Globo

Bulb Collapse, Telecom Plus Results and FCA Globo Action

Yesterday energy supplier Bulb collapsed and was put into Special Administration. Bulb has 1.7 million customers and is the largest of 20 alternative energy suppliers to go bust recently. Most of their customers have been taken on by other suppliers but apparently nobody was willing to take on Bulb’s so effectively the company has been nationalised. These companies have all been hit by the rapid rise in gas prices while the price cap imposed by Ofgem meant they could not raise their ...

Lax Regulation (Globo, GRG) and Japanese Trust AGM

Globo was one of those AIM companies that turned out to be a complete fraud. Back in December 2015 the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) announced an investigation into the audits of the company by Grant Thornton (GT). Even the cash reported on the balance sheet in the consolidated accounts of the parent company proved to be non-existent (or had been stolen perhaps). I have previously complained about the slow progress and the lack of any information on this investigation. But former shareholders ... Read more

Brexit, HBOS, Globo and the FRC

Is it not heartening that the Brexit divorce bill, and other terms, have been settled? The exact cost is unclear but it could be up to £40 billion – a lot of money you may say! However, the fact that the key negotiators, Mrs May, Barnier et al, all looked somewhat glum about the deal when announced perhaps tells us that it was a compromise in which both sides had to concede ground. Or perhaps they were just tired. The terms ...

Tesco Fraud Charges, Cattles and Globo

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has charged three former managers of Tesco in relation to the overstatement of profits that occurred over several years and which came to light in 2014. The charges are fraud and false accounting and those charged are Carl Rogberg (finance director at the time), Christopher Bush (UK Managing Director) and John Scouler (UK Commercial Director). The former Chief Executive, Philip Clarke, has not been charged but is apparently still under investigation in relation to the offences. Neither ...

Globo Administrators Report – There’s No Money Left

The Administrators of Globo Plc have published their initial report into the affairs of the company. It makes for depressing reading. In essence one might sum it up in the phrase "There's no money left" which was the infamous wording of a note left by one UK Treasury Minister to his successor. In this case, even the secured creditors (Barclays Bank in the lead), are unlikely to get paid in full and all unsecured creditors and shareholders will get nil. The assets ...

ShareSoc expresses the dismay of shareholders at the administration of Globo

PRESS RELEASE 71 4/11/2015 ShareSoc notes the dismay of many shareholders in Globo Plc at the rapid collapse of the company. It has now gone into administration so the outlook for existing shareholders is very bleak indeed. Globo was another of those controversial AIM stocks which were actively traded by private investors and where the merits of the company were the focus of vigorous debate. However, it would now appear that the company might have been the subject of a major fraud, rather ...

Globo In Administration

There has been a further announcement by the company today which stated that administrators have been appointed "by order of the court". The administrators are FTI Consulting LLP and they say "Our focus is to undertake an immediate assessment of the Group in order to evaluate any opportunities to realise value from the various businesses.  We will also be looking to gain control of the books and records in order to be in a position to undertake a full investigation.  These steps ...

Globo – the Last Straw

Subsequent to my last blog post which covered the attack by Quintessential Capital Management (QCM) on Globo, this morning the company has made three further announcements: After an emergency board meeting, the CEO (Costis Papadimitrakopoulos), and the CFO (Dimitris Gryparis) have resigned and the COO has been suspended. A committee of non-executive directors has taken over after "certain matters regarding the falsification of data and the misrepresentations of the Company's financial position" were brought to their attention. The joint corporate broker, ...

Blogging and Shorting – Globo and Valeant

An organisation called Quintessential Capital Management (QCM) published a report on the 22nd October on Globo. The next morning the shares were suspended at the request of the company so as to enable them to provide a detailed response but they immediately refuted all the allegations in the report. QCM acknowledged that they are active in short selling and have taken a short position in Globo. They also have links to Simon Cawkwell who was also involved in a similar attack on ...

Globo

This Campaign is now closed. We will inform readers of any developments, from the FCA or others, if and when they arise. A recovery of shareholders' funds is unlikely. This page was created to inform shareholders in Globo Plc about the events in October/November 2015 and thereafter. The most recent developments are summarised in this blog in August 2018 by Roger Lawson https://www.sharesoc.org/blog/regulations-and-law/lax-regulation-globo-grg-and-japanese-trust-agm/. The FRC announced in summer 2018 that they have dropped the investigation on the basis that there is no realistic prospect of ...

Greek Financial Crisis and Globo – it’s a Big Day

What better day to go to the Annual General Meeting of a Greek company (Globo Plc - GBO) than the day that Greece closed its banks and stock exchange for as long as a week? At least it used to be a Greek company and although it still has a lot of software development staff in Greece most of its operations are now in the rest of the world. Indeed it has ambitions to be a major global business based on ...

Globo Interims and evaluating software companies

Globo issued some Interim Results this morning (29/9/2014). The announcement created quite a debate on some bulletin boards because of varying interpretation of the results. It only merits some comments from me because ShareSoc has published articles on this company before, particularly after it came under attack from shorters who primarily questioned the poor cash flow, capitalisation of development costs and several other aspects of the company's operations (see our November 2013 newsletter). That caused the share price to collapse from ...