Saietta Group (LON: SED) shares are down 19% today. The problem it that the publication of the accounts has been delayed. Now that can, in fact, be an opportunity. Too many people become afeared of what gremlins might lie in delayed accounts and so the share can be picked up cheap. Sometimes, of course, the delayed accounts are terrible - somehow it always seems to be true that bad numbers take longer to add up than good ones. Opinions here at Saietta are going to be divided.
For the delays here is only a few days - by the end of the week they say. But that then, very conveniently, puts the published accounts the other side of the annual general meeting. So shareholders cannot shout at management about those accounts. We might be reading too much into that but there we go.
We’ve talked before of Saietta: “Saietta Group (LON: SED) shares have not been one of those happy investments this past 12 months as they're down 65% over the period. On the other hand buying in one month ago would have produced a 157% rise. That doesn't make up for long term holders of course, that's not the way percentages work - the denominator is different here and the rise doesn't outweigh the fall. On the other hand if SED is continuing to rise - another 23% on Thursday - is it possible to say that a definitive change has happened at Saietta? The business background should be highly positive. Making electric drive trains in this environment as we all go green and EVs storm ahead should be a very useful business line to be in. But as the experience earlier in this past year shows being in the right and fashionable sector is only one part of the battle. It's still necessary to actually gain the paying business from that sector as well.”
Saietta Group share price from Google Finance
It would be unfair to say that the turnaround plan isn’t working. It would be fair to say that the turnaround plan isn’t working yet. For the announcement today: “Turnover (Sales and Grant Income) increased 40% to £6.0m* (2022: £4.3m). Gross profit increased 35% to £2.3m* (2022: £1.7m). Adjusted EBITDA loss of £9.9m* (2022: loss of £4.4m) which excludes exceptional losses from the discontinued activities of £6.4m. Statutory Loss before Tax of £23.8 million* (2022: £11.3m) accounting for all write downs and discontinued activities.” They’ve also got £1.2 million of cash left but apparently have some receivables which will boost that.
Our suggestion here is that waiting for the full accounts - after the AGM - might be a good idea.