Producing more to increase losses. Good strategy..
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Producing more to increase losses. Good strategy..
Guys, this is fascinating. I just read the first few posts in this thread and it looked like Rakon had a great idea and implementation. Can someone please summarise what happened between 2006 and now?
The sons of the father
There are surely no surprises in today’s ann., if anything I expected worse. My guess is maybe three more anns, the last of which will be final, and by the time that comes out the family will have milked the “business” for every last cent, and of course that includes any shareholders left.
This business has long since become unique, in that it is the only one I am aware of which has for several years formed into an entity seemingly designed to do very well for the family, no one else. Creative accounting at its best? Renting/leasing buildings to/from each other?
I haven’t been in the markets a lot of years, but this, for me, is the worst rip off of shareholders I have ever seen, when one realises that the business was born in a garage out of a very bright mind. I no longer believe that mind has very much to do with the current running of the business, could be wrong. The appalling rhetoric that has gone on over the last several years serves to show that greed is a sickening trait, as in this case it is, and only, the family who have done extremely well.
From the annual meeting: "We are very confident that we will become profitable next year" Profitable for whom, I wonder. And where have I read that before, and before.....pass the Tui
Hi All,
Did anyone listen in to the conference call? Was there anything remotely positive within it? (the results presentation slides showing volume up with revenue down looks toxic!)
Why dont the media come down harder on these clowns?
Why do people still seem very keen on buying this stock despite its disastrous management and much poorer financial result? Interesting....
Must confess I once owned this stock.... I purchased on the strong rec of a Craigs broker and lost heap. I would never touch this stock again, nor listen to the relevant broker again.
My learning; "anything that doesn't kill you makes you stronger." I now do my own research, don't listen to brokers, and purchase shares via DB. I've now made all my losses back, showing gains of over 86% pa on my personal portfolio and over 101% on my 'stock picking competition' results. Revenge is sweet.
One must assess now the potential profit of the company for the next few years... What is best case scenario? 10 million profit in 5 years time? That would be eps of 5c a share.. Say they were going to return 2c of that to shareholders (unlikely given their history) that gives em a fundamental value of 28-72c in 5 years, best case scenario.
Worst case.... Well, I think we all know what that would be... Eps of minus quite a lot.
I am betting they will just keep the company breaking even so they can continue to support their lifestyles, or make a small profit that shareholders will never see.
I am just like you Left Field! The only difference is my portfolio and stock picking compo results are reversed! :-p
Self interest took over a long time ago at Rakon. Look back in this thread and you will see myself and a few other users calculate that the Robinson family rakes in (pun intended!) $2.2 million a year at least in rent payments and salary benefits REGARDLESS of their performance. They make a profit or break even, salary increases hugely. They make a loss, no change in salary.
The Robinsons are clearly milking it for as long as they can.
Look at the timing of these announcements.
14-Nov-2013 9:39am
RAK announce a 1/2 year disaster of a loss.
40 minutes later.
RAK announce a dial in 'presentation' and business update of the 1/2 year result with 40 minutes notice.
Another 40 minutes later.
RAK hold the 'presentation' (this is an assumption as I did not dial in).
This is one one of the most gutless things I have ever seen from a board. I mean 40 minutes notice?... to present a loss that the 1/2 year announcement tries to smooth over by describing it as 'substantial'.
Totally and utterly unacceptable.
Disclosure: I have never held, do not hold, and will never hold.
ADDRESS: RAK: Rakon HY14 Results Presentation & Business Update
RAK
14/11/2013 10:19
ADDRESS
REL: 1019 HRS Rakon Limited
ADDRESS: RAK: Rakon HY14 Results Presentation & Business Update
This presentation supports the announcement of Rakon's 30 September 2013 Half
Year Financial Results and teleconference to be held at 11:00am today; 14
November 2013.
The full presentation will also be on the companies website from today -
www.rakon.com.
Dial one of the following access numbers listed below and enter the PIN code
followed by the # key
....
They should rename Rakon to Bacon in an effort to capture the essence of what the board really are.
Robinson "we did the right thing by selling our china factory"
From radio nz
Rakon defends selling major stake in Chinese facility
Updated at 7:56 am on 15 November 2013
Rakon says selling most of its factory in China was the right thing to do despite the company making a loss because of the sale.
The crystal timing devices manufacturer on Thursday reported a $45.7 million net loss for the six months to September with just over half that due to selling 80% of its Chengdu factory.
Managing director Brent Robinson says the result is disappointing but selling its assets in China was the right move.
"If we look at the further erosion of prices and negative margins that we see in that market, we believe that we absolutely have done the right thing."
Mr Robinson says Rakon's partner in China is much better positioned to make the necessary capital investment and hopefully grow the business to a strong player in China.
Rakon's first-half loss widened from the previous year's $3.96 million.
The result is also worse than the $33 million loss Rakon reported for the 12 months to March.
But Mr Robinson, is promising the company will make an operating profit in its second half and reaffirmed guidance the operating result for the full year will be between a $3 million loss and break-even.
All good on the western front ......moving from putting crystals into missiles and other evil uses into something productive and good for the world
Can't go wrong if associated with John Deere ...and heck the markets worth nearly 4 billion bucks
The gods will look down on them now
. Rakon predicts huge growth in precision agriculture market
Updated at 7:56 am on 15 November 2013
A high-tech New Zealand company has its eye on the precision agriculture market.
Rakon specialises in advanced crystal and oscillator technologies that are used in global positioning and navigational systems.
Rakon managing director Brent Robinson says it's believed the global precision agriculture market will be worth $3.7 billion within five years as farmers adopt increasingly sophisticated technology.
He says precision agriculture is a rapidly growing field and GPS devices are being put in tractors, automatic steering and asset management.
Mr Robinson says tractors are being manufactured that do ploughing and crop fertilising - but have no drivers.
He says the market is emerging and one of Rakon's customers, John Deere, believes it's so important that they have their own GPS division, and Rhttp://www.radionz.co.nz/news/rural/227797/rakon-predicts-huge-growth-in-precision-agriculture-marketakon is a key part of that.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/rural/...culture-market
Just figured out what the ticker translates to:
Robinsons
Are
Konning
http://ir.arm.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=19...ol-homeprofile
What Rakon should of turned into
What Rakon has turned into....
Attachment 5131
.... can we put a crystal in that and call it Global Detritus Positioning Technology to ensure the s*** really does hit the fan?
Not the darling it once was, but surely it's still worth a trade as it bounces around the 20c mark?
Me thinks thou protesteth to much moosie :-))
In for a killing are you ??
Hahahaaa..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/indu...ech-businesses
Rakon have received a R&D grant from the Government. What a waste of taxpayer money.
What a joke. Maybe they'll use the funds to get their gps crystals on donkeys.
Seems like the Govt wants to support this company by giving them free money perhaps they could look at taking an equity stake to really gets things moving and of course they could share limos so that would save money also:scared:
Another plant to close and another profit downgrade ...or rather a loss upgrade ha ha ......just as well for those grants eh
It's all ok though ....positive EBITDA in 2015
management good at something a
The DIL chart is rather like the long term RAK chart - even with the recent spike in DIL. Spooky eh
And surprise surprise, Rakons guidance goes backwards again. This will likely happen 2 or 3 more times this year if previous years are anything to go by.
I am sure most have seen this but it seemed worth mentioning. Rakon making the news for all the wrong reasons again.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=11214233
Dics: not a holder although this was a company recommended to me at various functions a few years back. Thanks goodness I am slow to move...
Phew, what a joke RAK has turned out to be.
(Disc not holding and sad for those who are.)
Last one out, turn out the lights
Rakon Limited (NZX:RAK) ("Rakon") advises the market that it expects to report a Net Loss After Tax (NLAT) for the year ended 31 March 2014 of -$79.9 million (previous guidance of NLAT of -$59 million to -$55 million).
They need the Beemers to accelerate away from irate investors at the AGM:p
lol,as i know they actually drive audi s8.
Only down 5%. This kind of announcement to me would signal firstly an inability to reduce pre announced losses (incrase 20%?) and secondly their cash burn is still $3M which immediately makes me want to get their cashlow statements and work out how muc hthey have left.
What the hell has the directors been doing over the last 3 years to get the valuation of their assets so far out of reality?????
And who are the auditors and where have they been?
FMA needs to investigate as there's something very wrong here.
You guys are reading it wrong
Rakon Limited (NZX:RAK) (“Rakon”) advises the market that it expects to report a Net Loss After Tax (NLAT) for the year ended 31 March 2014 of -$79.9 million
Double negative in play here - actually a profit of $79.9 million
Ahh, very clever of them. Scare us loyal holders into selling cheap before we figure out whats going on! How big do you think the divvy will be?? I think if they're frugal they will only pay 20% out as dividends, so we're looking at 7cps. We showed those nay-sayers - right Winner??
You know when you think about it, we could start to estimate what is left after they have sold everything. This could go down to 10c or below if the EBITDA goes another 6 months in the red.
amazing ... ACC bought more than half a million shares in Rakon last month:
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/who-has...es-dw-p-155861
Do they know something we don't - or is this a convenient way to make their profits disappear and justify the next rise in ACC premiums?
I understand that ACC bought/held an enormous amount in ALF before they (ALF) collapsed with Cyclone Alloway and the Hanover Deal. If ACC are buying, I would see that as a sure sign to give RAK an even wider berth than my current position which is to not touch them with a barge pole.
A loss worse than they forecast. I am SOOOO surprised! Revenues dropped by 15% as well.
Just waiting for how they are going to spin there way out of this one...
I totally agree. What a bunch of complete rogues. I must say RAK's behaviour actually disgusts me. I still have an ounce of sympathy for the shareholders who don't know about ShareTrader. There will be many in the dark.
No sympathy for ACC though…. what a useless bunch of Richard Craniums.
Someone spiking the price for a month before a capital raise, perhaps?
So who spent the $702 to pump the price to $0.26...................?
They must be RAKing their brains to come with something. Not sure they can beat their big spiel about driverless tractors though:
http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthr...l=1#post442148
Just remember, by rearranging the letters in "Brent Robinson" you get 'No sir, born bent'. Yep... more bent than a 3 bob note.
These guys are already in that space and a few more clues than RAK!
www.tracmap.com
Always good sign when Directors, esp the Chairman) are buying
One of the stars of the NZX lately is RAK
Haha.. thanks Goldstein. Never really thought of myself as a writer, but I do like my cryptic crosswords.
Here is a list of other RAK directors/management tongue-in-cheek-anagrams I posted 10 months ago in this thread. My favourite is Peter Springford.
http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthr...l=1#post438569
You can imagine, I had a bit of time on my hands 10 months ago. I think one or two on that list have since left RAK.
Okay, what's up? Is this just some ridiculous insider trading going on? Almost $100k through, mostly in the $3k-5k range. The only news is that one of the directors (Bryan Mogridge) has bought close to $90k worth in the last 12 days.
-NZ$ at a 6 month low (and possibly going lower as OCR gets held for some time)
-Chart after a VERY long bottoming phase is looking attractive
-Company has taken plenty of bitter pills in recent times to restructure
Always good to see a Chairman backing up words with cash via on market purchases... :-)
-NZ$ at a 6 month low (and possibly going lower as OCR gets held for some time)
-Chart after a VERY long bottoming phase is looking attractive
-Company has taken plenty of bitter pills in recent times to restructure
Always good to see a Chairman backing up words with cash via on market purchases... :-)
Here isthe Chaiman's address at RAK's Annual Shareholders Meeting on 12-September-2014. It's unbelievable.
https://www.nzx.com/files/attachments/200458.pdf
The paragraph I love the most:
"Analysing the results more deeply, the reported Underlying EBITDA loss of $7.5 million included total restructuring costs of $10.4 million, which meant that the business operations produced a positive Underlying EBITDA of $2.9 million. Not a great result, but importantly a positive one."
So a EBITDA loss of $7.5 million is spun as a positive result. That is exactly the piffle I would expect from this dog of all dogs.
For those not in the know, piffle is the combination of piddle and waffle.
Did the hog miss something? From what you've quoted, it is being claimed that Rakon actually made a $2.9m profit if one was to strip out the (presumably) one-off restructuring costs. Is this incorrect?
The hog isn't defending Rakon's business model and/or governance here, but just wanting to get the logic straight.
The thing that really worries me is the lack of accountability and ownership of decisions. All through the process of setting up and operating their China plant they were talking positive like all the losses they were making were just temporary, that everything was going to turn out fine in a little bit of time.... Right up to when they decided to sell, then that was the best decision, that was what was now going to be the best thing for the company, don't worry about what we said before... Then that was badly done and handled (selling for much less than they invested, badly communicated etc etc). Now it's a line that says "our company is shrinking dramatically, but give us a little bit of time and we will be so profitable" again... With all the same people making the decisions I just can't see it.
Though publicly listed, this is still very much like a family owned business (correct me if I'm wrong) so until the control is taken away from the nincompoops, we can only hope that they can really make this company exhibit some sort of a "Lazarus reflex".
Disc: Still holding on to a very large paper loss on this one :(
Sorry to hear you are making a loss on this one RGR. Allow me to digress for a minute….
RAK are to me what ALF was. I too made a large paper loss (but on ALF) and for a long time I wrote them off.
But then following ALF's Hanover disaster (preceded by many other disasters) they finally changed their board. Of primary importance was the 'departure' of their Chairman Rob Cyclone Alloway and the introduction of Gary Bluett.
In doing so I noticed a slow but steady change-for-better in ALFs board's behaviour (evidenced through their announcements) in content, tone, spin, hype, and conservatism in future guidance. The previous board were shockers. Did they really believe their own bills**t? Many families lost their livelihoods over this.
But after the ALF board changed, I slowly began to develop a feeling of faith/trust in what the the new board were saying, to the point where I decided to recommence reading their financials.
In doing so, based upon their announcements containing the truth, I realised that ALF would not go broke and so bought up large.
The rest is pretty much history now and I have done exceedingly well out of ALF on the whole and there is still plenty more to be made there.
So with this in mind, back to RAK.
Snapiti's comment today states "not a great fan of RAK management....... but if you strip out the underlying negative tone towards the company I believe they have made some steps in the right direction". I struggle with this because it implies that even though RAK management is not good, that one can still have trust and confidence in what they report.
RAK's recent Chairman's address is filled to the gunnels with spin, hype, contradictions, and weasel words. Same goes with everything else emanating from them for years.
How many years of promising this and promising that with zero/negative results has this gone on for now? Blobbles alluded to this today.
Plus there is all their other behaviour regarding the board's lifestyle and spending, illegal share trading etc.
Not one word of anything they say can be trusted in my opinion… and so neither can their figures.
If you can't trust the data there is zero point in analysing it. ZERO.
Is RAK taking steps in the right direction as Snapiti asks? Maybe. Maybe not. But unless the board significantly changes its composition (which likely won't occur due to it being a family controlled business), then tossing a coin would yield a more reliable answer than reading their financials and listening to what they say.
Robinson's: "I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty-headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."
Shareholders: "Is there someone else up there we could talk to?"
Robinson's: "No, now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time."
Much improved H1 financials even though still losing money
FCF negative $2m - so not burning too much currently
No wonder RAK one of the stars of the NZX this year - bugger I missed out on the turnaround. ACC didn't did they
Just had a look at the top shareholders - interesting that one of NZ's most successful investors has been buying. Same investor who bought RBD hugely at 60 cents!
Still too early to say they've turned the corner, until they achieve normalized operating profit, it still bleeding.
Rakon shares climb as profits loom
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=11358039
with a nice picture of Brent himself
AMAZING!!!
For all the bluff and bluster about the fireign exchange rate being a huge headwind, it's over 15% decline in USD terms has resulted in less than a 3% boost EBITDA (Earnings Before I Tricked the Dumb Accountant)!
Massive staff cuts and a wholesale exit from an expanding market.
An awesome result in revenue reduction as well.
Can see how the reporters were tricked into repoeting positively with the spin these guys put out and reporters not actually reading (or understanding) the full results.
You're not fooling anyone (on here) Robinsons...
That Rosetta mothership and the little thing that landed on the comet has some Rakon crystals on board.
Amazing, how exciting
Some serious buying interest kicking into Rakon.
Looks like 2 big buyers - one 200k order came in last minute to take out all the stock on offer from 36c to 36.5c, leaving the buyer of 75k at 36.5c unfilled.