The Dean factor, why you should avoid this stock

In the case of a Stephen Dean company one should examine the quality of the assets shown on the balance sheet and also have a good look at the tranactions he reports as giving rise to a profit. He has a habit of conducting artificially valued transactions between interconnected companies within a group that he controls in which no money changes hands, except when he is the seller in a personal capacity. By this means he can inflate on paper the consideration received for the assets one company is selling to another, and so book an unwarranted profit for the selling company. He did this with Artisan and Cater Barnard. He knows he can only do this and get away with it for a limited time with any one company so when it is time to leace he exits that company on his terms before the truth is recogised. In the case of Artisan, he obtained authorisation for the company to purchase it own shares. The shareholders expected,ie wanted, the company to purchase its shares on the open market and so help boost the share price. Instead, and in order to help him exit Artisan, he sold a large part of his holding to the company under its newly authorised powers, without shareholder approval. The Aim listing rules permitted this.
He also makes it standard practice to pay another company he controls fat consultancy fees for doing no more than he should be doing as a director anyway.While at Artisan he paid his Gibralter based company around 675,000 pounds per annum