Struggling to understand what Quindell (LSE: QPP) is talking about? Heres a quick guide that might help
7 April: significant new contract with such a distinguished and respected brand as RAC , with potential subscriber revenue of $720 million to $2.2 billion per annum. But just five months later, after the deal had been scrapped
2 September: Chairman Rob Terry told The Telegraph that the contract was hardly a focus! So either his earlier claims had not been realistic, or he really didnt think the prospect of more than 1bn a year in revenue was worth focusing on.
9 September: judgement in its favour in its libel action against Gotham City Research. The truth is that the US firm responsible for a scathing report on Quindell simply didnt turn up ithas no operations in the UK and nothing to gain. Meanwhile, Quindell still hasnt sued any UK-based commentators making similar claims.
23 October: At Q3 time, The Board remains confident of meeting all of its FY2014 key performance indicators. But revenue guidance for the year was cut from 800-900m to 750-800m Quindell doesnt see revenue as being important? I guess that fits with Terrys dismissal of that claimed income potential from the RAC contract.
5 November: Quindell proudly announced Director Share Purchases and gave details of apparent new larger holdings for Terry and two of his cronies. As we now know, the three were actually massive net sellers and had dumped more than 8.5 million shares, with Terry responsible for the bulk of the sales.
10 November: Quindell was forced by the LSE to admit they transferred the legal and beneficial interest in a number of shares […] in return for […] receiving a payment. This time the announcement actually meant what it said, even though its the second-most weasly way of saying sold that Ive ever read.
17 November: Canaccord Genuity Limited submitted its one month notice of resignation as the Companys financial adviser and joint broker on 21 October 2014, but we didnt give shareholders this important information until today.
8 November: Robert Terry, the Companys Chairman, has resigned from the Board of Directors with immediate effect. Hes now just a paid advisor, still effectively calling the shots, and theres no chairman.
20 November: Quindell […] is not actively seeking to sell its shares in Nationwide Accident Repair Services, after claims in several newspapers that it was trying to do just that after having failed to obtain new funding from banks and hedge funds. But it remains silent on whether it had been trying to dump the shares at the time of the claims.
26 November: Laurence Moorse failed to meet a margin call on the shares he sold in November and has forfeited any right to repurchase them. Presumably Rob Terry was similarly called, but as hes not actually a director now theres no need to tell us via RNS.
I wouldn’t recommend Quindell to those hoping to become millionaires, but you really could make it into that elite group if you invest in high-quality companies.
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Alan Oscroft has no position in any shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.