It now looks as though Luke Massie's new Vibe is being valued at well under £5m. On Crowdcube 2 years ago it was valued at £6m but investors who put in £600,000 in 2016 are going to get lucky, as Luke gifts them free shares in the new Vibe. HMRC who were owed £57,000 by the now defunct old Vibe and are the main reason it was put into administration by Massie, are waiting to hear if they will get anything.
The £200k is part of a £700k round to launch the newco Vibe Tickets after Massie bought the old Co which he put into administration. We have now news on where the other £500k is coming from but the Vela investment is unconditional. Vela itself is not riding high on AIM and the mess with Vibe has certainly got some interesting comments from investors.
The numbers are difficult to be sure of, but it looks as though that 3% of Vibe Tickets will be worth considerably less than the £600,000 investors put in 2 years ago. 3% of £5m is only £150,000. Massie has chosen to give them 3% of Vibe Tickets not 3% of VHGL. As VGHL is worth £5m and most of that comes from its 97% holding in Vibe Tickets, we can assume that the latter is worth less than £5m. So claims that all his Crowdcube investors, who bought 10% of the old co for £600k in 2016, will get like for like shares in the newco do not stack up. But that is no surprise.
In a series of deals which he definitely did not arrange in advance, he has done rather well when his loyal investors have not. Pure luck. On the flip side, he is under no legal obligation to gift 3% of the new Vibe's shares, so one could see this as an act of the benevolent dictator or entrepreneur.
In all of this, it has always struck me as odd that Massie claims the whole problem was caused by Matt Ewing, the boss of Elite Telecom, who had invested £600k prior to the CC round, having too much control due to a SH Agreement which the young Massie had failed to understand. He goes and on and on about how this tied his hands and he couldnt operate the company - which is poppycock. All it did was prevent him from raising new cash without consultation. We know the real reason he put it into administration now that the first report has been filed - very poor management. But where in all of Massie's arguments are Vela Technologies - who were also a substantial investor in Vibe, putting on £400k, under the same SH Agreement. Vela is run by an ex stockbroker - so if he cant read and understand a simple SH Agreement, what hope have Crowdcube investors? Or indeed Luke Massie.
Meanwhile Vibe Tickets as a business seems to be viable so long as Luke remembers this time to pay the company's dues to PAYE and NI. His judgements are still highly questionable and his reasons given for the collapse of the old Vibe do not stand up to scrutiny.
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