was an RNS announcing a recommended mandatory takeover offer at 75p by Tibergest, a company wholly owned by Sergei Crasnianski, the CEO of PHTM, with the support of a few others, including his daughter, in concert with him. This was mentioned in Mr Contrarian's small cap sweeps, where my comments about being an opportunistic lowball offer went down like a lead balloon. However, a month later another announcement was issued saying that there had been an error in the first one and it was in fact an unrecommended offer as the independent directors did not think the offer price was sufficiently high and they advised shareholders not to accept, which I had already decided would be my course of action. Anyone who had accepted already could now have their acceptance revoked. It would seem that the majority of the remaining shareholders had already come to the same conclusion or took the advice of the independent directors since the requisite 50% was not achieved and the offer lapsed. The price, not surprisingly, fell but is up a bit today though still short of the offer price. It will be interesting to see what happens now. I still think it is all a bit fishy. Perhaps they all knew what was in the wind and didn't want the takeover to succeed so pretended it had been a mistake to say initially that it was recommended. Who knows? Cynical, moi?

I think this is another example of a CEO who is more interested in enriching himself further, aided by huge options on top of a good salary, than in achieving a good return for the shareholders who carry the risk. He is described as a Frenchman but one cannot help noticing the name and wondering about ethics and connections. I did go to an AGM a few years ago and had a chat with Mr. C. who was encouraging me to buy more shares. Glad I didn't as I am already losing a large chunk of my investment.

[Bouleversee]

I received an RNS alert this morning saying:

"Photo-Me International plc (PHTM.L), the instant-service equipment group, announces that in accordance with LR 9.2.2AD R it has entered into a relationship agreement with Tibergest PTE Ltd ("Tibergest"), a company owned and controlled by Mr Serge Crasnianski, CEO and Deputy Chairman of Photo-Me.

Under the Listing Rules, a relationship agreement is required to be in effect because Tibergest is a controlling shareholder and holds more than 30 per cent of the issued share capital of Photo-Me.

Mr Crasnianski and persons closely associated with him have an interest in 137,866,791 Ordinary Shares of 0.5 pence of Photo-Me, representing 36.47 per cent of the issued share capital of the Company. The total number of voting rights in the Company is 378,011,637."

Can anyone explain what the significance of this announcement is? I have never heard of a relationship agreement. IIRC it's not long since Mr. C. was trying to take over the company on the cheap but the Board recommended shareholders not to accept, having originally advised the opposite. The s.p. has risen quite a bit since then but I am still losing on them. It all seems a bit fishy.

Moderator Message:
Lorna, when posting something about Photo-Me, FIND THE EXISTING THREAD FIRST, PLEASE, and add to it, rather than creating a new thread. --MDW1954

[Bouleversee]

Sorry about that, MDW. Will try to remember in future, easier said than done at my age. I don't think anyone else is interested in Photo-Me anyway as I didn't get any response to my posts. As it happens, there has been another announcement: the company has changed its name as of 1st August to ME Group International PLC (MEGP) so I will post under that name in future (if at all) with a cross reference to Photo-Me, unless you have any other preferred procedure.