I think they bought for around €15k. Probably selling into the bid soon?
The risks seem to have already materialized, at least in Miemois’s case. They were behind guidance in Q1, and with the low-snow winter, Q2 was likely difficult. This is followed by the chain of events I described in my quoted message. A profit warning is not a big surprise after this, and consequently, the financial position is also difficult due to the weak earnings level. The collapse in France is likely on Miemois, and apparently, improvements haven’t been achieved there quickly enough.
It’s a shame. Duell’s management team could have certainly used some continuity.
P.S. The biggest culprit behind Duell’s miserable stock market story is the board, and there hasn’t been enough turnover there relative to the dismal performance level.
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I hope we get a proper turnaround specialist who is ready to trim the fat and make the choices needed to improve profitability, even if revenue drops significantly. Owners have no use for revenue if it doesn’t generate returns.
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Nothing good is in sight for a long time. Consumer confidence is crashing to all-time lows.
A profit warning is the minimum, or even restructuring. It depends on the lender. Covenants are being breached.
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It’s also interesting that the interim CEO is coming from outside the management team? Usually, the CFO or someone else takes over the CEO’s role temporarily. There aren’t even any contact details for this Tomi Virtanen on Duell’s website, let alone a LinkedIn profile.
Often when announcing a CEO’s dismissal, there’s usually at least some thanks given to the outgoing CEO, but now there’s absolutely no comment one way or the other.
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When a CEO gets fired, they can just copy-paste some corporate jargon into the press release as an explanation; the writer can choose whatever they feel like from pre-drafted templates. The informational value is usually close to zero. Even the CEO of a Titanic sinking toward the seabed might be thanked for their “significant contribution to the company’s business,” and so on. We’ve seen this many times before. The goal of the release is usually to portray the company in a positive light.
This company’s stock market journey has also been painful to watch. Duell’s share price performance is -98%, while an OMXH25GI index investor’s return over the same period is +55% with zero hours of analysis.
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Duell announced yesterday that Magnus Miemois is leaving his position as the company’s CEO. The announcement did not disclose the background for the dismissal, but we consider it likely that Duell’s sluggish performance led to the CEO’s termination. This, in turn, increases the probability of development being weaker than our forecast as well as the likelihood of a profit warning; reflecting this, we lowered our estimates for the coming years. We also expect Duell to have to resort to additional financing, which would dilute the ownership stake of current shareholders. Taking this into account, the valuation appears neutral, and short-term positive share price drivers are few and far between. In light of this overall picture, we are lowering our target price for Duell to EUR 2.80 (prev. EUR 3.20) and our recommendation to Reduce (prev. Accumulate).
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The French operations should at least be shut down immediately; it’s not worth tolerating any more losses, and the company should focus solely on core operations in the Nordics and scale its inventory and operations accordingly.
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A halt is possible at any time, in my opinion. Then we’ll hear how we proceed.