Angel Business Club - Results Update

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N.B. – Please note this review was continued at our sister site, tradestocksfx, here.

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There has been some massive news for one of the companies in the Angel Business Club’s portfolio recently. It involves a small British fintech company that has struck a huge deal with one of the world’s biggest financial institutions.

For reasons of confidentiality we cannot reveal who this company is or details of the deal, but we understand an official announcement will be made soon.

In the meantime though the Angel Business Club released details to members via a special webinar and the implications were nothing short of mind-blowing.

If you have followed our review here over the last couple of years you will know that we have cautioned patience and that it could take time, but there was always the chance that one of the portfolio companies would hit it big.

Well with this deal there’s a real chance this particular company could hit it very big. Out-of-the-park big, as it were.

They still have to deliver on what the larger financial company is asking for, but if they do then the potential for growth is tremendous.

And the really good news is that if you sign up to paid membership of the Angel Business Club before the end of the month (so by the end of tomorrow UK time) you will get FREE BONUS SHARES in this amazing company.

Not only that but you will get allocated free shares in a number of other exciting early-stage businesses.

So don’t miss out on this great opportunity – you can sign up to the Angel Business Club here today.

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Angel Business Club – Results Update

22nd July 2020

The Angel Business Club is a facility whereby you pay a monthly membership fee and then receive free shares in a range of early-stage companies. It’s a bit like Dragons Den, apart from you don’t get to pick the companies, the Club does.

We had remarked previously that is was difficult to give a results update on our investment in the Club as there weren’t any results in the form of companies being sold or floated on the stock market (IPO).

Well the good news is we finally have some results to report! And they are positive.

Yes, the Club made an investment in a company that was about to float on the stock exchange and members were allocated shares at the end of May at the price of £0.025 per share.

Then the company floated on the stock exchange at the start of June and shares have generally traded in the range of £0.045 – £0.05 per share since then.

Taking into account the spread (i.e. the sell price being lower than the quoted mid-price), this meant that members could have sold shares for around 4-4.5p per share, potentially achieving a 100% uplift on the price of the allotted shares.

If you had the standard membership for example at £89, you would have received 350 shares at £0.025 per share, for a value of £8.75. At this level you would have struggled to make a profit on selling the shares due to dealing costs, so really for it to have been worthwhile you would have needed a higher level of membership.

If for example you had the Pro Membership at £428, you would have received 2500 shares, equal to £62.50 at the valuation of £0.025 per share. That would have allowed you to make a good profit on the shares if selling at £0.04 – £0.045 per share, even factoring in dealing costs.

And of course whichever level of membership you had, you would also have received allocations in a number of other companies for the month.

Anyway, this kind of short-term investment before an IPO is a new approach from the Club and we think it is a good one. They will still be making the more long-term investments (5-15 years) but having these shorter-term transactions in addition gives members something tangible to enjoy in the meantime whilst waiting for the longer plays to materialise. It makes good use of the Club’s privileged position as an Angel investor able to invest in early-stage companies closed off to most retail investments.

We expect to see more of these in future and hopefully there will be opportunities for members to buy additional shares on top of the allotted monthly memberships allocations.

In terms of the Club’s other invested companies there appears to be lots of good news coming out despite the covid difficulties experienced by many companies so that is encouraging.

There have been no significant developments in Britannia’s Gold Ltd (BGL) however which is a shame but they are rather beholden to other authorities and restricted by the covid limitations. Hopefully they will get back out to sea in the next few months.

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Angel Business Club – Results Update

20th April 2020

It’s been a few months since we updated our review of the Angel Business Club (ABC) so we thought a good time for an update given the hiatus in all things sporting-related at the moment.

Just a reminder, the Angel Business Club is a facility whereby you pay a monthly membership fee and then receive free shares in a range of early-stage companies. It’s a bit like Dragons Den, apart from you don’t get to pick the companies, the Club does.

The companies are varied and interesting, with everything from a healthy tonic company to a fire safety company to posh dog food!

With the coronavirus crisis it’s obviously a very worrying time for all businesses, particularly start-ups and early stage businesses. Time will tell how it turns out for the companies in the ABC portfolio but let’s hope they make it through to the other side.

There isn’t a great deal of news on the companies, other than that one went bust and is being restructured to start over when the covid-19 crisis is past. Some other companies seem to be making good progress, although as we say with the current economic crisis it is only sensible to be cautious in that regard.

Obviously it is also not the time to be doing stock market flotations or trade sales so we don’t have any clear results to report in terms of profit/losses banked.

The good news however is that the Angel Business Club are offering free access to their weekly webinars, which are normally for paid members only. So you can check those out and get more info on the companies and what else is going on at the Club.

You can sign up as a free member here.

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Angel Business Club – Results Update

13th November 2019

It’s been a few months since we updated our review of the Angel Business Club (ABC) and in fact it’s been two full years now since we joined the club.

The companies are varied and interesting, with everything from a healthy tonic company to a fire safety company to posh dog food!

Anyway, as we say we’ve been members for two years so you would think after that long we would have some concrete results to report.

Well unfortunately – and those who have been following us in the long run will have heard this before – we still can’t report any clear results!

That is because there haven’t been any exit opportunities like IPOs or trade sales of the companies in our portfolio, which is how you realise the investment you have made in the Club and potentially bank a profit (or a loss if a company happened not to have done well). Whilst there have been a couple of IPOs planned, they both fell through for one reason or another and no others are planned as far as we are aware.

Now as mentioned below in our previous updates, you do have the option of selling your shares to other members on the ABC’s internal trading platform, although not all companies are tradeable on there (for example one of the companies has recently gone into voluntary liquidation so has been removed).

If you do sell shares on the platform however, you would generally be taking a loss on your shares so it is not recommended. Ultimately if you want to realise the full opportunity of the companies you will have to wait for the exit event in most cases.

So needless to say the ABC is only a vehicle for people with a great deal of patience! You need to have a long-term mindset that it could take 5-10 years in many cases to see the companies go from early stage to actually float on the stock market or be bought out.

That is all we can say at this stage really, we wish we had something more concrete to report in terms of results but that is the “nature of the beast” unfortunately.

A quick word as well on Britannia’s Gold Ltd (BGL), one of the companies in our portfolio and one people could also invest in separately. There has been some positive news lately, in that they have been contracted by a third party to carry out a salvage operation on a vessel in the Pacific with a potentially large quantity of gold on board, which BGL would receive 12.5% of in addition to receiving a fee for doing the job.

So if that came in it would provide a very nice dividend to shareholders and help to fund the mission on the Empress of Britain which is due to recommence next Spring.

Here’s hoping anyway!

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Angel Business Club – Results Update

3rd July 2019

It’s Dan here and I thought it would be a good time to do an update on the Angel Business Club after I attended their Global Convention last week in London.

I’ll start with the Convention and then move on to a wider update on how things are going.

Global Convention

The Convention was held at the Holiday Inn Kensington on 22nd June and it was a fantastic day. We got to hear a dozen presentations about all the promising companies that are part of the ABC platform and how they are progressing, which was very interesting. These included:

– A drinks company that is making healthy, natural drinks and is hoping to get listed in all the major UK supermarkets.
– A premium, high end dog-food company that looks set to break into America.
– A payment app that has signed a big deal with one of the world’s biggest credit card companies and has a number of other deals lined up.
– A breakthrough fire safety company that could revolutionise how fires are dealt with in the home and workplace

And there were so many more inspiring stories from companies that could not only be big successes but have a positive impact on the world.

It was also great to meet other members at the Convention and share their experiences of the Club. Not to mention we got lots of goodies, including (non-alcoholic) wine and soft drinks at our table and excellent food at the conference venue. Joao (the CEO of the ABC) and his team did a great job so hats off to them. It was such a success they have even booked in the event for next year already!

Portfolio Update

There hasn’t been much change in our portfolio since our last update. We currently have 13 companies in our portfolio (plus an extra investment in Britannia’s Gold – but more on that below). The total we have paid via membership fees is €2,592 and that is also pretty much the estimated value of our portfolio according to the strike price values.

In terms of the strike price values, we believe it would be beneficial for the Club to report how they arrive at their strike price valuations (with price/sales ratios etc) to increase transparency and accountability and have suggested this to them.

As we remarked last time though, in the grand scheme of things the strike price values of the companies are something of a moot point until a company can either float on the stock market or is bought out (what is called a “trade sale”).

You can sell shares via the ABC’s internal trading platform in the meantime if the companies are listed on the platform. Of the 13 companies in our portfolio, 11 are listed on the trading platform.

We stated in our last update that it is not always possible to sell shares on the platform. This is not quite correct – as long as the company is listed on the platform you can sell shares, although it will usually be at a significant discount to the strike price so is not advisable unless you really have to sell in order to release funds etc. It is better to wait for the exit events – an IPO or trade sale.

The IPOs That Weren’t

Talking of IPOs, one of the disappointing aspects of our time as a member has been that two IPOs were promised but then didn’t materialise, for one reason or another.

One of the companies in question had raised funds from members on the basis that it was about to IPO but then chose not to list on the stock market, for its own reasons. Whilst it is always of course up to the company to decide how to proceed in these matters and to act in the best interests of the company and its shareholders, there were complaints about this at the Global Convention and we can understand why.

In our view if a company raises money on the basis that it plans to shortly IPO and then pulls it (with no date given for when it may IPO in future), it is understandable if people are frustrated and we hope this is just a one-off and isn’t repeated by the ABC.

In terms of the other IPO, it is hoped this will proceed later this year.

Britannia’s Gold

We reported last time that Britannia’s Gold (BGL) was embarking on its third attempt to salvage gold from a Wold War Two shipwreck. Well sadly it wasn’t successful in that attempt.

We received an update from Philip Reid, Chairman of BGL, at the Global Convention and he gave a rather reflective summary of the situation, remarking that the whole project had turned out to be far more challenging than they had ever envisaged and it would require significant additional funds and time to complete the current salvage. It has been a salutary lesson for all involved in just how difficult such salvage operations are – as Mr Reid commented “that’s why no-one else has done this.” Well, er, yes indeed!

Whilst this was disappointing news for investors, there is something to be said for Mr Reid’s honesty and now at least they have more realistic expectations of the time and effort involved in not just completing this salvage operation but any potential ones in future.

All is not lost as they have the funds to head out to the vessel again and try to complete the salvage, whilst now having to split any proceeds 50% with another company. However, whilst there is still hope this could all turn out successfully, when taking into account the tone of Mr Reid’s update and a cold hard reflection on how difficult it has all been you can’t help feel like the dream may be slipping away. We will see anyway…

Summary

So how would we summarise our time as an ABC member after more than 18 months? Well our experience probably mirrors private equity investing generally. It is high risk an