Thalassa Holdings Ltd: Annual Financial Report

Thalassa Holdings Ltd

Thalassa Holdings Ltd

(Reuters: THAL.L, Bloomberg: THAL:LN)

("Thalassa” or the "Company")

AUDITED RESULTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023

The Company today announces its audited results for the year ended 31 December 2023.

The information set out below is extracted from the Company's Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2023, which will be published today on the Company's website www.thalassaholdings.com.  A copy has also been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism where it will be available for inspection.  Cross-references in the extracted information below refer to pages and sections in the Company's Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2023.

Group Results 2023 versus 2022 GBP GBP

• Profit /(loss) after tax for the year 
  (£0.89)m vs (£1.45)m
• Group Earnings Per Share (basic and diluted)*1     
       (£0.11) vs (£0.18)
• Book value per share*2
  £1.16 vs £1.30
• Investment Holdings £8.0m vs £7.7m
• Cash                                                                                                        £0.1m vs £1.4m

*1 based on weighted average number of shares in issue of 7,945,838 (2022: 7,945,838)

*2 based on actual number of shares in issue as at 31 December 2023 of 7,945,838 (2022: 7,945,838)

2023 Macro-Highlights

• U.S. Stocks rose 26.4% (including dividends), the biggest rally in the US Market Index since 2019.
• Stocks were up 12.1% in the fourth quarter, the index’s best quarterly performance since late 2020.
• Since hitting their bear-market low in October 2022, stocks rallied 36%.
• Technology stocks posted a huge year, surging 59.1% for their best performance since 2009. Along with Nvidia which soared 239.0%, chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices AMD jumped 128%.
• Communications Services ranked second among stock sectors, gaining 54.5%, led by rallies in Alphabet GOOGL, Meta Platforms META, and Netflix NFLX.
• The so-called “Magnificent Seven” stocks contributed nearly half of the stock market’s overall gain.

• Large-growth stocks gained 47.3%, blowing away large- value stocks by 36 percentage points—the second- biggest advantage for growth in 25 years.
• Utilities stocks stumbled, losing 7%—their worst year since 2008—dragged down by higher interest rates.
• Dividend stocks lagged the broader market. The Morningstar US Dividend Composite Index rose 11%.
• Volatility remained very high in bonds, with some parts of the bond market staging a round trip over the year. The yield on the U.S.Treasury 10-year note started and finished 2023 near 3.8%, but during the year rose to a 17-year high near 5%.
• Credit-sensitive corners of the bond market performed strongly as the economy avoided recession. High-yield bonds gained 13.5%, making for their best year since 2019.

• In the final months of the year, the market’s rally did broaden beyond the Magnificent Seven. However, this small group of stocks was still responsible for 47.8% of the US Market Index’s 26.5% gain in 2023.
• On the other side of the fence, 2022’s leaders were left in the dust in 2023. The biggest performance differential came among energy stocks.The Morningstar US Energy Index surged 62.5% in 2022, but in 2023, the sector barely held in positive territory as oil prices slid. While many energy stocks had pushed into overvalued territory as a result of the 2022 rally; at the outset of 2024 the sector was broadly seen as undervalued.

2023 Micro-Highlights

• ARL
  • proof of concept, fully functional Seismic Node completed
  • completion of upgraded software targeted for Q3/Q4 2024
  • retention of Investment Bank to assist in growth capital fundraising initiated
  • discussions with potential Strategic Partners initiated
• Tappit restitution agreement
  • Chairman has contributed £0.3m YTD 2024, of up to a possible £3m pending of sale of personal property.
• Small gain on hedging achieved in 2023 ~£20K.
• Strategic Business Review initiated with the objective of reducing costs and scaling the business. As part of the Group’s cost saving exercise, migration of the Group’s accounting software from Oracle NetSuite to Intuit QuickBooks has nearly been completed.
• Chairman waived 2021 consultancy. 2022, 2023, and YTD 2024 consultancy have been accrued but not paid. Equity conversion terms under discussion.

“Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into.”

Laurel and Hardy, Sons of the desert 1933 Or

The Great Paradox of the US Market!

By Jeremy Grantham

https://www.gmo.com/europe/research-library/the-great-paradox-of-the-u.s.-market_viewpoints

The following thoughts are extracts from Market Watch and GMO, and hopefully reflect Mr Grantham’s, and my view of the Market

• U.S. stocks appear expensive after investor mania surrounding artificial-intelligence interrupted the bursting of an initial market bubble that was deflating in 2022.
• “Prices reflect near perfection, yet today’s world is particularly imperfect and dangerous,” Jeremy Grantham.
• AI, “a new bubble within a bubble like this, even one limited to a handful of stocks, is totally unprecedented, so looking at history books may have its limits.”
• In January 2022, Grantham warned that the U.S. was nearing the end of a “super bubble” across major asset classes. Both stocks and bonds plunged that year as the Federal Reserve aggressively hiked interest rates in a bid to tame surging inflation. But the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 paused the deflation of the equities bubble that he saw, according to his note.