1406 days ago
Just a few hours before voting to delist Octagonal (OCT) from the AIM Cesspit earlier this week, shareholders in the company were presented with unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 September 2020. With AIM’s worst FD, Nilesh Jagatia, in charge and London’s worst Nomad, Roland “fatty” Cornish, signing off, you will not be shocked that there were a raft of howling schoolboy errors.
1429 days ago
Okay, the pantomime at the theatre in Wrexham is cancelled this year along with Christmas thanks to the clinically insane leader of Wales, Mr Mark Drakeford. Instead, thanks to AIM listed Remote Monitored Systems (RMS), we are treated to a performance of a new pantomime. Chancer spivs Paul Ryan & Trevor Brown, your AIM Cesspit career is behind you! Oh no it’s not! Oh yes it is! Or it soon will be.
1435 days ago
I start with Joshua’s Advent calendar, Then it is onto tales of boardroom greed and naughtiness at Octagonal (OCT) which is to leave the AIM Cesspit. Based on what I reveal today, where do you think its cash will go? Then it is onto Verditek (VDTK), Bidstack (BIDS) and a second company run by a former Tory MP, Powerhouse Energy (PHE) where the man in charge is sleazy Tim Yeo.
1443 days ago
Shares in recruitment group Nakama (NAK), once called Highams and a perennial dog in the bottom tier of the AIM Cesspit are up by 15% on news that it is to sell its ongoing businesses and become a cash shell. As ever investors are a tad over-optimistic.
1455 days ago
I see that, on twitter, the usual assortment of lunatics are frothing about DeepVerge (DVRG) another utterly overvalued piece of junk from the AIM Cesspit. Naturally there is a Covid angle and appropriately enough it is a lavatorial one. It is not just Bulletin Board morons pushing this rubbish but esteemed broker Turner Pope has also stuck its nose into the sewerage system (literally) with a gushing note out today.
1459 days ago
The Times newspaper today flags up a series of tweets which, almost certainly break AIM Rules and relate to Remote Monitoring Systems (RMS), a company rapidly becoming the poster boy for the AIM Cesspit. They are not the hanging offence but there is a hanging offence out there…
1710 days ago
It was slung off the AIM Cesspit after just a few months back in 2015 but not before Roland “Fatty “ Cornish, London’s worst Nomad, had made a killing from listing fees and cashing in warrants and dumping shares. Now the company has gone bust … readers of this website cannot say that they were not warned that this would end in tears.
1775 days ago
First things first. It is 6 months and 1 day to the 3 Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks walk. I did a short train yesterday at Moel Famau of which more later. Anhow, if you enjoy bearcast please show so by donating HERE. Thanks in advance for your support and also for the birthday wishes. As you can see in the comments section HERE there is a poster on ADVFN who seems to think he can save Versarien (VRS) by suggesting, falsely, that I am a paedophile. Normally I’d ignore such pond life but I am almost tempted to teach him a very expensive legal lesson in libel law. What do you think? Then it is onto a story dictated by NMC Health’s (NMC) PR team to yellow journalists at the Mail on Sunday. The real import of threats against Caron Block & Muddy Waters is very negative for NMC. Finally I have a bombshell for AIM Cesspit followers tomorrow. Watch this space!
1802 days ago
How insane is this even by the standards of the AIM Cesspit? In late August this year I exposed how Sheikh Ahmed Bin Dalmook Al Maktoum had invested in a placing by what was MX Oil (MXO) got it to change its name to ADM Energy (ADM) in his honour as he became President, saw the shares rocket, and then sold all his shares before announcing he was quitting sending the shares crashing from 20p to 4.5p today. Wind forward to November 28…
1830 days ago
Okay AIM is loathe to boot off any company given how the World’s Most Successful Growth market is shrinking and Lagos Securities just wants retainers so will act for anyone, I answer my own question. But even by the standards of the AIM Cesspit, surely there comes a point where one says “enough is enough.”
1836 days ago
Yesterday Waseem Shakoor’s top six stocks from the AIM Cesspit which he thought set to crash were revealed HERE. That seems to have annoyed a fair few folks on the Bulletin Boards so, on that basis, I thought I’d offer my top ten stocks to crash. In no particular order:
1843 days ago
I remember long ago doing a seminar with some CEO or other. I cannot remember who it was but it was one of the slugs operating at the lower end of the AIM Cesspit. I pondered whether his interests were aligned with those of ordinary shareholders: how many shares do you own? I asked.
1853 days ago
But it does not. Its Nomad is Beaumont Cornish, run by Roland “Fatty” Cornish who only acts for companies that are the dregs of the AIM Cesspit. They can say what they want in an RNS, fatty will sign off on it before waddling off for a four course breakfast, luncheon or dinner. Bad companies use Fatty as he will sign off on anything. Good companies do not want investors assuming they are dodgy so use another Nomad. And that brings us to Vast.
1901 days ago
AIM Cesspit Posterboy Management Resource Solutions (MRS) served up another dollop of comedy on Friday. On Thursday it had waited until someone had had plenty of time to dump shares with the price tonking, before suspending its shares because of bad news it has known about well before the UK market opened. That news was that Voluntary Administrators had been appointed to 5 Australian subsidiaries. Now we learn more…
1905 days ago
Shares in this posterboy for the AIM Cesspit fell in morning trade. Pure coincidence natch! Nothing to see here officer, move along quickly please. At 2.20 PM the Oxymorons at AIM Regulation suspended trading in a company we have pointed out is drowning in debt and red flags and is almost certainly worthless on many occasions as you can see HERE. At 4.01 PM Management issued a statement. You cannot make this shit up. Only on the AIM Cesspit.
1956 days ago
In today’s bearcast I look forward to the new show on Wednesday which will be half recorded by the end of today. I cover Mortice (MORT) a tale of shareholder woe friom the AIM Cesspit, Kier (KIE), Dev Clever (DEV), Anglo African Oil & Gas (SCUM), Premier Technical Services Group (PTSG) and Mobile Streams (MOS), where I study what happens to cashflow when a company is near to death and the red flag gaps in today’s trading statement.
2014 days ago
Retained losses are £27 million and counting, the shares have collapsed from 82p at IPO to just 0.4p, Blur (BLUR), now rebranded as Maistro (MAIS), has been a disaster for investors but at least its founder Phil Letts and his ghastly wife who was also on a fat salary have been able to buy and upgrade a Country mansion, as we noted HERE. Today as it issued another lack of profits warning and warned of another cash crisis, Maistro says it is going to delist from the AIM Cesspit.
2061 days ago
During the weekend in three separate articles I have detailed what an insolvent can of worms is AIM Cesspit listed Management Resource Solutions (MRS) and asked questions that need answering about its latest £1.32 million all share acquisition. The company has failed to answer the matters raised and its shares have plunged another 25.4% to 2.35p today. I have thus written to Nomad Arden demanding that it suspend trading in the shares at once and why. The letter is below.
2113 days ago
The behaviour of Westminster Group (WSG) chaired by disgraced ex Tory MP , Sir Tony Baldry of 3DM fraud infamy, displays everything that is worst about the AIM Cesspit. Today we have a £500,000 placing via newly appointed joint broker the low -life team at SVS. But just ten day ago it was all so different.
2113 days ago
Floated on the AIM Cesspit in May 2018 at 15p a share and raising £6 million Maestrano (MNO) describes itself as a “cloud business integration platform with cross-app data synchronization” I’d describe it as an univestable piece of shit.
2148 days ago
Yesterday I pointed out that the ultimate benefactor of AIM Cesspit listed Independent Oil & Gas (IOG), was blocked from doing any activity after an FCA raid and that created real issues for Independent. The company and its scumbag Nomad FinnCap (FCAP) has responded with a statement that quite simply misleads investors. That should tell you everything…SELL!
2150 days ago
This is a typical AIM Cesspit tale of woe and greed. CSF Group (CSF) listed on the AIM casino in 2010, a smallish Malaysian company of no interest to anyone. But the advisers raked it in with fat fees and fat promises to the board and shareholders. Coke and hookers all round in the Square Mile. Wind forward to August 28 last year.
2234 days ago
In today's bearcast I start with a look at Patisserie Holdings (CAKE) run by my pal Luke Johnson and I discuss the nature of fraud. I look at Sosandar (SOS) again and get really very angry (warning bad language alert), at FastJet (FJET), Telford Homes (TEF) and the folly of Government policy, Online Blockchain (OBC), and at Urals Energy (UEN) and the folly of the AIM Cesspit.
2271 days ago
Heck: maybe it is time to give up this game and become a goat-herd here in Greece after all. I despair at today's AIM Cesspit antics involving market abuser Justin the Clown and his employers at Vox markets who appear not to care, Andalas (ADL) and Frontera (FRR) as they all mislead investors who appear happy to be duped and to lose money as the bandits prosper.
2284 days ago
AIM Cesspit poster boy Strat Aero (AERO) has today announced that it has upped its stake in Gyrometric Systems Limited from 36.9% to 57.7% by issuing £273,000 “worth” of worthless pieces of confetti ( 23.8 million shares). Whoopie do.
2697 days ago
Another one off - this time recorded with my three legged cat Oakley. I am so angry. I touch on MySquar (MYSQ) and what it says about the AIM Casino as a follow up to today's pieces HERE and HERE. But the main focus is on events at Magnolia Petroleum. I give chapter and verse on why CEO Rita should have been fired and what it says about the AIM cesspit that she was not. I discuss today's deal which saves her and expaian why it will not save Magnolia (MAGP). I give your hard data on its impact on cashflows and on the balance sheet. This POS is toast but Rita and her Nomad make me want to barf.
2857 days ago
Today AIM listed serial disaster story and cash guzzler Fitbug (FITB) has announced that it has raised £1 million at 0.2p. The shares have crashed to 0.19-0.2p on the news ( a fall of 26%) but if one looks at the trades you see the sordid underbelly of the AIM Cesspit in full play.
2985 days ago
On 16 September, AIM Cesspit posterboy Gable (GAH) run by William "Piggy" Dewsall, made the following announcement:
3012 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed City of London (CIN) is surely a sinking ship. If Nomad Peel Hunt had a shred of integrity it would surely quit now on news that a third director has quit in six days leaving just one rat on board - chairman Paul Milner. The shares are off by 24% today to 3p but fair value ahead of suspension, administration or both is surely 0p. The Company is now in Breach of the Companies Act 2006, S154(2)which requires a public company to have at least two directors. Do hapless Nomad Peel Hunt or the oxymorons at AIM Regulation care about companies breaking the law? It appears not.
3028 days ago
Yesterday I exposed the scoundrels at AIM dog Strat Aero with the publication of a 338 page Texas legal disposition containing emails and other evidence that is damning. Not only does this show that Strat is up to no good and thus faces a very real chance of losing the $20 million claim against it and its officers, but it also casts a light on the sordid goings on on the AIM Cesspit. The Strat response is so offensively bad that it merits a declaration of war from the Sheriff of AIM on this piece of Turkish. Strat, as a PLC, you are a dead man walking...you are toast.
3065 days ago
I warn you that this podcast uses bad language as I am unspeakably angry about the numbers from AIM cesspit posterboy Servision (SEV). In so many ways its results, which were issued at no-one is watching O'clock yesterday, are a disgrace. At least it is prepared to admit to some of the financial crimes against humanity which I have accused it of. But it is clearly bust and I comment on its numbers, on what the directors and auditors say, on its partial admission of guilt and on the reprehensible behaviour of Jon Bellis and his colleagues at Belfort Securities around the time of the (grossly misleading) interims of 30 September. The target price is 0p as this company is almost bust and truly is a piece of Turkish.
3219 days ago
Just when you thought PeerTV (PTV) could sink no lower in the AIM Cesspit it comes up with another shocker. The company is clearly insolvent, it has today admitted to lying to investors which is fraud as it issued shares after that lie and its Nomad ZAI Corporate Finance has formally walked. No-one else will act for it so after one month of suspension its shares will be booted off the AIM Casino. The next point of call will be the administrators and hopefully the rozzers as well.
The farce first. Ossie Weitzman who quit as FD yesterday has unresigned. Good, he will be there when the Old Bill come a calling. However Kavi Dhana
3331 days ago
We have already flagged that AIM-Cesspit POS Golden Saint Resources (GSR) was out of cash HERE. Today we find that despite pre-placing ramps (see HERE and HERE) it appears that it is out of friends too. This morning, it appears that the company could not even get a keep-the-lights-on placing away, and has had to turn to a death spiral. Except that it could not even go to any of the usual players there either, turning instead to crowd-funding. And to cap it all, this funding round has not yet been completed – today’s RNS simply announces of its launch. This is a slam-dunk sell.
3375 days ago
On Monday I stated that an RNS from AIM Cesspit listed Eden Research stank to high heaven. A quite bizarre exchange of emails has followed as more has emerged about that pongy deal with Eden just refusing to answer basic questions.
3440 days ago
In the disgusting and sordid depths of the AIM Cesspit, the Kingdom of fraudster Rob Terry of Quindell (QPP) infamy the lastest minnow in the headlights is Casino listed Imaginatik (IMTK) - shares in which are up 41% at 8.125p, valuing it at £5.7 million. To see the true Terry stench check out twitter.
3477 days ago
My big gripes with Charles Clark of AIM Cesspit listed dog Rosslyn Data (RDT) are that its IPO prospectus was misleading and that it is rapidly running out of cash. I really do not care about its CEO Charles Clark's brief stint in the porn industry bit he seems jolly keen not to discuss it and perhaps he needs a bit of a reminder of how exciting his life could have been.
I put it to the uber foxy PR of Rosslyn that Mr Clark had been involved in Orchid Media Group the owner of porn maker Orchidxxx.com. After consulting with her client I was told that Mr Clark had not been involved at all. Hmmm.
3546 days ago
My first meeting with my barrister as I seek to have the Aiden Earley injunction lifted is on Monday afternoon and will cost £1000 +VAT. My lawyers’ fees are already in excess of that. The hearing at the High Court on Wednesday will cost several thousand pounds and so I ask for your URGENT help in getting this injunction lifted so we can expose more stock market crime.
We still have a couple of thousand on the kitty from the Sefton/AIM Cesspit campaign but that will be gone once we pay the first lawyers bill. And the costs here will rack up but it is important that we win.
As a result of our work full dossiers are now with the SFO, UKLA/FCA, HMRC and others.
If you value this work to clean up the stockmarket I ask you
3596 days ago
Pressfit (PFIT) listed on the AIM Casino on August 1 2014. Its first profits warning came within three months. It was booted off the AIM Cesspit yesterday. It is Chinese. I name those responsible for this scandal - firms and individuals - and suggest that all concerned need steep fines and an immediate termination of their City careers and explain why.
3637 days ago
I was accused by some moron yesterday of bringing AIM into disrepute. Au contraire I merely shine a light on the stinking cesspit it has become. In this podcast I explain some of AIM's dirty secrets, another fraud committed by an AIM Company (guess which one) and set out an agenda for easy reform
3670 days ago
I really do not care about the POS company that is Touchstone Gold. It is typical of the detritus at the bottom of the AIM Cesspit. But its RNS today is a shocker - it is grotesquely misleading. Behind it lies a tale of management incompetence and greedy and venal crony capitalists on the AIM Casino who care about nothing other than lining their own pockets and funding the coke and hookers. Shareholders are just there to be screwed. All of the guilty parties are named and shamed and the lies exposed in this scorching podcast. Yes. I am angry.
3702 days ago
You could not make this up. Disgraced liar and crook Jim Ellerton may well be reinstated as the next Chairman of Sefton Resources (SER) in January. This take from the AIM Cesspit gets worse and worse.
3754 days ago
Shares in African Eagle (AFE) were suspended from the AIM Cesspit today because as an “investing company” it has failed in twelve months to…er make an investment. In six months’ time if it has made no investment it will be booted off the casino for good. At the suspension price of 0.28p it is valued at £2.5 million but worth NOTHING. Who said markets were efficient?
Of course if you read recent statements from the company you’d have thought that there was bright upside. In light of recent events would chairman Kola Karim like to justify these statements made via RNS on 18th June 2014?
3754 days ago
The way that the AIM Casino is set up is based on one great enormous conflict of interest and that is why companies can and do tell lies to investors – that is the Nomad (Nominated Advisor) system.
A company must, under AIM rules, have a Nomad. If its Nomad quits the shares are suspended. If no replacement Nomad is found within a month the stock is booted off the Cesspit for good. The Nomad must verify every statement that is put out by a company and ensure that it complies with the rules. As such it is the Nomad who is at the front line of regulation and it works FOR the LSE.
3757 days ago
At the year-end Northern Petroleum (NOP) reported its cash in Euros – 26.5 million. Yesterday it boasted of its cash balance in dollars $22 million. I guess someone might have fallen for that sleight of hand – it could have been transparent and used a number of 16.5 million Euro. But transparency and the AIM Cesspit? Enough said.
3761 days ago
A Trading statement from China based AIM Cesspit POS Naibu (NBU) today is sheer comedy genius. The shares are off again at 51.5p and I am now minded to revisit my 1p target price as I am being generous.
This is the company where the CEO lent his mum a seven figure sum - cash that belonged to the company – to buy a property. The deal fell through but she is not bothering to repay. When all its peers suffered falling sales and margin compression, Naibu reported numbers that bucked the trend. Its reported numbers in terms of margin are off the scale. It had had six auditors in six years.
At its AGM, CEO Lin failed to appear citing problems with his visa. Bollocks. I was there
3761 days ago
As I expected the FCA has today rejected my Freedom of Information Request to discover why Quindell failed to make it off the AIM Cesspit and onto the main market. But look at its reasoning. Ooooh er missus…
The letter from the FCA Reads:
Freedom of Information: Right to know request
We refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“the Act”), for information as follows :
“… ALL the reasons for the failed application and hereby under FOI request that you publish or send to me a full copy of the UKLA rejection letter sent to Quindell PLC on or about 11th June 2014”
Your request has now been considered.
3763 days ago
Another day and yet another profits warning from AIM listed specialist engineering group Redhall (RHL). This is a zombie company in that from an investor’s point of view it is just dead money. But it supports an army of crony capitalists, directors and various City parasites.
So let’s start with the profits warning. Redhall stated:
3769 days ago
Quindell (QPP) has steadfastly refused to give ALL of the reasons why the UKLA refused to allow it to move off the AIM Cesspit – where it belongs – and onto the main market. It cited one clause of the listing rules as being “particularly” to blame but will just not say what all the reasons were. And so I submitted a Freedom of Information request to the FCA weeks ago. That was acknowledged then in a standard way.
I had expected this to be rejected but lo and behold I have just received an update email stating that it is “being considered” and apologising for delay but stating that I would get a decision “shortly.” I still expect a rejection in the end but there must now be a chance that I shall soon be publishing the reasons for the rejection in full. Oh goodie goodie…that will be fun.
Meanwhile
3779 days ago
Does Bango (BGO) deserve some sort of award for its record for not making profits? The company was established in 1999, floated on the AIM Cesspit in 2005 and is still not actually making a profit? To date investors have lapped up its jam tomorrow story of enabling folks to make payments via apps, etc. and circa £25 million has gone to money heaven. But surely as yet another cash call looms this farce cannot pay on forever?
The circa £25 million number comes from retained losses plus capitalised costs. Yes, like all loss making tech plays Bango is a keen capitaliser of costs. The P&L looks less abject but the cash is still heading out of the door.
At the end of 2013
3791 days ago
Clean Air Power (CAP) has just raised £1 million at 4p – a 27% discount to the share price the day before the RNS. The stock now trades at a new year low of 4.125p and this appears a lesson in red flags. I’d not wan t to hold this stock as it strikes me that it is full of CAP.
The hype is clear. Roman Abramovich is a shareholder and he is a smart fellow. Yes he is but we all make mistakes. The company has exciting technology, hmmm. It states that it is “developer and provider of Dual-Fuel™ engines for heavy duty vehicles.” Well that may or may not be a growth market but that does not mean this company will make money from it. Think AIM Cesspit listed Tanfield (TAN) and green cars. But who cares. It sounds exciting so let’s buy a few…er, maybe not.
And as it happens the company boasts that since 1991 it has spent £50 million on its technology and as a result has patents pending in 65 countries. Hmmmm. 23 years and £50 million spunked up against the wall on R&D and it is still not anywhere close to generating cash? Yes that’s right.
As at the end of calendar 2013
3798 days ago
By 4.30 PM tomorrow all companies listed on the AIM Cesspit with a December 31st year end must have published their results or their shares will be suspended. And here are a good few likely contenders as you can see below.
Generally any company that leaves it to the wire to publish its results is a piss poor company. Thus I note that of those publishing at the last minute last year, two (RAM Active Media and XXI Century) are no longer on AIM. And not for good reasons.
Two Cesspit posterboys have already suspended their shares because they have already ‘fessed up to an inability to publish calendar 2013 numbers on time: Bodisen Biotech (BODI) and Conexion Media (CXM). I covered the farce that is the Bodisen POS here.
So who will join Bodisen and Conexion in suspension in time for the AIM Cesspit awards dinner. The list below is not comprehensive but there are a good few runners and riders:
3798 days ago
Twice in the past couple of weeks I have accused AIM Cesspit listed Astar Minerals (ASTA) of issuing an RNS that was a lie - HERE and HERE. Twice I have been pilloried by Bulletin Board Morons. On Friday Astar ‘fessed up via RNS and its chairman Andrew Frangos called me to thank me for forcing his company to set the record straight. The sinner repenteth, I am vindicated. The Sheriff of AIM is a merciful man and the incident is at an end, I move on.
Astar’s crime was to claim that it had JVs with two Nogel companies which were operators of assets (May lie) or had relationships with big names like Apache (June lie). In fact, as I clearly demonstrated, both were shelf companies. The wider Nogel group seems a complex beast and within it there are entities which could have made such claims but Astar had signed no deal with them. To claim as much was, Frangos admitted to me, wrong.
While the Bulletin Board morons ranted
3798 days ago
I have not had a lawyer’s letter for more than two weeks. I can only conclude either that the greedy fat cat City Bully Boy lawyers are all sipping corporate champagne at Wimbledon or that I am slipping and being too much of a nice guy for my own good. It is only a matter of time and so I invite readers to guess who will send me my next lawyer’s letter. And, to help you select which scumbags are likely to win, I offer a handy form guide.
The Form Guide is simple. How many lawyers letters have I received in the past two years from the companies in the week’s poll.
3798 days ago
In the last days of March, AIM Cesspit listed Phorm (PHRM) raised £10 million. Today it has warned that unless it raises more cash urgently it will go tits up. I reckon tits up day is in mid-August.
The numbers defy belief. As ever in March Phorm was blathering on about the good days ahead. It is still blathering on about billions of potential advertising pages blah blah blah as it announced its results for the 2013 calendar year and admits to more delays on the operational side. But it is the cash that should horrify one and all.
Phorm says that cash and cash equivalents as at May 31 were $8.8 million - call that £5.5 million. In other words in just two months £4.5 million has gone to money heaven. Why Phorm cannot give us an up to date figure in this era of electronic banking God only knows.
But at the current run rate this company will be out of cash and tits up by mid-August. That should be the headline. Phorm phrases this dogs dinner in more of a blurred fashion thus:
3801 days ago
If you are a good Chinese company you list in Hong Kong or Shanghai because it is easier to raise money, here is liquidity in your shares and ratings are higher. If you are a piece of Junk (geddit?) you list on the AIM Cesspit. Time and again it is the same old story. Today’s catastrophe is Bodisen Biotech (BODI) – which Chinese POS will be next?
3805 days ago
I am afraid that the two free tickets for the AIM Cesspit dinner offered thirty minutes ago have both been snapped up. But you can still buy tickets for the dinner on June 30th in Clerkenwell for just £40. The evening includes a three course meal, half a litre of wine per person and talks by Evil Knievil, Lucian Miers and a few words from me. We will also be handing out the nine AIM Cesspit Trophies.
You can book your ticket and select your menu options HERE
And remember to vote in the Cesspit awards – you can do so HERE.
Best wishes
The Sheriff of AIM
3807 days ago
On 27th May AIM Cesspit listed Astar Minerals (ASTA) lied to investors in an RNS. This overvalued POS Company is run by a bucket shop stockbroker and anyone buying the shares needs their head examined. The fact that it took The Sheriff of AIM only ten minutes to unearth this lie shows what dumb and unprincipled mothers these folks are.
Let’s start with the lie. Astar stated:
3812 days ago
Not that I wish to influence your vote in any way but surely you must now have enough reasons to consider voting for Angus Forrest of Tern (TERN) in the “lifetime Achievement for value Destruction” category in the AIM Cesspit awards. But maybe you think there are stronger candidates.
3812 days ago
The calls for intervention in Iraq to stop the uprising by Islamofascist nutters grow louder by the day. We were wrong to invade Iraq illegally in the first place (thanks a bunch war criminal Blair) and we would be wrong to intervene in the latest mess.
In this video Tom explains the Ron Paul theory of “blowback” and the folly of Western intervention at every level.
Tom’s financial postcard covers Quindell, Tern and why an RNS lie on the AIM Cesspit always matters. It can be viewed here.
3818 days ago
Tern (TERN) chairman Angus Forrest is fleeing the country. Okay, I exaggerate, he is on a boat to France as he prepares for a week’s holiday. How do I know? Because he has just called me. Forrest tells me that what I am about to publish is confidential. But since it is explosive does he think I give a FF? Come on DLM (now Alpha Returns), Forrest, Bruce Leith go send me a lawyers letter if you want.
The Sheriff of AIM is not scared by such threats and Angus Forrest and Bruce Leith, as of yesterday, are officially “in sights” - see HERE
On 14th August 2012 Digital Learning Marketplace run by Angus Forrest and Bruce Leith issued this RNS:
3819 days ago
The Sheriff of AIM has Angus Forrest of AIM Cesspit listed Tern PLC officially “in sights” as you can read HERE. You can expect a series of bombshells over the next forty eight hours and if that does not end his PLC career then I guess that I shall have to keep going.
In light of this I invite your suggestions for a caption for the picture below. Please post them in the comments section beneath this article.
3820 days ago
Well this is the acid test for AIM – will it accept a listing from Liam McGrattan the Irish fellow who has brought us the stockmarket disasters US Oil & Gas (USOP), TeknoMining and many others. If the Cesspit allows Liam to list IMC Exploration then it is officially a joke market.
As a reminder of the disgrace that is US Oil & Gas (USOP) - a company that was kicked off Plus/ISDX for regulatory failures and is a serial liar click HERE
Want more? Try Teknomining, a company that went bust on PLUS and er…told serial lies as detailed HERE
And now we have IMC
3826 days ago
Not a reference to CEOs and FDs on the AIM Cesspit but to the killing field that my back garden has become. It is all the fault of the mother-in-law, a good Christian woman who visited last weekend but left me strict instructions as to my husbandly duties.
I shall not be offering up a full list but the mother-in-law was, rightly concerned that the back garden was somewhat blighted by an invasion of slugs and snails. They are, I am ordered, to be sent off to meet their maker without delay.
And so once a day I now go out on patrol. Early evening is best I find. But something is wrong. I have no problem in hitting a slug across its back with my trowel. It is an instantaneous death and I have no sympathy for an unattractive creature that wishes to feat on my herbs, flowers and the grape laden vine that dominates the garden. But snails?
For some reason I regard them differently. I know that they eat the same things as slugs and are generally bad news for the garden but while slugs look loathsome, snails are one of God’s more attractive creations. Moreover I feel differently about something I know I can eat. I have tried to persuade the Mrs that we should nurture some larger snails and that she should let me prepare them as l’escargots but she seems a tad unconvinced.
The bottom line is that I cannot kill the snails. But equally I cannot disobey the mother-in-law either. And so
3826 days ago
We give thanks to Comrade Somerville of the 1st Oxfordshire Regiment of the Peasants Army who has come up with a cracking idea for a ninth trophy to be awarded at the AIM Cesspit awards 2014 ceremony on June 30th “Advisor of the year”
This award will be decided by a Judges Posse headed up by the Sheriff of AIM and will be handed out to the Nomad, broker, lawyer or PR advisor which has done most to further the cause if crony capitalism on the Cesspit
3826 days ago
On 19th May shares in Minoan (MIN) traded at 16.375p on the AIM Cesspit. Then they started slipping and slipping and closed yesterday at 13.625p. Today a placing is announced at 12p. What do I conclude? That crony capitalists in the City are not content with buying stock at a discount but that they also engage in insider dealing. They break the law. Will the FCA do anything to stop the fuckers? What do you think?
Here is what happened. Minoan wanted to raise money for working capital and to buy bolt on Travel & Leisure businesses. It has targets and I expect news soon. It has a debt facility it can use but that has a warrant structure attached which makes it even more dilutive than a placing and so it asked its broker WH Ireland to tap up a few funds to buy stock at a discount. That process started in earnest last week.
The sort of folks
3826 days ago
Independent Resources (IRG) won last week’s AIM Cesspit pump and dump (on mug punters) prize as it got its rescue £2.76 million placing away at 3p (the shares being 6.5p) after the pump but before the dump. But a City source makes it clear that the operation is not over yet.
The company admitted in its post dump (ooops I meant placing) RNS that it would be looking for money again. After the funds just raised will only last another 15 months and that is assuming that no drilling takes place.
3826 days ago
Where do you start with the new posterboy of the AIM Cesspit, Tangiers Petroleum (TPET) and news yesterday that it has increased its fundraise from A$5 million to A$9 million? The whole thing stinks.
The original fundraise was announced on May 13 2014. Move forward a week and a report appears on an Australian website Nextoilrush claiming that investors have a 20% chance of making 100 times their money. The report was riddled with grotesque factual errors as James Parter revealed HERE. It was a disgrace.
Over in Oz, Tangiers did not issue an RNS to say “Comment on press speculation – this report is full of errors and should be ignored”. Instead it issued an RNS driving investors to read this report.
The key point here is that Tangiers paid hard cash to have this report issued.
3826 days ago
As predicted in last week’s postcard, and indeed for months, UKIP won the European Elections. A Lord Ashcroft poll just out reveals that most UKIP voters will NOT go back to Lib/Lab/Con at the next General Election. I suspect that by 2015 that might change a bit.
However in this week’s video I examine the response of Lib/Lab/Con to the rise of UKIP and find it unconvincing. On all the issues that drove folks to Nigel Farage & Co, the old parties are mouthing platitudes but no-one believes them.
My financial video this week covers the tragedy of delistings and other aspects of the AIM Cesspit. It can be viewed HERE
3826 days ago
Nigel Somerville has earlier today (HERE) published the most extraordinary evidence of corporate malfeasance at what was Digital Learning and is now Alpha Returns (ARGP). The two directors exposed by Nigel now run Tern PLC (TERN), another sub scale investment company on the AIM Cesspit. I demand that they be fired NOW!
The FCA and other watchdogs are fully aware of the evidence that Nigel has gathered and investigations are underway. The Non Exec at Tern Laurence Read is an honourable guy and he could choose to wait for the official regulators to act. However the evidence is now out there in the public domain. The Sheriff of AIM has a noose at hand and suggests that Read and Nomad John Wakefield of WH Ireland use it. Forrest and Leith must go NOW!
In that vein I have just written to John and Laurence as follows.
Dear Laurence & John.
3826 days ago
On Monday 30 June we will be handing out nine trophies in the 2014 AIM Cesspit awards. All those who have made the Aim Casino the crony capitalist den of iniquity that it is will be honoured.
There will be guest speakers present: Evil Knievil and Lucian Miers and everyone should have fun. No lawyers will be allowed to attend so you can say what you want.
The meal offered is a three course (pizza and pasta) offering featuring such delights as the Range Resources (RRL) pizza, a bit fishy and with very little oil.
Tickets for the event, which starts at 6 PM, cost £40 and that includes the three course meal, coffees and ½ litre of very drinkable French wine. Attendance is restricted by the size of The Real Man restaurant at 91-95 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1R 2BX and so book early to ensure you get a seat.
You can book your ticket and select your menu options HERE
3826 days ago
We seem to be having a bit of a run in with Roland “Fatty” Cornish of Nominated Advisor Beaumont Cornish. First there was the little matter of New World Oil & Gas – see HERE. Now we come to events at what is now Alpha Returns (ARGP) and matters from 2012 revealed by Nigel Somerville earlier today HERE
All in all it looks as if Fatty is making a strong late run for the AIM Cesspit 2014 advisor of the year award judged by The Sheriff of AIM, details of which can be found HERE.
But there are other strong contenders and so pro tem I have formally asked the AIM Regulation Team to investigate the events of August and September 2012 and to establish what verification fatty undertook on statements going out in his name. My letter follows.
Dear Sirs,
3826 days ago
This is just par for the course on the AIM Cesspit – today’s less in how crony capitalism sees private investors shafted on a daily basis comes from the toerags at Independent Resources (IRG). This is just shocking.
Twelve days ago, with the shares at 5p, I helpfully pointed out that Independent was almost certainly almost insolvent HERE – that is to say its net current assets were almost certainly negative.
On 25th May this article appeared on a certain website:
Independent Resources (LON:IRG) £1.50 again you could profit more than 3000%
Independent Resources has taken a bit of a bashing since 2011, with the earthquake in the Po Valley having seriously put into question the value of the Rivara asset, but thankfully all looks set to change and investors can either grab a great long term hold…
Oddly the article did not mention that at that point Independent was technically more or less bust. Lo and behold private investors lapped it up and bought shares in the market sending the stock to 6.4p. Lo and behold a placing day has raised £2.76 million at 3p.
So how does this work? And who benefits?
3828 days ago
It is better as a tipster to admit you are wrong and say sell (and get abuse) than to hang on and be proved you were wrong. I am thus glad to have advised folks to sell their Vatukoula (VGM) shares at 4.55p on May 7th HERE
One reason for that sell call was a fear that the 66% shareholder, China’s Zhongun, would – having forced the two Westerners off the board – delist. And lo and behold, 23 days later the directors have decided that it is in the best interests of the company to delist.
3829 days ago
Nominations for the 2014 AIM Cesspit awards close at 7 AM on Friday so you have less than 24 hours to nominate for the six (of nine) categories which are voted on and can do so HERE. Already Pete Landau of Range Resources (RRL) looks to be widely supported in ALL categories. But we welcome other nominations. If you are stuck for ideas:
3831 days ago
So many to choose from and so little time to think – who am I nominating for these prestigious awards? Ultimately it is down to you, the investing public to vote on who wins, but for what it is worth my nominations have been:
*Entrepreneur of the year – investors vote on which AIM CEO or Executive Chairman has destroyed value most spectacularly in the past year.
Sean Nutley of Silverdell (SID) gets my vote.
*PLC Pig of the year* – investors can vote on which AIM CEO or Chairman was most grotesquely over-remunerated relative to performance
3834 days ago
It is time to highlight and celebrate the very worst of AIM with second annual AIM Cesspit awards sponsored by Shareprophets.com. At an awards ceremony and dinner in Clerkenwell on June 30th (Monday) compered by The Sheriff of AIM, real trophies will be presented to those who have helped make AIM the Cesspit it is and we will be entertained by guest speakers Lucian Miers and Evil Knievil. There are seven awards.
Two are objective mathematical awards and the rest are awards where the winners will be decided by the investing public. The Cesspit year runs from May 1st 2013 to May 1st 2014. The awards are:
3834 days ago
I apologise for looking scruffy. Actually I do not. Why should I dress up? I hope this video will be up before the Euro Election results are out – UKIP will, as I have predicted for ages, win.
In this I discuss the various reasons folks voted UKIP and why the political classes got the kicking they so richly deserve.
How will they respond? With more lies. UKIP will not win the next election by any stretch of the imagination. That is a 2 horse race. I won’t vote for them but I am almost glad they exist and I explain why.
My weekly financial video postcard covers sleaze on the AIM Cesspit and the launch of the 2014 AIM Cesspit awards. I very much hope that you watch it HERE
3835 days ago
James Parter revealed some quite disgraceful ramping of shares in Tangiers Petroleum (TPET) yesterday. His analysis was superb and shows why an Australian website was publishing plain untruths about this dual listed company. I suggest reading his article here.
That website then garnered publicity for its shit analysis by paying various UK website owners so send out a promotional mailing. Websites like this, ADVFN, etc are free to access and we therefore run a business model based on allowing financial services companies to send mailings to your mailing list. You know we have to pay our writers somehow!
I am embarrassed to say that OneFreeShareTip – an excellent website we run in partnership with ADVFN ran this mailing. The mailing was sold by the team at ADVFN and we have discussed the matter and they will not be selling to this client again for OFSTD. That is an honourable call by them and the right thing to do. But for what happened I apologise most sincerely. Anyone can offer words as an apology but although it was nothing to do with me, I want to show that I mean it.
I do not wish to make a cent out of this episode as I regard it as an unethical aspect of crony capitalism and so the portion of that sale which RMPC earned will be donated to the excellent Woodlarks charity.
Next we come to the Australian web site company
3835 days ago
On Sunday Shareprophets rightly criticised West African Minerals (WAFM) for repricing options for its directors. I chatted to Jim Mellon at the weekend and he rather weakly said it was to incentivise the board.
I do not thing that risk free options incentivise anyone, I disagree with this idea but sadly it is a feature of the AIM Cesspit.
3835 days ago
And today’s star turn on the AIM Cesspit is Nighthawk Energy (HAWK) which was served with papers for a major law suit on April 29th. Surely under AIM rules it should have fessed up to shareholders even if it thought the case was without merit? Fear not, Nighthawk may not want to issue an RNS but the Sheriff of AIM is here to help.
Nighthawk is being sued in Colorado by its former business Partner Running Foxes on a number of counts.
3836 days ago
I wanna tell you a story…it is a true story but not from the great Max Bygraves. It is from me and from a company meeting a while back and it is why I almost despair of some on public markets.
I shall not name the company but it is trying to raise a couple of million and for some reason I was at the presentation the other week. The two key men sounded pretty impressive and handled questions about strategy, assets and that sort of matter pretty well. I asked about pay and there was no troughing going on.
And so I asked how much cash they had invested in the company. Er…..
One fellow said he had vended in the odd asset – which did not exactly seem core going forward. The other said he had been granted options. “So to answer my question you have not actually stuck a penny of your own cash in have you?” Er, um, ah, but we could be earning far more elsewhere, blah, blah, blah.
I persisted. So how much are you putting into the placing then? I have options said one. The other said that if there are any shares left he might take a few.
As I explained that options were a one way bet it was clear that my questioning was not going down well. The look on their faces suggested that I had asked “how many time have you masturbated this week?” But that is not what I asked.
As The Sheriff of AIM, I merely tried to establish whether their interests were aligned
3839 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed Legendary Investments (LEG) has today issued a release headlined “successful placing”. How does it define success? Meanwhile , how I define “talking complete and utter bollocks?”
Legendary has raised £900,000 at 0.11p with “a range of institutional and private investors” In plain English that means bucket shops and other flippers. The chances of one finding that Fidelity, Black Rock and Berkshire Hathaway have joined the shareholder register are somewhat slim.
3840 days ago
The last reported results from AIM Cesspit listed Independent Resources (IRG) were dire and the company admitted that it needed funding within twelve months to be viewed as a going concern. I should cocoa – the maths are dire.
Independent published its results for the six months to 30th September at 1.31 PM on Tuesday 30th December. In other words at “no-one is watching O’Clock”.
Cash
3845 days ago
Yesterday I flagged up how AIM Cesspit listed Green Dragon Gas (GDG) was happily issuing a grotesquely misleading RNS – see HERE. Today it is Greka Drilling (GDL), the spin-off company, which is spinning bad news as good and so legging over private investors. You think this is wrong? No this is AIM and it happens every day.
By way of background Greka Drilling’s last interims (for the six months to June 30th) showed that the company had NEGATIVE net current assets and was bleeding cash. Oddly trade receivables fell by a lot less than sales (draw your own conclusions) and it is pretty clear that the second half was just as grisly.
Last year the company announced its prelims on March 7. This year we are almost half way through May and still no results. The old market adage is that “companies do not delay results for good reasons.”
Greka quite obviously needs a refinancing.
3846 days ago
This morning’s RNS from AIM Cesspit posterboy Greed Dragon Gas (GDG) plumbs new depths when it comes to spinning bad news as good. The company, its Nomad (Smith & Williamson) and its PR firm (Pelham Bell Pottinger, PR man James Henderson) should all be taken out and shot. This is such a total frigging disgrace in describing black as white. Words almost escape me.
3849 days ago
Part of the WPP (WPP) Group, financial PR firm Buchanan acts for more AIM listed clients than any other PR firm. But today I ask if the odours from its lavish Cheapside offices are not of expensive perfumes worn by glamorous PR birds, but from the stench of a dirty tricks campaign against those investors seeking management change at AIM Cesspit listed Range Resources (RRL)? There is no suggestion that Range itself is aware of this. So....
Let’s start with Buchanan. According to its website:
3865 days ago
Oh dear, oh dear… I have warned you numerous times to sell shares in AIM Cesspit listed Iofina (IOF) because it was burning cash and set to run out this spring and today the company has finally fessed up and admitted that I was right all along. The shares have collapsed by 56% to just 24.5p. So Numis (who reckoned a month ago that the shares were worth 156p) how much do you pay the analyst who served up that crap? Give my cat his job instead!
I have been warning about Iofina for more than a year and each time the Bulletin Board Morons responded with:
a) general abuse directed at me
b) claims that I did not understand the Iodine industry
c) references to Numis buy notes with 156p targets.
It is clear that those buy notes were not fit for use as loo paper. It might now dawn on the Bulletin Board moron
3888 days ago
In days gone by if AIM Cesspit posterboy Globo (GBO) issued a release saying that a Non Exec Director had farted three times in a day, the Bulletin Board Morons would have lapped it up and the shares would have jumped 15%. Times have changed and ahead of the results investors are (rightly) shit scared.
And so today, in a rather woeful attempt to reassure all concerned that it is “business as usual” Globo has announced that it has signed a “strategic partnership” with Bechtle Direct in the UK.
Strategic partnership my arse.
Bechtle
3889 days ago
AIM Cesspit posterboy Green Dragon Gas (GDG) announced in December that its appeal in a Singapore Court case which it has lost, against Conoco Phillips, had been postponed. However it stated that it would probably be heard in the “first quarter of 2014.” I do not wish to be seen as a total pedant, but the first quarter ends tomorrow.
3890 days ago
Shares in AIM Cesspit listed Iofina (IOF) tanked yesterday on the back of a profits warning predicted just the day before by yours truly HERE. So guess who has now gone short and why?
3893 days ago
While most shares are making steady progress, the share price of AIM Cesspit listed Iofina (IOF) continues to drift and at 59p it is at its lowest since December 2012. Is something wrong? Almost certainly the answer is yes but since its dickhead of a PR man refuses to speak to me I cannot put the question to it directly, I just assume that bad news is on the way.
At a 59p share price the company is capitalised at £75 million. It has debts of $15 million (more on that later). We still await calendar 2013 results but a grisly trading statement/profits warning in December indicates that cash as at the year end was not a million miles away from sod all. And Iofina continues to burn cash.
Now that leads me to one conclusion
3893 days ago
I might have suggested in prior articles that Peter Redmond was a senile old fool (albeit an honourable senile old fool). I take it all back. The man is a frigging genius, the ultimate playmaker in the world of the AIM Cesspit. There was Kennedy Ventures (KENV) wandering in the valley of death (just two days ago) and the maestro waved his wand and at a stroke it is the best performing share on AIM. What can I say? Peter Redmond is the Wizard King of the Cesspit.
At close of play on Monday having released dire results (see here) the company was at 1.55p valued at £420,000 but worth nothing (well £25,000). But as the grim reaper looked on and beckoned Kennedy towards the graveyard, the maestro moved in and on Tuesday announced that he had raised £550,000 before expenses (so let’s call that £500,000) at 1.25p.
What a genius!
3894 days ago
On 20th September I pointed out that Sovereign Mines of Africa (SMA) then 3.5p was almost out of cash and was ramping its shares to get a placing away. Six months later after ramp after ramp of spurious press releases we finally have the placing. The only shock was that Sovereign did not commission an utterly crap paid for research from convicted felon Charlie Gibson of Edison to help with the ramp. The placing naturally screws private investors big time ( this is AIM) and is accompanies by prize winning PR horse shit from Sovereign.
The shares were 1.625p at the close yesterday. The placing is raising a paltry £625,000 (call that £575,000 after costs) at just 1p. So some lucky City folk can flip the stock and make a quick turn and all those suckers conned into paying anything up to 4p during the past six months by those upbeat press releases will be 20% diluted. The advisers make a quick buck, the City insiders on the placing making a quick buck and everyone else is buggered.
Sovereign clearly wanted to raise more
3895 days ago
Interim results from AIM Cesspit listed (Dead) Kennedy Ventures (KENV) out today are – as you would expect lamentable. The company now has net assets (taking a charitable view) of less than £30,000. At 1.55p the company is valued at £419,000. And it has lied to its shareholders – go on folks, sue me for libel, you know where to get hold of me. So where do I start?
3898 days ago
On Thursday morning AIM Cesspit posterboy Arian Silver (AGQ) snuck out its calendar 2013 results with a press release whose lack of disclosure truly is appalling -something that has landed it in the soup before, see HERE. Do the mothers who run this company not know that the purpose of a results release is to clearly inform shareholders what is going on? Or do they not give a fuck?
I have noted before how the total prize tool who does the PR for this woeful enterprise has berated me for not tipping the shares. Given that stock-holders have lost 89% over three years and 66% over one year I feel pretty vindicated. But who cares about the poor shareholders? Arian keeps on raising funds allowing its uber-Welsh management team to enjoy the lifestyle they feel they deserve and the brokers, lawyers and PR flunkies to keep issuing stiff bills each month. Bottles of Bollinger and pert ewes all round.
And so we come to the results this week.
3902 days ago
I attracted an unprecedented (even by my standards) amount of grief from Bulletin Board Morons for being persistently bearish on AIM Cesspit listed Range Resources (RRL) all the way down from 5p until December. Then at 1.28p I did not tip the stock but merely ran it as a (successful) trading buy in my Christmas trading challenge with Steve Moore.
That call also earned me grief because by then the Morons (without apologising to me) had decided that Range Resources head honcho Pete Landau was now the devil incarnate. The shares are now 0.82p. Where next?
For what it is worth I do not regard Landau as a devil incarnate. Folks can often get too tied up with personality. Landau may be Australian but then so is Kylie so not everyone from Oz is a bad person. But unlike Kylie who delivers winning smile after winning smile, I am afraid that Landau
3906 days ago
Yesterday I pointed out how Wolf Minerals (WLFE) the AIM Cesspit and ASX listed wannabbee miner had engaged in typical pump and place activities which will inevitably see some PIs (the folks paying 26p two weeks ago) screwed as institutions get in on a placing at sub 20p.
Actually we do not know what the placing price will be yet, Wolf has not got around to letting us know. Perhaps its board is too busy enjoying spending the A$1.2m they trouser collectively each year. You can read about the pump and place HERE.
While we mere mortals were fooled by this operation I should flag up that the World’s Number One Mining Analyst Roger Bade of Whitman Howard was not legged over. Writing after an operational update on 20th January the great man opined:
3909 days ago
I warned the other day that the situation in Ukraine could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for AIM Cesspit listed drowning in debt dairy products group Ukrproduct (UKR). Read between the lines of a trading statement today and if you own this stock you should flee for the exit ASAP.
3910 days ago
Rather a personal as opposed to a political postcard this week. For the next four weeks my life is almost 100% centred on preparing for the UK Investor Show on April 5. If you have NOT booked a ticket yet, shame on you – book now HERE.
But what to do afterwards? I shall be absolutely exhausted. I am already but slog on. And so it will be off to Greece with my rucksack for a month’s walking. Partly with the Mrs, partly alone as I search out the graves of two Great Uncles, the only brothers of my father’s mother who are meant to be buried there. I recount their deaths (1931 and WW2) and their stories in this postcard.
My weekly financial video postcard “Why do I do it?” sees me discussing why I “go after” companies on the AIM Cesspit. It can be viewed HERE
3912 days ago
AIM Cesspit posterboy Globo (GBO) has put out a statement saying that there is no reason for its shares to have tanked. The market is not impressed and the stock now trades at just 48p having lost almost one third of its value in two days. Worse may be to come.
Globo refers worried investors to its upbeat trading statement of 28th January. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
It then clarifies why it has changed auditors for the second time in six months but - as we explained yesterday HERE – questions over the timing of statements remain.
Worse still
3912 days ago
Poor Phorm (PHRM) …it will have run out of cash within six weeks and so unless it can get away yet another fund raise it will be toast by Easter. But before we look forward to that, I have a number of questions for AIM Cessoit listed Phorm and its former Nomad Liberum about events back in 2012.
On 1st June 2012 Phorm announced that it had managed to persuade an investor to buy 20% of it’s (yet to start up) Chinese subsidiary for £20 million. The implication was that Phorm’s retained stake was worth £80 million and as a read through its operations outside China would be worth an awful lot.
The statement reads.
3912 days ago
Greece based, AIM Cesspit listed software firm Globo (GBO) has today announced that it fired its auditors six weeks ago and has a new firm in place. For a firm whose accounts have come under some scrutiny (see HERE) that might raise a few eyebrows but when you look at the exact timeline you will be truly kebabbed.
On 17th May 2013 Globo published its 2012 Annual Report signed off by accountants Littlejohn Frazer. At the AGM held on 10th June 2013 Littlejohn Frazer was reappointed as auditor.
At some stage in the six months that followed – a helpful fellow at PR firm Brunswick says it was in July – the company changed auditor to BDO.
On 13th January 2014 (we discovered today) Globo asked BDO to stand down.
on 16th January Globo said that it would release a Full Year trading statement on 28th January – no mention of the audit change
on 28th January that statement (bullish natch) was published - no mention of the audit change.
Today we are told that:
"Globo wishes to announce that it has appointed Grant Thornton as its sole global auditor following a competitive tender of three of the top five auditing firms.
As a result the board requested BDO to resign as its current auditor in favour of Grant Thornton, with effect from 13 January 2014. Grant Thornton is currently carrying out the 2013 Company audit."
Hmmmm
3913 days ago
I noted that AIM Cesspit posterboy Phorm (PHRM) is now “in sights” and as such, as is now traditional, a special commemorative T-shirt has been designed and is available for immediate purchase. I recommend the red version.
If you have lost money on this POS enterprise or just wish to remember its Orwellian approach to business this is the ideal fashion accessory. Perhaps you are a fund manager wondering what to wear as Phorm pitches up trying to raise yet more money to keep going.
After all Phorm has already burned its way through $328 million of investor’s cash and is almost certainly less than six weeks away from running out of cash yet again. So it is becoming poorer by the day.
To purchase your Poor Phorm T-shirt for immediate delivery click HERE
3914 days ago
Five days ago bear raider Evil Knievil was the biggest cheerleader in town for internet stock Phorm (PHRM). But five days is a long time on the AIM Cesspit.
3914 days ago
Last week AIM Cesspit listed Phorm (PHRM) was presenting to potential investors at the offices of its London broker Mirabaud. Among those to whom it presented was the bear raider Evil Knievil. I have a lot to say on this AIM Cesspit listed enterprise but let’s start by getting dirty.
Mr Knievil called me in great excitement on Friday. What aroused my interest was a claim he made that he had been told in the meeting that Phorm reckons that Google was engaged in some sort of dirty tricks campaign against it so terrified was the web giant of the threat posed to it by or AIM listed minnow – a company that has in six years ploughed its way through $328 million. Its last reported results (interims) showed revenues of $28,545.
Instinctively, as I noted yesterday
3915 days ago
I noted at the weekend that bear raider Evil Knievil had gone long of AIM Cesspit listed internet company Phorm (PHRM) at 13p. Having considered the matter, I certainly would not buy the stock and am almost tempted to open up a short. I serve up a few red flags for you to consider.
3916 days ago
Shares in AIM listed miner W Resources (WRES) have perked up by 0.05p today to 0.97p valuing this fine enterprise at c£20 million. But fear not, this is the AIM Cesspit, so here are four reasons why you should sell as there is a placing ahead.
3929 days ago
As ever the way Sirius Minerals (SXX) communicates with its long suffering shareholders is a farce. I have covered this before and explained why I am a mega bear of this stock – as you can see HERE – but the past 24 hours have been another masterclass from this AIM Cesspit posterboy.
Yesterday a link went up on the website of the North Yorkshire Parks Authority
3930 days ago
Back in November I flagged that having puffed its shares up to 11.6p, AIM Cesspit dog tech stock Vipera (VIP) was planning a £500,000 fund raise at 6p. The shares tanked and the placing was pulled. So to plan B.
First up was a trading statement on 20th November 2013 saying that FY revenues would be well ahead on 2012 and 1.4 million Euros. Sounds great. But hang on Henry, first half revenues were 732,000 Euro so this cannot exactly be viewed as a growth situation can it?
3935 days ago
From the AIM Cesspit to the ISDX (formerly Plus) mini Cesspit and to Feonic (FEO) which has today announced that it is withdrawing from ISDX subject to AGM approval because the cost is not worth it. Henceforth shares will be traded on a matched bargain basis only and investors will get far less company information. Hmmm ...this is shocking and I flag it partly as I have “history” with this company and becuase I want to accuse Feonic boss Brenda Hopkins of telling lies..
I think it was more than a decade ago that this producer of “whispering windows” and I first crossed swords. It had put out a release which was to put it bluntly just plain misleading. A talented young writer whom I then worked with – and who is now setting the world of Google on fire – produced a superb piece flagging this up.
A shareholder passed this on to Feonic’s boss then and now, Brenda Hopkins who commented by email ”She is a journalist so she is allowed to make things up”. Needless to say we got a grovelling apology from Brenda for that one.
Wind forward more than a decade and so many issues of equity that I lost count at 16 since the start of 2008 and investors are still getting legged over.
3940 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed Greka Drilling (GDL) today says that there is no reason for its share price movement (down). Really? I would like to offer up several reasons why the shares could continue to fall, on the basis that this company is just not a very good one. I phrase that diplomatically.
3941 days ago
I have written some harsh things about Peter Redmond, the chairman of AIM Cesspit listed Leed Resources (LDP) and bought £7.50 worth of shares in his company to attend its AGM today to ask questions and push for his departure. But I guess I am now free to lunch at Maribelle’s instead, because Redmond has this morning announced that he will be standing down as chairman after the AGM with immediate effect. Before I crow, I should say he has, today, acted with honour.
Some crony capitalists would have dismissed me as a crank and just carried on trousering the dosh. I chatted at great length to Redmond last night and I give him full marks for what he has done today. I may have been an agent of change at Leed, but for quitting as he has done I am now setting up the Official Peter Redmond fan club.
Redmond accepts that Leed has failed its investors. The blame for this should not just be levelled at Redmond but also
3943 days ago
I tried calling Sean Nutley today (twice) to ask him certain questions about the invoicing arrangements at Silverdell (SID), the AIM Cesspit Company that went tits up despite issuing ever more bullish trading statements, even after its main subsidiary received a winding up order. I also want to know if he had any comment on the suggestion that the Old Bill have arrested both him and Darren Palin.
Sadly Nutley did not take my calls. And old Sean has not returned them either. I can’t think why not. Is he not getting used to “helping with enquiries”? But, perhaps you might have more luck than me. Or maybe you are just a pissed off Silverdell shareholder who wants to leave a message wishing him luck with his new job at the business asset stripped out of Silverdell where Nutley has a big equity share? Or perhaps you just want to ask how many models he now has in his collection of classic cars?
3951 days ago
Globo (GBO) serves up a trading statement on Tuesday. My view is that whatever it says matters not a jot. I do not believe that this is an investment grade business. Where the shares go short term I know not. But one day they will collapse. When will that be, I know not. But I would never want to own shares in this AIM Cesspit posterboy. Fund manager Ennismore has a short position and this internal note is a devastating analysis of why it is right to be short.
Ennismore writes:
Globo PLC – UK listed Greek software business (short position)
3953 days ago
The Silverdell (SID) scandal meanders on with Nominated advisor FinnCap, headed by self-important Sam Smith (pictured), insisting that in trousering hundreds of thousands of pounds in fees, it has done nothing wrong. Its Compliance Officer Mr Tubby has conducted a “full review” and found that his firm was not in any way negligent of its responsibilities. Hmmmmmm – a new whistleblower has contacted me.
You can read Mr Tubby’s protestations of innocence and why they do not wash HERE
I now turn to the trading statement of 20th June 2013 when AIM Cesspit posterboy Silverdell stressed how brilliantly it was doing even though its main subsidiary had received a winding up order on 13th June which brought the PLC down by 2nd July. When a company issues a trading statement it will have a minuted board meeting with the Chairman in charge to approve it. A copy of the minute will be passed to the Nomad before the statement is released.
Mr Tubby:
3954 days ago
One gets into a spot of bother with your bank accounts getting frozen in a country where you do a lot of business. But heck, you are on the AIM Cesspit, the accounts are in bongo bongo land so no-one will get to hear about this affair and you know that you will be able to sort the darkies out sooner or later so why should Pittards (PTD) have bothered to fess up to investors. Who gives a FF about AIM Rule 11 anyway?
It is not as if sleepy Nomad (step forward John Wakefield at WH Ireland) gave a damn – he told Pittards that there was no need to bother shareholders with news of this rumble in the jungle. But fear not, since I am an avid follower of the must read publication International Leather Maker I will help Pittards shareholders out by publishing for them the RNS statements they could not be arsed to publish themselves.
International Leather Maker really is a bodice ripper. The most read article of the past seven days is: ECO2L -Climate protection and Leather which relays the “First experiences with the environmental certificate: Energy Controlled Leather (ECO2L) by Dr Thomas Schröer, Verband der Deutschen Lederindustrie (VDL) Dipl. Ing (FH), Jutta Knödler, I-T-G GmbH.” Sod the next series of Nashville, Kylie on The Voice or the Bridge Series 2 this is real entertainment. It has it all.
I digress. My fave new website
3957 days ago
I suggested that readers of this website write to Sam Smith, the self-important CEO of FinnCap the well paid Nominated adviser to disgraced AIM Cesspit ( until it was slung off) and now bust Silverdell. It seems that Ms Smith is too important to answer emails in question but readers are now getting a reply which is about as convincing as the West Ham defence.
Ms Smith is being asked to demonstrate that FinnCap did any due diligence on a series of RNS statements from Silverdell which were clearly misleading. Needless to say Finncap is not stating that it did completed full due diligence. Its compliance Officer Mark Tubby’s detailed (NOT!) response is:
3957 days ago
The weekly video postcard this week looks at food banks where Edwina Currie is getting it in the neck for making a perfectly valid observation. Indeed the mammoth growth of food banks is based on a lie and spawns more lies – this goes to the heart of the austerity & welfare debate.
Colleagues of the Mrs don’t get it but this video explains why food banks are an unnecessary evil.
3958 days ago
I happen to think that Ortac (OTC) is a well-run company with some interesting assets but today’s £500,000 placing at 0.25p shows in the starkest of terms why the AIM Cesspit so urgently needs reform to stop the systematic buggering (without the lubrication of profit) of private investors.
I draw your attention to the chart below which shows the share price over the past week. On 13th January Ortac issued what looked to be a cracking RNS as I noted HERE
free stock charts from uk.advfn.com
The shares responded by heading up to a height of 0.33p on Thursday at the close. And guess what the company announced a placing today at just 0.25p. Now I do not blame Ortac. This leaves it with £3 million in the kitty and with a market cap (at 0.275p) of c£7 million its two assets are really in there for sod all. Being well funded is prudent.
3961 days ago
The AIM regulation team are, from my experiences with a certain oil company whose name somehow eludes me and with 3DM before that, about as much useful in slamming the bad guys as an air conditioning unit would be for a ship packed full of global warming nutters trapped in the Antarctic. But nothing ventured nothing gained,
I fired off a letter about disgraced Silverdell (SID) boss Sean Nutley ten days ago and have just had a response. Given that point b) below is a slam dunk 100% certain abuse by Silverdell it is hard to see how AIM regulation cannot do nothing and hope to retain any credibility at all. And it cannot now deny that it is unaware of the issue.
In fact I am mildly encouraged by this letter. Having fired off numerous complaints about various AIM Cesspit stocks this response is a tad more helpful than the usual “here is a standard response designed to fob you off, you little oik” email, of which I have a good few in my collection.
Once again I urge anyone invested in AIM stocks to complain themselves to both AIM Regulation and to the FCA about Silverdell and Nutley. The more complaints they get the more pressure they will face to get off their backsides and (for once) do something. To find out exactly how to make your complaints click HERE
Now over to the AIM Regulation team which writes:
Dear Mr Winnifrith
3962 days ago
In an article earlier today I suggested that the UK’s regulators had (for once) acted with wisdom and foresight with regard to the demise of Libertas as a Nominated Advisor (Nomad) on the AIM Cesspit. I publically apologise for that suggestion. Now that I have got my paws on a shock letter sent yesterday by Libertas to its clients it is clear that the Regulators fucked it up as per normal.
My earlier piece can be found HERE
My comments on how AIM Regulation and the FCA has failed everyone concerned with AIM yet again are below but at this stage I pass over to Libertas head honcho Jonathan Hall who wrote to the firms Libertas acted for yesterday. As is often the way, confidential letters which many on the AIM Cessoit would rather that I did not see, just seem to drop into my lap so that I can have a bit of fun. Gotcha!
Over to you Johnny Boy…
3962 days ago
A flurry of “change of adviser” announcements this morning shows that Libertas is no longer operating as a Nominated Adviser (Nomad) to AIM companies. Was it a voluntary act or was it pushed? Will other Nomads now follow suit?
As of Monday Libertas was still in the game with its main corporate financier, Mr Sandy Jamieson, appearing on an RNS for Cesspit posterboy stock Leed Resources (LDP). But as of today Mr Jamieson is now working for Cairn Financial and most of Libertas’s clients including the pointless Leed, have followed him. The rest have gone to other advisors.
One CEO to whom I have spoken
3970 days ago
On 31 December (probably hoping that the announcement would go largely unnoticed), Silverdell (SID) announced that it is not anticipated that shareholders will receive any return for the shares they hold and that admission of the group's shares to the AIM Cesspit will be cancelled on 2 January 2014. This was a stock I tipped. I have apologised for that. But Silverdell CEO Sean Nutley misled investors and need to have his collar felt.
3975 days ago
I have noted before that the way that AIM Cesspit listed Ukrainian dairy products group Ukrproduct (UKR) announces bad news smells like a six week old pot of cream left in the baking sunlight of the Steppe in August. And so as 90% of share-watchers enjoy their last day off, the company has slipped out another dire trading statement.
You can read my comments on the curious way this company announces the departure of directors, all signed off as kosher by corporate adviser Mr Dick, HERE
Today’s statement confirms what we all suspected. EBITDA for 2013 will be sharply down on 2012. Blame higher milk prices, ripples in the soft cheese market, whatever – it is hard to imagine that doing business in the Ukraine right now is that much fun.
Worse still the heavy debt this company now carries means that the I (for Interest) number has gone up sharply. So what is the bottom line number (i.e. Profit before tax) going to be? I refer to today’s statement.
“Net income will be impaired by the sizeable increase in interest charges arising from the EBRD loan leading to the negative net profitability for the year.”
Put another way this company is loss making. It blathers on about how it “plans to return to positive profitability in 2014.”
You know what? I have made plans for 2014. After watching West Ham lift the Premiership trophy on the final day of the season following a five month run of 3 points from every game with Carlton Cole scoring hat-tricks every match, I am off on a one week romantic break with Cheryl Cole in the West Indies. I cannot wait. Neither, I am sure, can Carlton and Cheryl.
3976 days ago
The bottom end of AIM is corrupt. City insiders break the law in insider dealing ahead of heavily discounted placings which stuff private investors in an institutionalised manner. It is crony capitalism writ large. As such I offer up five New Year Resolutions for Aim to clean up the market instantaneously.
3985 days ago
Heck we have some bad news…when will we tell shareholders? Oh…how about Christmas Eve? It is a half day. No-one will notice and by the time they do we can think of some good news to announce or go on holiday? The bosses of the AIM Cesspit think they are being smart and will get away with it. But I am here to make sure you missed none of the horrors snuck out today and to give them maximum PR.
The nominations for the gold medal for sneaking bad news out on Christmas Eve are:
1. Tullow Oil (TLW) abandons 80% owned Norwegian exploration well as a duster
2. Verdes Management (VMP) fesses up that it was meant to have received £125,000 of a rescue £500,000 loan facility by 20th December but it has not arrived yet.
3. City of London Group (CIN) says that the £17.4 million it was promised in a placing has yet again still not arrived and so the deal is off. Will have to seek alternative funding. Chairman and NED quit.
4. Northern Petroleum (NOP) says that it is writing down its Italian assets from 2P to 3C category. It will have full details in New Year but is whetting our appetite now, i.e. softening the blow by announcing when no-one is watching.
5. Albemarle & Bond (ABM) – Better capital the lead bidder fo0r its assets walks.
6. Kennedy Ventures (KENV) serves up atrocious annual results and warns of funding gap.
Now it is possible that one or two of the above only heard the bad news late yesterday and so had to announce today. On that basis I will give Tullow, Northern and Albemarle the benefit of the doubt although I cannot say that I am impressed with any of them. That leaves three contenders for this annual award of shame. In reverse order.
3989 days ago
I outlined earlier today why Peter Redmond the chairman of Leed Resources (LDP) should be fired at once. If you support crony capitalism on the AIM Cesspit and are happy with the transfer of wealth from the many to the few, you will say that I am being cruel to an old man and should back off. But…
If you want to make your point very directly to one of the few I would urge you to start calling him on his mobile and do not let off until you get an answer to 2 questions.
3989 days ago
Leed Resources (LDP) has today published its annual results. It is hard to know where to start with the incompetence of the man in charge but my conclusion is simple: for being an expensive and useless chairman, for operational failure, for avarice and for cowardice Peter Redmond should be fired at once.
Let’s start with the white feathers for this posterboy of crony capitalism on the AIM Cesspit. In prior announcements, one was supplied with full contact details if you had a question. On today’s abject POS results statement there are none. Should you wish to call someone to vent your anger let me assist. The coward contact details for Leed are
3991 days ago
The directors of AIM Cesspit listed recruitment group ReThink (RTG) have today shown themselves up as crony capitalists who do not give a flying wotsit about shareholders and are in it for themselves - they are greedy tossers. That should tell you all you need to know – do not own this stock.
The share price of this company is 5.875p – well down on the IPO. The board has today cancelled 11,484,364 options priced at between 6.75p and 11p which lapse between February 2015 and April 2018. And instead it had granted new options priced at just 6.12p lapsing between November 2016 and June 2021.
In other words, under the new scheme, if the company can deliver share price growth of just 1.3% per annum then every single one of these new options is free money for the board at the expense of shareholder dilution.
4007 days ago
The dismal nine year tale of woe that has been AIM Cesspit posterboy Cyan Holdings (CYAN) continued today with news of a £1.1 million placing at just 0.15p. The Bulletin Board Morons who abused me, as I have warned of this disaster in waiting for more than six months, lose again.
0.15p – wow. What a horror. Even Cyan says in its statement that it regrets having to issue stock at such a low price. Frankly I am amazed that anyone wanted to pony up even at that price.
4008 days ago
I approve of AIM Cesspit listed companies doing rights issues rather than discounted placings to City insiders. But not when the company in question is, to use the technical term, fucked. That brings me to dual listed Scotgold (SGZ) which, I have noted before on this website, is a total POS.
Last week with the shares at c1p it announced a 3 for rights issue at 0.5 cents (0.28p) per share. The fact that this company is doing a rights issue not a placing is nothing to do with its hopeless directors believing in shareholder democracy but everything to do with the fact that City punters just will not play ball. That is because ScotGold is fucked.
The company owes £1.5 million to a bank (RMB) that was mad enough to lend to a pre-production company. It has said that it may roll that loan (due for repayment before Christmas) over as long as
4008 days ago
This is the last week when you will see Tom Winnifrith wearing his Movember tash.
To sponsor Tom’s efforts to raise money to fight prostate and testicular cancer go HERE.
This week’s theme is how the powerful in this case Nick Clegg and Wendy Deng’s friend Tony Blair) use the law to try to stop us finding out what they are up to in a way that we would not be able to do.
FOI applies only to little people.
This is so Orwellian.
4012 days ago
Leed Resources (LDP) is yet another pointless AIM listed investment company brought to you by the broker that specialises in such POS operations (my old pals at Peterhouse). Today it has served up a shocking statement but will its executive chairman Peter Redmond give a xxxx? I don’t know – he is refusing to answer his phone.
4013 days ago
Tern (TERN) is the new name for a disastrous oil company called Silvermere. At least Silvermere tried to do something useful (produce oil), Tern is just another AIM Cesspit do-nothing posterboy investing company. And it cannot even bring itself to tell the truth.
4013 days ago
Why did AIM Cesspit listed Summit (SUMM) announce such a strange deal with Prof Steve Davies yesterday? To get the Bulletin Board morons excited of course. There is a placing looming, you see.
4014 days ago
On 14th October 2004 a company called VastOx listed on the AIM Cesspit. That company is now known as Summit PLC. In light of an announcement issued today by Summit (SUMM) I suggest you first read the RNS from 14th October 2004.
4016 days ago
A week ago I outlined the first step to ending crony capitalism (the transfer of wealth from the many – private investors – to the few – directors, advisers, and City insider investors) – namely forcing all companies on AIM to raise cash via rights issues. Now for step to in cleaning up the Cesspit – sending liars to prison.
4020 days ago
My mantelpiece is starting to fill up with trophies from the AIM Cesspit posterboy shoot. First came the head of Jim Ellerton of some tiny oil company whose name escapes me. AIM regulation did not care about his lies or using the company as a personal ATM for years. But I did and forced his resignation. And yesterday a new head went up on the mantelpiece – that of Terry “Junk” Bond of Vialogy (VIY) who joins Jim in unexpected retirement after a year long campaign from me. So who is next for the treatment?
4021 days ago
Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. The man who has lead Vialogy (VIY) shareholders a merry dance for 13 years, proven liar Terry “Junk” Bond is to go. Maybe my Junk Bond T-shirts had some purpose after all. Indeed it seems as if my rescue plan for Vialogy is now going to be implemented in full. It is time for the BB Morons who termed me a wrecker to concede that I am in fact their saviour. Time for frigging apologies all round.
4021 days ago
I have received a massive response from investors, CEOs and Nomads to my articled on the Crony Capitalism that is destroying AIM. So what is the solution? Let us start with how money is raised: bring back the rights issue.
Right now for companies on AIM, money is raised by ramping the share price by paying vast sums to PR/IR people to ramp away. Private investors buy shares in the open market. At that point new shares are issued at a huge discount to City insiders who then flip.
4022 days ago
You would have thought that greedy MPs have by now decided to err on the side of caution when it comes to expenses. Oh no. Think again.
Before we start on that I hope you can see that I now sport a 17 day old Movember moustache and if you care to sponsor my Movember efforts you can do so here.
This MP scandal is over office rents. And it goes to the heart of the battle between the political classes and we mere plebs.
4024 days ago
Oh dear. Oh dear. More grim operational news from AIM Cesspit posterboy Cyan (CYAN) today and all the time its cash is draining away. Which has more chance of surviving past Christmas? The stockmarket cash gobbling turkey Cyan or one of the gobblers on one of Bernard Matthews’ farms? On balance it is Cyan but will it make it to Easter? That is a rather different matter.
4024 days ago
Oh dear, if Martin Perrin the finance director of AIM Cesspit listed Vipera hated me before, he and his corpulent corporate advisor Roland Cornish will be loathing me with a passion after today because I have new revelations…
4029 days ago
Next week AIM Cesspit posterboy Vialogy (VIY) will send its long suffering shareholders details of the exact motions for its EGM on 29th November. I spoke to the Vialogy shareholder action group, which speaks for 13.5% of the shares, yesterday and in light of that I have another message for the discredited liar Terry “Junk” Bond who is chairman of this enterprise.
Much of what I discussed with the shareholder action group must remain confidential at this stage. But I can put it on record that I regard them as good, decent folk who have put hard cash into Vialogy and simply want a return. I contrast that with the current board whose members have simply taken out cash and have screwed shareholders totally.
4032 days ago
Alecto Minerals (ALO) wins today’s prize for the most misleading announcement from the AIM Cesspit with an RNS headlined “”£1 million placing and funding arrangement”. Has Alecto just secured an additional £1 million? Like hell it has. And is it “pleased to announce” this deal. Also like hell it is. It is desperate for cash and this is really last gasp death spiral stuff.
4033 days ago
What next for AIM Cesspit posterboy Vialogy (VIY)? At this stage it is not clear but I am aware that the wheels are a turning. It seems as if Terry “Junk” Bond may have paid some attention to my open letter of last week.
4038 days ago
Oh dear. I guess that in another corner of the AIM Cesspit I appear to have been struck of yet another Christmas card list. As I ruin the weekend and cunning plans of Vipera (VIP) PLC I guess its finance director Martin Perrin thinks I am a bit of a shit. I guess the Nomad and broker, the chubby and pompous Roland Cornish won’t be very pleased with me either. RESULT.
4041 days ago
The board of AIM Cesspit posterboy Vialogy (VIY) has today announced an emergency restructuring which steals at least 25% of the IP from shareholders at a stroke just 4 hours before its AGM. That leaves a lot of time for sensible discussion does it not? Even by the abject standards of Chairman Terry “Junk” Bond this is a total disgrace. Why not issue the RNS 24 hours ago? It is not as if anything has been set in stone.
4043 days ago
The AGM of AIM Cesspit posterboy Vialogy (VIY) is on Tuesday morning an d having bought £7.50 of shares just so that I can attend I shall be there. Brace yourself Chairman Terry “Junk” Bond I have a few questions and I am not one for taking prisoners.
Just as a reminder: after six years of non delivery the current management team awarded itself a pay rise in 2012. The board cost the company more than four times its revenues in 2012. And most critically of all the company is running out of cash fast. You can read about this in more detail here
Now you may say that a purchase of £7.50 of shares is not a very big trade. But my investment is 100% greater than the total cash investment made by the entire board in all of the recent rescue bail out placings. “Putting money into Vialogy is for other people”
My first question will be for foxy Katy Ratner and (not so foxy) Mark Percy of Cantor Fitzgerald.
4049 days ago
Terry Bond has been the executive chairman of AIM Cesspit posterboy Vialogy (VIY) since its launch. Last year as the company recorded another whopping loss he trousered a pay packet of £181,261 even though the company also has a CEO and a CTO. Is he needed? Is he an asset? Or just another cash drain on a company which is weeks away from running out of cash? It's the latter. It's time to Junk Bond.
4049 days ago
The winner of the inaugural AIM Cesspit IPO of the year trophy was EastCoal (ECX) a Canadian listed company which secured a dual listing on the Cesspit on December 28th 2012 raising £9.5 million at 12.21p thanks to Cenkos. By February 8th it had issued its first warning of operational woes.
4053 days ago
I could not sleep last night and so turned to the “Good Book” for inspiration. I refer of course to “The Reagan Diaries” the journal kept by America’s greatest President during his two terms in office. And that made me think about Terry “Junk” Bond the chairman of financially challenged AIM Cesspit posterboy Vialogy (VIY) and his little Reagan lie.
4055 days ago
The weekly video postcard is back. And for this issue I discuss something dear to my heart. For 300 years there has been no political interference in the press. Our politicians want that to change.
I examine why this is wrong, who is lobbying for it and why.
My financial video postcard this week examines Vialogy, a posterboy for all that is wrong with the AIM Cesspit. Dan Levi and I are on the attack. You can view it here.
4056 days ago
We are now on the shareholder list. Dan Levi has bought £10 of shares and I am a tad meaner and have bought £7.50 worth of shares in AIM Cesspit posterboy Vialogy. I expect to make a 100% capital loss but the gruesome twosome are now into battle.
4057 days ago
I will tomorrow ask my stockbroker to buy me £10 of shares in Vialogy (VIY). I expect to make a 100% capital loss on them but am buying so that I can attend the AGM on October 29th. This company is a posterboy for the AIM Cesspit: executive greed, misleading investors, a failed business model and whopping losses. Its board needs to be fully exposed and held to account before bankruptcy, which could be within weeks. Dan Levi will also be buying £10 of shares. Vialogy is now officially in the sights of the gruesome twosome.
4057 days ago
I had thought of retiring from the AIM Cesspit exposing game for good. Or at least taking a few months off. Indeed that was my mindset until the end of last week. But things change…Daniel Levi (Brokerman Dan) and myself have chatted at length this morning. We have dusted down the Armalites and the snipers are back on duty.
4057 days ago
Five days ago we asked readers to vote on which AIM Cesspit company would be the next to sue me for libel…because it worked out so well for Sefton Resources (SER). The results are now in.
4063 days ago
Motive Television (MTV) wins awards for issuing shares more often and in greater amounts than any other company on the AIM Cesspit. It is a lesson in value destruction, utterly unjustifiable boardroom pay and share promotion via spurious press releases to get yet another funding away. And I cannot see why it is allowed to continue trading. It is bust. But today the shares are up almost 5% at 0.02p with Bulletin Board morons trading like dervishes thanks to a spurious press release. I despair.
4070 days ago
I have been writing bearish articles on AIM Cesspit listed management lifestyle (oops, I meant to say oil services) group Vialogy (VIY) for more than a year since the stock traded at 2.125p. The Bulletin Board Morons gave me consummate grief. I see the shares have plunged today on the release of dire financials to just 0.68p. My target remains 0.01p for this worthless POS. It has the smell of death.
4076 days ago
Shares in Sefton Resources (SER) remain suspended as we await its (dire) interims. But if there was a change in its trading it should still, under AIM Cesspit rules, let us all know via an RNS. But it seems that Sefton is not playing by the rules. Plus ca change.
4077 days ago
AIM Cesspit posterboy Cyan (CYAN) is – after 8 years of non-delivery – set to run out of cash by Christmas. Hence today it issued an utterly over-hyped press release (go ahead sue me for libel, see where it got Sefton) in an attempt to ramp the shares ahead of it, yet again, asking investors to pony up for a rescue share issue.
4100 days ago
It is 9.30 AM and I am sitting outside a small café in Russell Square, decked out in my West Ham hoodie contemplating today’s match against Stoke and tapping away at my PC, enjoying a latte and a fag and reading Jimmyliar’s latest lies in The Times. “How’s Sefton going? Said a voice. Rather fearing that Jimmy had sent a hit man to track me down I looked up.
“I am sorry”, said I to the complete stranger,” how can I help?” It turned out it was a journalist from Growth Company Investor who had followed the case and thought it was fascinating. Well done said he and we chatted about the amazing tale, the revelations and also about executive greed on the AIM cesspit. And then he scuttled off promising to pop into Real Man in a few weeks’ time for a longer chat.
Having other journalists say well done is always a good feeling so many thanks to him for that professional courtesy. I wish him well with his career as he strikes me as a knowledgeable chap who knows his stuff and enjoys writing and is not doing it merely as a stepping stone to the dark side (financial PR).
And many thanks for the dozens of kind emails, tweets and a couple of personal visits yesterday. Now to what really matters: Can West Ham triumph (without a decent striker available) against a piss poor Stoke?
4101 days ago
I am not sure that those singled out for praise will appreciate it coming from me. Neither will those who receive rightful opprobrium in what follows – my mind this afternoon turns to the world of financial PR. The dark side.
4113 days ago
It is now inevitable that shares in Sefton (SER) will be suspended from the AIM Cesspit within days. There are only two outcomes and either means that the game is up. It will leave its vexatious libel case against me in tatters, its bully boy lawyers Pinsent Masons ( who tried and failed to get the FSA to stop Dan and I writing about Sefton and indeed all shares in January) looking like total wankers and shareholders losing everything. And here is why.
4117 days ago
I read some BB poster ( not a loon) saying that the regulators now have to get involved in the battle between myself & Dan Levi and AIM Cesspit posterboy Sefton Resources (SER). Well fear not Mr Poster – they already are involved. And it is not Dan or myself that are in the firing line.
I initiated the call today to the AIM regulation team. It is not the first time I have spoken to the Sefton case officer. Geddit- case officer. Sefton is under investigation.
Sefton has been in AIM’s spotlight since the AIM team were informed by Fox Davies that it wanted to quit as Nomad and why it wanted to quit as Nomad. As such the AIM team knows full well that I shall win my libel case. But the game has moved on. The focus is now on what Jim Ellerton told a Colorado Court in April 2009 under oath and why that means that he is not a fit and proper person to be director of an AIM listed company. Emails and phone calls between Denver and London are flying thick and fast today (or they will when Denver wakes up shortly).
Jim Ellerton is right now in Hawaii slumbering next to the foxy Carol. He will not wake up for a good few hours. Things is now moving fast and he will awake to a firestorm.
I am appalled that AIM Regulation has not acted more decisively and publicly against Sefton. That, I sense, could be about to change as the City establishment swings firmly and openly behind myself and Dan as as new facts emerge. A greater involvement by AIM Regulation…bring it on.
4119 days ago
Some of the Bulletin Board loons out there seem to think that the City is on the side of Sefton Resources (SER) in its libel battle with myself and Dan Levi. Au contraire…our big name backers grow by the day. And today came a fascinating endorsement which should make Sefton supporters as well as its uber expensive bully boy City lawyers Pinsent Masons think long and hard.
I posted an open letter via video this afternoon to the AIM regulation team calling on it to suspend Sefton shares pending a full investigation. Heading over to LinkedIN (Facebook for grown-ups) I see that this video has been “liked” by Tim Metcalfe.
I am not sure if I have ever met Mr. Metcalfe but I know full well who he is and he is incredibly well regarded in the Square Mile as a good and honest operator. He is currently joint CEO of the highly regarded City Corporate Finance house Zeus Capital. But until last year he was MD at Northland Partners. And that is where he knows Sefton from because Northland used to act for Sefton as its Nomad until the two parted company.
Why did the two firms part company? Hmmm.. The fact that Mr. Metcalfe likes my call to have Sefton shares suspended might just give you a hint. Fox Davies was Sefton’s next Nomad and it quit because it felt that Sefton was deliberately misleading investors. I already have the head of Fox Davies called as a witness in the forthcoming libel trial to testify to that. But perhaps there is a pattern emerging here? Do you think Mr. Metcalfe would make an interesting witness in the great libel trial?
Or perhaps now that the City is publically starting to back me the AIM Cesspit Regulation team will finally do something to end this farce once and for all and suspend the shares pending a full enquiry.
Tim – feel free to get in touch at any time.
4119 days ago
I have this morning sent a letter to Nick Harriss, a good man, who is in charge of the Sefton account at its Nomad Allenby. I have sent him a copy of the Dillabaugh vs. Ellerton 2009 judgement. I urge him in friendship to consider whether Allenby can remain as Nomad to Sefton in light of what has emerged today - see my earlier piece here.
My letter went by email but it is an open letter so I have recorded what was written on video for you all to watch as the AIM Cesspit plumbs new depths.
4119 days ago
So far I have been nice to AIM Cesspit posterboy Sefton (SER) but now it is gloves off time as I reveal how Sefton boss Jim Ellerton swore on oath in Court in 2009 that he had cleared personal debts of hundreds of thousands of dollars using Sefton cash. And I have obtained and attach the document that verifies this shock revelation.
Jim could not even get that right. The Court rejected his evidence with the judge noting “defendant Ellerton’s testimony was not believable” and that “defendant Ellerton is not credible in regard to his testimony” but none the less the fact is that Jim Ellerton did not admit to using Sefton cash for personal matters, but swore on oath that he had done so.
The case is Ellerton vs. Dillabaugh, a Colorado dentist who loaned Ellerton over a period of years c$400,000 and was then made Sefton company secretary and IR manager.
4120 days ago
It is now 3.30 AM. The document I have been seeking for some weeks finally arrived at 1.30 AM and I am now pondering how to play tomorrow. Breaking what is a quite devestating exclusive is the easy part. The article is almost written. But how to follow up? I would like to shoot four videos as I hand over documents to relevant bodies to ensure that this matter is dealt with swiftly. But how do I time it all. At what point do I release the story and at what point do I shoot the videos? Hmmmm. It is a hard one to decide but it should be an interesting day. I can say that in 21 years of covering small cap stocks and the AIM Cesspit, Monday 12th August 2013 looks set to be a standout day
4121 days ago
A week away and much to my surprise there has been no news from Sefton Resources (SER), the AIM Cesspit listed POS that is suing me for libel. I see the shares are now at 0.475p, under the MA line which in charting terms, I am told, means they are a mammoth sell ( upside is capped at the MA) the initial target price would be 0.275p. Charting is bollocks. And, in this case, generous, my target price remains 0.01p. But there are two howling questions for Sefton.
4121 days ago
Concha (CHA), the latest vehicle of investment hot shot Chris Akers managed to complete a £1 million placing at 0.35p and another acquisition in time to announce at 7 AM on Friday. Had it left it any later its shares would have been booted off the Cesspit. As it is they moved ahead to 0.41p – valuing the company at £3.3 million. The Akers express has left the station. I sense it is now full steam ahead.
4129 days ago
Proper fund managers are not interested in small cap AIM listed companies worth sub £20 million. As such if you run such an enterprise and wish to raise money you have 2 choices and both need you to ramp your stock and that means fleecing the Bulletin Board Morons.
Choice one
4130 days ago
AIM Cesspit posterboy Sefton Resources (SER) which is suing me for libel has got no money and is burning cash. It is therefore must do to an equity placing or death spiral drawdown pronto to survive and so has put out its second RNS in two weeks which is not only a ramp but a piss poor ramp to boot. Focus on: how it spins falling output how it announces the same thing twice and how it spins the fact that yet again it cannot publish Comical Ali’s steam flooding report. And remember this is a ramp ahead of a placing which will have to be at a big discount to the current share price.
4136 days ago
So AIM Cesspit listed Cupid (CUP) the BBC last night accused you of defrauding your customers and showed why the KPMG enquiry was a whitewash – are you going to sue it for defamation?
AIM listed Cupid was accused by the Kiev Post of employing folks to create fake profiles to entice lonely punters to sign up to its paid services. KPMG was hired to investigate but DID NOT interview the reporter who filed the story.
The BBC has now uncovered stacks of fake profiles and HAS interviewed foxy Svitlana Tuchynska on camera.
4136 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed Arian Silver (AGQ) has overdosed on its equity drawdown death spiral. It failed to attract any interest for a share placing a few months ago as I exposed on this website provoking much anger from its dickead of a PR man. And so it has issued convertible debt which is incredibly expensive – this company really is desperate.
It has not yet actually raised the C$15 million it says that it is doing but has signed up a leading Canadian specialist broker and it says it has one punter who will take the whole lot. I will humour the uber Welsh boyos at Arian by saying that the debt issue will go ahead.
See chaps I am a nice guy. So there is no need to complain about this article. Leave the bleating to your girlfriends. Damn,
4140 days ago
Reach4Entertainment (R4E) the company formerly known as Pivot and before that First Artist has served up two great pieces of news today. The best is the departure of the grossly overpaid finance director Shirley Stapleton, but it gets better.
Stapleton was a legacy of the ancien regime which was marked for a central cost base which even by the standards of the AIM cesspit was bloated. Her package in 2011 was a salary of £178,000. Last year as Reach reported a small profit she trousered £175,000 plus a pension contribution of £8,000.
4140 days ago
I flagged last week that even before it starts building its proposed mine, AIM Cesspit listed Sirius Minerals (SXX) is going to have to raise fresh equity just to keep going. Given the material uncertainties that now exist one wonders at what price the cash call will be. The shares are now 18.5p but the longer it waits the harder this is going to be. What price a cash call now? 15p? 12p?
You can read my piece of last week here
But things seem to be getting worse.
4141 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed Cupid (CUP) has announced that it has sold its casual dating (i.e. casual sex) sites for £43.1 million. Paid for researchers Edison have published a note giving this the full spin. But watch out. All is not as it seems.
The sites being dumped were the ones where it was alleged that Cupid was doing dodgy things in the Ukraine. Of course the KPMG whitewash (I mean independent report) cleared Cupid of all wrong doing but since KPMG did not even speak to the reporter who uncovered all the alleged wrong doings and who has not been sued for libel, that report was a joke. But now Cupid can distance itself from that sort of thing by flogging the sites to their founder, Max Polyakov.
For £43.1 million? Er no.
4143 days ago
There are delays and more delays in North Yorkshire for AIM Cesspit listed Sirius Minerals (SXX). The company says that it has £10 million cash left but if there is no planning approval until 2014 it is only a matter of time before the hat is passed around again and at what price will that be?
I note that the company has not said what trade payables are. So what is the REAL cash position? I wonder.
I have been bearish on this stock for a while and have been right to be bearish. The stock is now 19.25p at what price could it raise money just to keep going, let alone to fund its proposed mine? 15p? 12p? I do not know. But I would remain very short of this one.
I am not the only sceptic.
4144 days ago
This came out yesterday but this story is, as they say, developing. There is more to follow. I shall be online solidaly within a day or so. Internet connection here is dire. But there is more to come...
I am staying in a Greek village where tomorrow I learn how to milk goats. There is no internet. But I have a phone and today I received a call from Gary Dillabaugh, the former company secretary of AIM Cesspit listed Sefton Resources (SER) which exposes Sefton boss Jim Ellerton as a chancer and a rogue.
I have been tracking down Dillabaugh for weeks and so getting that call is a moment I have looked forward to for some time. Hence, I have made my way to the seaside, borrowed a laptop and now reveal all. Just because I am on holiday the AIM bad guys should not sleep soundly.
What follows should be enough to question whether Ellerton is fit to run a public company.
4145 days ago
I am not a fan of AIM Cesspit listed Sirius Minerals (SXX) and so on this occasion merely relay a broker note from the man who I think provides the best independent broker comment in London, Roger Bade of Whitman Howard. This note out on Tuesday is balanced and fair. Bulls should take note of his caveats and the cash warnings, bears be aware of the upside. Over to the excellent ( and amusing) Roger:
4147 days ago
Floated on the Cesspit in 2004 new media enterprise SocialGo (SGO) has managed to rack up losses of almost £20 million – funded by placing after placing – during its nine years on AIM. As recently as June 7th as it announced (dire) 2012 results the company was still “talking the talk” but today the joke has moved on a step as this has become SocialGone, to be renamed Tavistock Investments. Fear not there will be many more chances to lose money on this one, the stock is at least 90% overvalued.
4147 days ago
I am back in Albania. This is a short postcard containing the sort of thoughts that got me booted out of the LinkedIn friends of Greece last summer.
My financial video postcard will go live when I can find an internet link that does not crack up once an hour. i.e. not today! It will be on www.shareprophets.com
4150 days ago
This is a shocker. The directors of AIM Cesspit listed Patagonia Gold (PGD) are very well paid. They have significant equity in the company but they want more. They want shareholders to reprice their share options in order to “incentivise” them. This has to be passed at an AGM. Shareholders should tell these fat swine to bugger off and vote no. And here is why.
4150 days ago
John Wisbey the CEO of AIM listed compliance software group Lombard Risk Management (LRM) is a good friend of mine. Or at least he was - he may decide that he is not anymore after he reads this. Recent events at his firm show private investors once again being screwed on the AIM Cesspit. John is a good bloke & Lombard a good company but this is why mug punters are turned off listed markets. Here goes.
4151 days ago
I see that my recent articles on Bulletin Board Morons have unleashed a firestorm of anonymous abuse various from Bulletin Board Morons. As I wandered along the beach and enjoyed a very nice grilled octopus lunch I pondered whether the morons have a point? For about five seconds.
The morons of course never post under their own names and then proceed to say whatever they wish. If I had a penny for every time I had received abuse from the morons over the years I could buy half of Greece. Perhaps these days I could pick up the whole country. Hidden behind the mask of anonymity they say what they like.
That is fine by me. Airstrip One is a free country. Well sort of. But please do not expect me to regard dishing out abuse without revealing your identity as courageous in any way.
Among writers (i.e. those who earn money from writing in their own name) I am a little unusual in that I am happy to dish out the abuse back. I do so in my own name. And sometimes in quite a witty manner. The BB Morons however think that this is all shocking.
Some feel I should show bravery by going onto BB threads and posting as myself. Hmmmmm.
4152 days ago
I can reveal exclusively that infamous bear raider Evil Knievil has opened up a short in AIM Cesspit listed Cyan Holdings (CYAN) at 0.35p. Knievil’s old adage is “the best time to kick a man is when he is down” and Cyan is certainly down, if not yet out, following its (lack of) profits warning earlier this week.
4152 days ago
Broker VSA initiated its coverage of dual listed hole in the ground wannabee gold miner Bullabulling Gold (BLG) at 7.15p with a speculative buy stance last October. With the shares at 1.875p the unrepentant broker’s stance is unchanged on this AIM Cesspit posterboy.
I guess VSA was half right; Bullabullshit is highly speculative it is just the buy but that was a duff call. Even VSA which seems to be a fully paid up member of the Bullabullabullshit fan club admits that at current gold prices (or indeed at $1400) this stock is worthless.
The gold price is now $1250 oz. It is all very well
4152 days ago
Bear raider Evil Knievil ( Simon Cawkwell) has been short of AIM Cesspit listed Avanti Communications (AVN) a good while and after today’s profits warning he says that he remains short, telling me that “Avanti is simply not investment grade material.” Cawkwell says that Avanti may turn the corner but equally it could disappear altogether. He says that he has no intention of closing his short.
4152 days ago
I ask you to cast your mind back to November 2012. The 15thto be exact. It was when AIM Cesspit listed Sefton Resources (SER) announced the acquisition of new oil operating assets in Kansas. It was all terribly exciting stuff.
The company stated that in an RNS of that day:
Competent Person Dr Nafi Onat has made a study of the oil fields in Northeast Kansas for Sefton, from which detailed information was announced on 12 March 2012. Below are some of the key points that he has made on the potential of this area for oil and gas production.
Analysis of 320 wells on 23 McLouth fields reveals initial average production was approximately 27 bopd and 350mcfg per well during the first month of production. Based on completion reports and deliverability tests, initial gas producing fields varied from 150 mcfg to 2mmcfg per day.
Frigging hell. Sefton paid only $200,000 for these assets and what is that about 27 bopd in month 1? Cripes this sounded exciting.
On December 7th 2012 Sefton issued shares to stop it going bust by Christmas. It raised c £700,000. But heck with those exciting Kansas wells surely this was a winner. Hmmmmm.
Now wind forward to this month
4154 days ago
Cyan Holdings (CYAN) is a true posterboy for the AIM Cesspit and after eight years of non delivery it seems that nothing changes with a disastrous announcement from India today – the only real question is when is the next cash call?
To put the true disaster that is Cyan into perspective consider this. The company listed on AIM in 2005. It has to date clocked up losses of £26.5 million. Its revenues in calendar 2012 were a mighty £315,194. And it is not even as if it is on the growth path
4157 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed gold explorer GoldStone (GRL) announced drilling results from its Ngoutou project in Gabon on 4th July via an official release which I, charitably, describe as optimistic. I understand that companies in the “jeux san revenue” exploration game must always put the best spin on life ahead of the next fund raise but there are limits.
4158 days ago
The story of AIM cesspit woe that is African Eagle (AFE) continued apace this week with news that all of its assets have been put into a company called Blackdown and that African is to sell 90% of that company for just $100,000. Actually it will not make that much from the sale but more on that later.
The bare fact is that in just over 10 years on AIM and a few years on Ofex before that African has raised and spunked away around £40 million. A good part of that went on fees to greedy City advisors and to a rolling cast of senior management. You must bear in mind that you have to pony up to attract “the right boardroom talent.”
Over the years
4160 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed Sefton Resources (SER) has today announced that its June output in Kansas reached 500 barrels. That is up from 450 in May. That sounds good but I suggest that you do the maths because when you do you will realise just how dire this performance is.
4160 days ago
Shares in AIM Cesspit listed Silverdell (SID) have been suspended this morning with the company stating: Silverdell has requested a suspension of its shares from trading pending clarification of the Group's financial position. Further announcements will be made as and when appropriate. You think the company is bust right? Well it may well not be but this story is a total scandal as I shall reveal now. If the AIM Regulation team gives a flying xxxx about maintaining an orderly market it will throw the book at Silverdell’s management team.
I have now established fully what has gone on and can exclusively reveal all.
4160 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed Amara Mining (AMA) is today’s entrant in the “fantasy world of feasibility studies” with an absolute corker relating to its Baomahun project in Sierra Leone. This is beyond a joke.
The long delayed National Instrument 43-101 compliant Baomahun Feasibility Study is finally out. Amara states that it shows the project to be “robust” and to have a Net Present value of $127 million. At 14p Amara is capitalised at £23 million.
Hello sailor, where do I buy the shares? Oh hang on, wait a second
4161 days ago
Shares in AIM Cesspit listed Verdes Management (VMP) were suspended today at 0.55p because the company had failed to publish its half year report on time. This begs all sorts of questions especially as this company has a track record of putting out statements about its financing which turn out to play fast and loose with, what you and I might term, the truth.
You can read about Verdes and is porky pie RNS statements here
But in light of the latest developments I ask just three questions:
4161 days ago
AIM Cesspit and ASX listed Bullabulling Gold (BLG) is running out of money fast. It needs to raise cash well before Christmas or it is toast. As such it is now issuing upbeat RNS statements to try to get private investors to buy stock to drive the share price up so that institutions come in (at a huge discount) later. And so we have today’s statement offering revised economics for its project at Bullabullabullshit in the land of high culture that is Australia.
4161 days ago
Earlier this year an undercover reporter from the Ukraine Post applied for a job with AIM Cesspit listed Cupid (CUP) and claimed that she was told that she would be paid on a freelance basis to pretend to be a dolly bird interested in dating ugly Western men in order to get them to pony up for a Cupid paid for service. Cupid denied the charge but commissioned an independent review by KPMG to investigate and today it has published its findings.
4168 days ago
Shares in AIM listed POS Company Woburn Energy (WBN) have been suspended today from the Cesspit. So if you ignored my prior warning to sell, tough luck it is too late now. And it could get worse, despite the heroic efforts of sleazy Tory MP Tony Baldry who is still picking up £3,333 a month for 4 hours work at Woburn.
4169 days ago
In the June edition of spreadbet magazine I penned a long pice on Cupid (CUP) the AIM Cesspit listed online dating website. You can download the publication for free by hitting the image below.
4171 days ago
And...
Have you guessed the answer to question 1 yet? Hint it is a bit of a specialist subject of mine.
Oh no, I think I am a bit more hated in the City. Again. Cripes.
4171 days ago
Today's AGM statement from AIM Cesspit listed online dating business Cupid (CUP) throws up far more questions than it answers. It does nothing to ally my bearishness as I have explained in numerous articles on the website and elsewhere. But to get the ball roiling here are two questions for the Cupid-ites to answer.
The first concerns cash.
4172 days ago
THE CEO of an AIM listed company offered at the weekend to pay for 6 private investors to attend the AIM Cesspit awards dinner/Sefton legal case fundraiser with Evil Knievil and Lucian Miers on Monday 24th June in Clerkenwell London. Those 6 seats were allocated on a first come first served basis but two of the winners have now pulled out.
As such I have two free tickets on offer.
They will go to the first Shareprophets.com or TomWinnifrith.com readers to email a request for the seat to [email protected]
I look forward to seeing two of you on Monday
4178 days ago
I offer no comment on this weekly feature it is a simple matter of observation. The two tables below show the most active discussions on the ADVFN and iii Bulletin Boards as of a Friday morning. I exclude discussions about the FTSE or blue chip stocks as in those cases private investor sentiment and trading has little influence on the share price. I include the odd fully listed stock were Private Investors can drive the price at the margin.
4184 days ago
When: Monday 24th June 7PM
Where: Real Man Restaurant in Clerkenwell
Registration: It is £75 a ticket and you can order tickets and your food on the evening HERE
The AIM Cesspit awards 2013 will be handed out to those companies that have disgraced themselves most gloriously on the junior market on 24th June. The occasion will be a special dinner which will also aim to raise money to assist Tom Winnifrith in fighting the libel case brought against him by Sefton for pointing out how it has mislead investors on a serial basis.
The guest speakers are infamous short sellers Lucian Miers and Evil Knievil.
There is a special menu which you can view HERE
You can book your ticket or tickets HERE
4184 days ago
Half term over. Back on schedule. Videos, writing like a dervish, Tomographs. The weekend newsletter will be out on Saturday and is a 1984 edition in honour of the fact that the US Government gets to check my Facebook postings and read my emails.
I will also cover the AIM Cesspit awards dinner and explian why half term week ( eneded seven days ago) was such a right pain in the wotsit.
To ensure that you receive your edition of the Tomograph on Saturday evening please REGISTER HERE
4185 days ago
On 23rd May it was announced that AIM listed Parkmead (PMG) was to buy AIM Cesspit oil stock Lochard Energy (LHD) in an all share deal worth c 4.9p per share. 41% of Lochard shareholders have agreed unconditionally but some – including the former CEO are trying to block the deal. With respect, they are tonto. My only surprise is that Parkmead has not walked away.
You may remember that the former CEO ran this company into the ground, was ousted and then used his lawyers to extract a $1.3 million payoff. That on its own should tell you that if he is voting one way you should automatically vote the other. He is clearly a prize shit.
Today’s statement from Lochard is grim. It is clear that
4185 days ago
Terry is well rewarded. His basic pay in 2012 was £402,000 and he got a cash bonus of £488,000 making a total of £890,000 up from £407,000. Inflation busting or what?
In addition, there is a note saying that Quindell made sales of £7,000 but bought goods and services totalling £99,000 from Indoor Golf City Limited, a company controlled by twitter obsessed Bob. Indoor Golf City?
4186 days ago
There is only one thing worse than being talked about and that is not being talked about. So said another writer of Irish descent, Mr Oscar Wilde. Noting erroneous comments made on the ADVFN Bulletin Board a couple of monmths ago that I have lost my marbles as a result of frequenting gay bath-houses I should say that the similarities between mysef and Mr Wilde really do end there.
I see that while it in its latest misleading RNS Cupid PLC describes me as a market commentator the daily Telegraph takes a different view. My new best friend, foxy Fleet Street hackette Harriet Denys gave our AIM Cesspit awards a jolly decent write up in her City Diary column yesterday and describes me as a "maverick share tipster."
Hmmm. Maverick was a classic TV show starring James Garner. I am horrified to see that it was shot before I was born so I guess I only saw re-runs but I was always a big fan of Garner, notably in the Rockford Files when he was also a bit of a maverick
I think I shall write to foxy PR bird Bex at Cupid and suggest that next time Cupid wishes to issue a misleading RNS about one of my articles they should refer to me as a "maverick market commentator." I like the sound of that.
4187 days ago
Sefton Resources (SER) – the AIM Cesspit company that is suing me for libel – has served up May output data from its Kansas operations. At least we will not have to suffer much more of this rubbish as it is 20 seconds to midnight on the great cashburn clock. Tick Tock Tick Tock.
Sefton boasts that output in May rose from 400 barrels in March and April to 450 barrels. Of course it only has a 42% working interest and so on a $30 margin (including transport costs) that will have generated a gross profit for Sefton of about $5600. Chuck in Sefton’s additional admin costs and I very much doubt that it was in the black on this business.
And then, of course, there is the capex. Getting each of these old wells onstream required $15,000 or more. It strikes me that payback will be… er… quite some time.
So how many wells were onstream in April and how many in May? Er
4187 days ago
In for a penny in for a pound, another couple of observations on Cupid (CUP), the AIM Cesspit listed company that yesterday issued a statement in which it claimed my comments in an article that day were misleading. In fact it was Cupid that misled in that it deliberately did not address the point I made (cash minus net trade payables on July 3rd) but instead blathered on about cash (ignoring trade payables) on June 30th. Clearly Cupid are a bunch of scumbags. The question is how badly is its core business doing? And my new question is about cash as at July 31st.
4188 days ago
The last time that online dating service Cupid (CUP) commented on an article by me it just noted that it was comment. This time I have been promoted to the rank of “market commentator” in a statement out this afternoon. Next time? “the UK’s top investigative financial journalist?” Needless to say Cupid is talking utter bollocks and that makes its shares even more of a slam dunk short.
Its RNS is in response to an article I posted earlier HERE
Its statement reads: The Board of Cupid plc. has noted misleading comments posted by market commentators speculating that the Company’s cash position is markedly worse than reported in our RNS on March 25th. For the avoidance of doubt the Board would like to make it clear to the market that we expect to have a positive EBITDA in Q2 and that our cash position at the end of June is expected to be in excess of £10m.
Ends.
I start at the end. I discussed its net cash position (net of trade payables minus trade receivables) as at July 3rd – ie after paying the dividend. I did not say that its cash position would be markedly worse at the end of June. Cupid knows this full well because
a) Its PR team lead by uber foxy Bex (happy birthday again BTW) read the final article when it came out
b) Bex read it before it went out as I sent it to her for comment. I took on board two points she made – as I made clear in the piece – but she did not dispute other facts.
Let us assume, to make this simple
4188 days ago
Woburn Energy (WBN) is an AIM Cesspit listed oil company which today announced that it had finally sold its last assets. It is left with net cash of $2.87 million (£1.87 million). It is now classed as an investment company but if it does not make an investment by 21st June 2013 its shares will be suspended. If it makes no investment by 21st December 2013 its shares will be booted off AIM. The company says it has “to date reviewed a number of potential investment opportunities but has not yet implemented its investing policy and will do so only by investing in those opportunities that have an acceptable risk profile.” Oh dear…suspension looms. -
4188 days ago
Jim Ellerton, the chairman of AIM Cesspit listed Sefton Resources (SER) blathers on about creating shareholder value. Well here are two killer statistics for you. But first a quote from Sefton chairman Jim Ellerton from 25th February 2013:
“Sefton is accelerating the development of its oil and gas operations both in California and Kansas to create shareholder value.”
And so here are the stats.
4188 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed Cupid (CUP) shares are off again today at 52p. There are some folks who blather on about the yield of almost 6% and the strong cash balance. But what exactly is the cash balance? And is the dividend sustainable? Well let’s do some sums.
On March 25th the company stated that its cash position was £9 million. So far so good. However I note that tax payable at the yearend + trade payables minus trade receivables was c£4 million. So the real net cash position may well by March 25th have been as low as £5 million. Foxy PR bird Bex who spins for Cupid points out that working capital could have moved either way between December 31 and March 25. So the real net cash position at March 25 could be higher. Or lower. We just do not know.
By the way, Happy Birthday Bex.
4188 days ago
Away from the Downing Street Cesspit to the AIM Cesspit, Arian Silver (AGQ) which is also TSX listed has served up another classic statement as it yet again tapped its death spiral facility with YA Global – this time raising £216,000 at 5.0199p. Oh dear what bullshit.
The company says that the cash will be used for “working capital and other costs in the short-term, facilitating the acquisition of the El Bote mill, as announced on 15 March 2013”. Really?
4190 days ago
It was a year ago today that the first article appeared on this blog. Most blogs fold after a period of months but I am still here. And to celebrate a glass of bubbly for breakfast! The toast “to you dear readers for continuing to read this site”
A year ago my life looked unimaginably bleak. At a personal and health level it was a mess and I was days away from leaving Rivington Street and t1ps the company I founded. To the victors the spoils and so it was repeatedly asserted that all t1ps’ problems were of my making and that new management was turning it around. Yes I have read the interim results released at 6PM on Friday. Hmmmm. You might say that but I could not possibly comment.
That however was a former life for me. My line in the sand was drawn in September. By then I knew who my friends were. To folks such as Richard Poulden, Abbe Aronson, Darren Atwater, Steve Moore, Clem Chambers, Monisha Varadan, Chris Potts, Amanda Van Dyke, Lucian Miers, Chris Booker and Zak Mir I am forever in your debt. To you I say “cheers” – another toast.
I chatted yesterday to most of the above and life has changed pretty dramatically. At the Real Man restaurant we were losing £5,000 a month when I took it on officially in September. There is now just one of the staff at that time still working here and I have hired and fired aggressively and made a stack of other changes. Having just enjoyed our busiest Saturday in memory we are now happily making a profit, our customers like us and we serve far better food. That was achievement one. I guess that “new management line” is true sometimes. Miaow.
Achievement two was getting the UK Investor Show organised in just a few months and it went well. Now with my friends at ADVFN we are well on track to deliver an even better show on April 5 next year. And I now rather suspect we will be the only show featuring master investors happening next spring. Miaow.
But perhaps the biggest win has been in writing. It is what I do best (although I can knock out a fantastic Risotto con salsicce e funghi these days as well). The launch of the www.shareprophets.com site has exceeded expectations. After 50 days it has half as many registered users as we managed to attract in one year at UK-Analyst. More join every day. And gratifyingly more and more writers seem to want to join the team and write for us. Another two will debut this week. Meanwhile other websites…no that is enough miaows.
But www.Tomwinnifrith.com is my real love. It started as therapy but being able to write exactly what I thought without some corporate hissy fit ensuing soon became an addictive drug. The fact that I use the odd naughty word or talk about birds does not appeal to everyone – notably Google and PR prude Kay Larsen of College Group – as you may remember here and here.
But it is me. I do use naughty words. I do find myself drifting into the vernacular of my favourite TV show (The Sweeney) now and again. And I do have strong views on Israel, welfare scroungers, the EU, global warming and civil liberties. Why hold back? I had been gagged for so long that the release was joyful and still is.
But there was also a release in that I ceased to by a City insider and became an outsider. As such there was no need to kiss arse – anyone and everyone was fair game. The past year has shown me that not only is it fun to constantly expose and poke fun and to say what you want but that I can earn a reasonable living doing that and looking after Real Man Pizza. There is no need to hold back. While I might have been tentaitive at first I am now in 5th gear and will not be slowing down or getting softer in my approach.
And so looking back I reflect on those who have brought inspiration and pleasure to me:
1. The visit to Butrint (photo article)
2. Damian Conboy of Alecto hooking up with the Playboy PR girl
3. Kay Larsen PR prude at College Hill
4. Sefton Resources & Jim Ellerton – thanks Jim you have made my year ( see you in court Bitchez)
5. Taking a contrary view on the Olympics
6. Vroula – the fascist Greek athlete and defending her right to free speech
7. The visit to the Berlin Jewish Museum
8. Standing by St Paul’s for Lady Thatcher’s funeral
9. The start of the AIM Cesspit campaign
10.Going on stage with Nigel Wray and Nick Leslau at UKInvestor show – feeling I was with friends.
11. Being complimented by the Goddess
12. The Guardian and deluded lefties everywhere
13. The Baker of Zitsa
14. Albania - National Leave your Gun at home day
15. Financial PR firms & the AIM Cesspit - another fight picked
I am sure that I have missed out a few highlights.
At a personal level, many of you met my partner at UK Investor Show. She may be an utterly deluded lefty. No okay she is an utterly deluded lefty but she has been a rock at all times. She even now knows who Joe Cole is and that Mark Noble’s veins are claret and blue. What more could a man ask for?
Thank you all for reading this website over the past year. Year two starts on Monday. What will it bring?
Best wishes
Tom Winnifrith
4191 days ago
What are you doing on Monday 24th June from 7PM?
How do you fancy hearing talks and jokes from Evil Knievil and Lucian Miers?
How do you fancy seeing the 2013 AIM Cesspit awards handed out to the companies and CEOs who have made the bottom end of AIM the joke that it is?
Would you be inclined to make a donation to the costs incurred by myself in battling Sefton Resources and other AIM companies, exposing the way that they have misled investors on a serial basis? Interested?
The awards will be handed out at a dinner at the Real Man Restaurant in Clerkenwell. Our guests of honour who will both give talks on the night are bear raiders Evil Knievil and Lucian Miers who will discuss fraud and investor deception on AIM.
We will announce the 2013 AIM Cesspit awards to those CEOs or companies who have done most to discredit the market over the previous 12 months.
There is a special menu for the day.
The total cost for the evening is £75, 80% of which will go towards the costs of battling Sefton and one or two other AIM listed companies that seem not to like facing the cold light of truth.
I look forward to seeing you on the 24th in Clerkenwell.
You can reserve your seat and choose your menu options here.
4191 days ago
I can reveal exclusively that at last things are starting to happen on the regulatory front when it comes to AIM Cesspit listed Sefton Resources (SER) – the AIM regulation unit is now conducting multiple investigations into the company.
Sefton has admitted misleading investors as to its oil production levels and trend just 24 hours before a rescue placing on March 6th 2013 – something that is a clear and mammoth breach of AIM rules. It is suing me for libel for accusing it of misleading investors on a number of occasions in recent years. Until now it appears that the authorities have not done anything but that seems to be changing.
I can reveal that last week
4191 days ago
This was meant to be a relaxing half term family week. Hence fewer articles, no midweek Tomograph and general jollity. It turned out to be a total horror show. But progress has none the less been made with my good friend Darren the hero of the hour.
That will all be discussed in the Weekend Tomograph which will also have information on how to vote in the 2013 AIM Cesspit awards, of an awards dinner with Evil Knievil and Lucian Miers and much more.
To ensure that you receive your edition of the Tomograph on Sunday evening please REGISTER HERE
4192 days ago
At the Annual General Meeting of shareholders of AIM Cesspit and ASX listed Bullabulling Gold Limited (BGL) held today the chairman served up a statement that was classic Bullabullabullshit. Investors are waking up and the shares lost another 10% to close at 2.375p but that still values this company – which may well be toast by mid-August – at £9 million.
The chairman’s statement is worthy of a prize. “I see no icebergs said the captain of the Titanic, let’s alter course by 1 degrees and press on full steam ahead we have done so well so far.”
Amid the congratulatory blather
4192 days ago
When is $756.3 million worth $72 million? Over on the AIM Cesspit of course. This is a story about the disgrace that is Resaca Exploitation but it applies to many other AIM listed companies that have trumpeted competent person’s reports as well. But before looking at some other cases, let’s start with Resaca.
It listed on the Cesspit in 2008 at 130p. It was going to make money from exploiting US oil and gas assets. Hmmm. The main men here (and only executive directors) are JP Bryan and Jay Lendrum who are behind a company called Torch. I refer you now to the 2012 Annual Report:
The Company receives support services from Torch Energy Advisors Incorporated (“TEAI”) and its subsidiaries, which includes office administration, risk management, corporate secretary, legal and litigation services, tax department services, financial planning and analysis, information technology management, financial reporting and accounting services, and engineering and technical services. The Company was charged by TEAI and a subsidiary of TEAI $980,560, $960,904 and $1,440,241 during the years ended June 30, 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively, for such services. The majority of such fees are included in general and administrative expenses.
Hmmm so with the shares now at 3p-4p not everyone has done really badly out of this POS
4192 days ago
This has been well spun by AIM Cesspit pin-up boy Cupid (CUP) but yesterday’s trading statement was a disastrous profits warning.
On March 5th folks were expecting half year EBITDA in excess of £6 million (up from £5.9 million in 2012). Just 86 days later we are told EBITDA will now be just £2.5 million which means a pre-tax loss. Bear raiders Evil Knievil and Lucian Miers are both short. Their current take:update#sthash.ZHiUiIbm.dpuf
4192 days ago
I offer no comment on this weekly feature it is a simple matter of observation. The two tables below show the most active discussions on the ADVFN and iii Bulletin Boards as of a Thursday morning. I exclude discussions about the FTSE or blue chip stocks as in those cases private investor sentiment and trading has little influence on the share price unlike stocks on the AIM cesspit. I include the odd fully listed stock were Private Investors can drive the price at the margin. -
4192 days ago
Apologies for the tardiness of this week’s column. Half term fun and games are partly to blame. But so is a bully boy letter from a well-known City law firm which is prompting me to report myself to the FSA/FCA to ask the regulator to investigate me for market abuse. I shall report myself at the weekend knowing full well that I have not breached the Financial Services Markets Act of 2000 but I want this clarified in order to protect free speech.
Let me explain what has gone on. My memory is crystal clear. I broke a news story on a company listed on the AIM Cesspit. My source was impeccable. The story was 95% correct and when the truth was finally dragged from the company in question I wrote an immediate follow up flagging the one error (i.e. a correction). But also pointing out what an investment basket case this was. At no stage until this week did the company contact me. Indeed it declined even to return a phone call when I wanted to run one piece by it.
The company does not like me. And so this week I received a lawyers letter demanding that I remove the articles in their entirety and threatening me by saying that this is market abuse and that if I do not comply they may report me to the FCA for market abuse. You will note the aim here is not to get a correction on the one small factual error but to get a hostile article (95% of which is verifiably correct) removed in its entirety.
This is not about ensuring fair reporting it is an attack on free speech. It is the rich and powerful trying to suppress hostile or embarrassing material.
4193 days ago
Kalimantan Gold (KLG) is listed on the TSX as well as the Cesspit and its quarterlies out today tell a familiar story. The only question is when is the next placing? I guess rather soon but then as a company that has passed the hat around numerous times in its long and undistinguished Cesspit career Kalimantan at least knows how to do the paperwork.
In the three months to March 31st 2013 the company booked a profit of $25,151 thanks to management fees for operating the KSK joint venture (mine exploration). In terms of cash it is a rather less happy picture. Kalimantan’s partner funds most of its exploration work but not all and thus Kalimantan boldly states:
4193 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed Cupid (CUP) is starting to unravel far faster than I imagined. A statement yesterday is really pretty grim. It contains three elements which I discuss in turn. But I first refer you to March 5th.
An online business must by definition have very rapid financial reporting functions. It knows how trading is going on an almost daily basis and so can comment on its trading performance very accurately at any point. And on March 5th when announcing calendar 2012 numbers Cupid stated:
Whilst it is still early in the year, we are confident that the business is well positioned for another year of healthy revenue growth, profitability and cash generation.
Wind forward less than three months to May 29th and we now have another statement. Firstly on trading:
4195 days ago
Once upon a time there was a company called Managed Support Services PLC which was listed on the AIM Cesspit. It went tits up. Well almost. Its operations were sold but the shell remained intact with a few liabilities and a tiny but of cash. It became Kennedy Ventures (KENV), an investing company, and it shows the idiocy and unsustainability of this whole AIM game.
Kennedy published its report for the six months to December 31st on March 27 2013. It showed cash of £134,000 and trade payables of £85,000. There were a few prepayments but essentially net cash was £49,000. With directors hauling out £4,000 a month in fees and other PLC costs to consider on top and only one investment (an illiquid unquoted one) you might think that there was a bit of a going concern issue.
Could the auditors state that this company had enough cash to keep going for 12 months? Fear not.
4195 days ago
It is less than four weeks ago when I highlighted the tale of woe at AIM Cesspit listed Scotgold (SGZ) with the shares then at 1.625p. I note that the shares are now quoted at 1p-1.5p so I guess things are not looking up for this dual listed POS Company. But it will get worse.
If you remember this company came to AIM in 2008 and its Aussie management team happily plundered almost half a million quid in fees last year. It has its sole asset, a Scottish gold mine, on a care and maintenance basis as it cannot get funding to develop it. Quelle Surprise.
4195 days ago
Having been booted off the AIM Cesspit, Norseman Gold is still suspended on the ASX. However an operational update published before the Bank Holiday in Oz gives a glimmer of hope that all may not be entirely lost. But with Norseman, one of my worst share tips ever for which I apologise once again, we have come to expect the worst.
4199 days ago
How do you keep an idiot in suspense? Assuming he is the sort of idiot who owns shares in AIM Cesspit listed Quindell (QPP) it is by telling him that the annual report is imminent. When will it arrive? Needless to say the company refuses to answer even that question. But one day soon it will arrive and so what am I (as a bear) looking for?
4200 days ago
On the AIM Cesspit unusual share price movements ahead of statements are par for the course. Of course nothing is ever awry. This is a market where a company can issue a statement that it is completely untrue and face no sanction (Verdes – see here) and indeed do a placing 24 hours after issue an untrue RNS (Sefton on March 6th see here) and again there is no sanction. There are no rules on the Cesspit. And that brings me to Arian Silver (AGQ).
Its shares raced ahead in the two sessions prior to lunchtime today gaining some 35% to 6.25p. And then it issued dismal quarterlies with a dire warning that worse may be to come and the shares fell sharply back to 5.5p. Why did the shares move so sharply ahead of the numbers? Who was buying? On what information? As it is an irregular price movement no doubt it is being investigated but clearly nothing was wrong (it never is on the Cesspit) and so nothing will happen.
But let’s not get distracted from the numbers and the accompanying statement. The former are utterly dismal. The latter even worse.
In the first quarter to March 31st the company had a bit of a disagreement with the chappy who processes its silver on a toll basis. And thus revenues were nil. Helped by $700,000 of PLC costs the company racked up a net loss of $935,000. How the xxxx
4200 days ago
Oh dear, the word on the street is that things are going badly wrong at Great Western Mining (GWMO) but apparently the company is saying that “it is all Tom Winnifrith’s fault.” As I go to clear another space on the Mantelpiece for my next trophy let me explain.
On May 10th I pointed out that the balance sheet of Great Western was almost certainly a train wreck. That is to say cash minus trade payables was somewhere between just over nil and minus quite a bit. With no revenues at all it strikes that if it is not already trading while insolvent it soon will be. That as you are aware is a very naughty thing to do and if directors are aware that a company is trading while insolvent they have a legal duty to stop doing so and that means a statement that its shares are being suspended pending clarification. But heck this is the Cesspit so what do rules matter?
Now it is clear that Great Western (at 1.725p valued at £1.12 million) needs to raise material cash to keep going. But that is rather hard to do for three reasons:
4200 days ago
The AIM Regulation team is meant to discipline companies that mislead investors on the Cesspit. And as such I put in a call today about a certain stock (I am sure you can guess which one). And so after negotiating my way past the switchboard and explaining which stock I wanted to discuss I got through to a nice young man who is looking at that stock.
“Hello, my name is Tom Winnifrith and I am a journalist” I said. “I know exactly who you are!” came the response. As such there was no need to discuss the background. Upshot…another formal complaint is in.
Infamy, infamy they've all got it in for me. Except in this case, it is not me who is in the regulator's sights...
4201 days ago
You have just two days to make your nominations for the 2013 AIM Cesspit awards, an annual celebration of everything that is wrong about London’s junior market. So hurry, hurry, hurry. The point of these awards? Well there are a couple…
The first is that there are numerous awards where the “best” of AIM is celebrated. The market always wants to talk about its triumphs. The reality is that it tries not to discuss its failures and failings openly. It needs to. We all know that there are Nomads out there that will float any POS without, it appears, any regulatory sanction at all.
More importantly we all know that the vast majority of companies on AIM have delivered abject returns for investors. AIM constantly boasts about the amount of money it has raised for member companies. But, so much of that money has gone to greedy directors who do not deliver, parasitic advisors or simply to money heaven as it is pissed away on duff projects. AIM needs to be reminded of that. If nothing else this is a chance for investors to vent some of their justifiable anger.
I know that the editor of this esteemed website has served up a few nominations. Remind me Richard the CEO of which company beginning with N did you nominate for the third award (Editor interject - NEOS Resources and one Mr Stephen Rudofsky)? So join Richard Jennings in making your nominations now before the Friday deadline.
At an awards ceremony in late June, real trophies will be presented to those who have helped make AIM the Cesspit it is.
There are seven awards
4202 days ago
African Eagle (AFE) joined AIM from PLUS in June 2003. Today it is six months away from oblivion. Its rise and fall is a morality tale from the Cesspit. No-one emerges from this tale with any credit. I say this as someone who tipped the stock but a long while ago advised cutting losses. But let’s start at the beginning. This is pretty horrific reading.
African started out as Twigg Minerals on the old Ofex market. At the time it came to AIM it was banging on about its gold assets in Tanzania: Miyabi and Iguribi. But they were not big enough. Miyabi is now part of a JV with African having 25% but still nowhere near production. The other assets were even less spectacular. And so to support fund raise after fund raise (there have been more than a dozen to date) the company started promoting copper assets in Zambia.
Sasare, Ndola, Lunga all were company makers we were told as investors were tapped again and again. That was until the company stumbled on something even more exciting. By 2009 the word was Dutwa – a vast Nickel find in Tanzania. The way to maximise shareholder value was to push ahead with Dutwa (oh can we raise some more money please?) and those other company makers were dropped. African had a new company maker.
4202 days ago
I am still seething at how fundamentally AIM Cesspit posterboy Sefton Resources (SER) tried to hoodwink the market with the way it presented its results yesterday. In a near 25 year career I have never seen anything like it. It is truly scandalous.
I analysed the results in detail here.
The key point is that Sefton issued an RNS which it admitted was not IFRS compliant in that it omitted all the notes to the accounts. The full statement appeared only on its website. Only real anoraks like me bothered to read it. 99.9% of investors just read the RNS.
Thus the RNS boasted of how Sefton was profitable (albeit only just). Nowhere in the RNS was it mentioned that a material amount of the cost of employing staff, directors and consultants was capitalised (i.e. added to the balance sheet as an asset rather than run through the P&L). You only discover that if
4203 days ago
It is hard to know where to start with the 2012 Annual Results from AIM Cesspit listed director lifestyle, ooops meant to say oil production, company Sefton Resources (SER) there is so much in them that begs questions rather than providing real knowledge. But suffice to say: the outlook is grim.
But let’s start with Note 1 which is a Sefton classic: “The summary financial statements set out above have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”). These summary financial statements do not constitute financial statements in accordance with IFRS as they omit substantially all the disclosures required by IFRS. A full set of audited financial statements will be published prior to Sefton’s Annual General Meeting and will be available at www.seftonresources.com”
In other words there are a series of disclosures here which are not on the RNS. But if you go over to the Sefton website all the disclosures are in there. Why go to the bother of producing two separate documents? Er… because most folks will just read the RNS. This is just utterly classic Sefton.
So what little horrors are being hidden away? Well let’s start with note 5.
4204 days ago
A shock High Court Ruling made on Friday (but not announced) paves the way for a windfall gain of $9 million (or more) for AIM listed Leni Gas & Oil (LGO) at the expense of Cesspit listed Mediterranean Oil & Gas (MOG).
The background to the case is that on August 1st 2012 Leni sold its 10% stake in acreage known as Malta Area 4 Production Sharing Contract for $1 plus about $20,000 of historic expenses. Leni agreed to the sale on the basis that Mediterranean insisted that there was nothing going to happen to the block. On 23rd August Mediterranean sold 75% of the block to oil major Genel for an immediate cash payment of US$10 million
100% carry of the cost for the first exploration well Hagar Qim 1
100% carry of the cost for the second exploration well up to a maximum of US$30 million
4204 days ago
AIM Cesspit pin-up boy Sefton Resources is suing me for libel over my oft repeated claims that it misled investors principally with regard to oil output last summer and that this caused its then adviser Fox Davies to do the honourable thing and resign.
4204 days ago
Whilst AIM Cesspit listed Sirius Minerals (SXX) is keen to issue an RNS every time there is good news on its planning application to build a vast mine on the North York Moors it seems rather less keen to broadcast the bad news. So I guess that is my job.
Today I am grateful to a reader in the Grim North who alerts me to the headline in the Whitby Gazette which is now on my list of must read publications.
The headline screams “New mine would be a threat to tourism” and the article reads: Tourism would be hit by a £41 million loss every year as visitors avoid congested roads and a spoil heap the size of Wembley Stadium, caused by a new potash mine, it is claimed
4204 days ago
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. That used to be the catchphrase of Mike Walters in his tipster heyday and boy does it apply to Arian Silver which has just received a very public bottom spanking for filing a non-compliant report from the Canadian regulator. Arian is listed in Canada as well as on the Cesspit AIM market.
Rather than be accused of making it up I just reprint the Arian statement in full:
Arian Silver announces its intention to file a technical report including a summary of operational details and economic factors.
The British Columbia Securities Commission has reviewed the Company’s independent technical report, compiled by CSA Global Limited and dated 23 April 2012, which was published for the primary purpose of updating investors with the results of the 10,000 metre phase 4 drilling programme at Arian’s San Jose property.
The Commission’s review of the 2012 Report identified areas of non-compliance with the Canadian standards of disclosure for mineral projects
4207 days ago
Oh dear, I fear that I won’t be getting very many Christmas cards from the financial PR industry this year. My book on how many I will receive is currently running at 1-2 but on balance I’d be a seller. I seem to have offended yet another operative because I am not in the business of writing universally nice articles. Such is the self-importance of these folks that they think I actually give a damn. In for a penny…. Let’s examine the role of financial PR in the AIM Cesspit.
You may remember that I had a bit of a falling out with uber-prude PR bird Kay Larsen of College Group who seems to think that I have a thing against sheep shaggers, oops sorry meant to say Welsh people - not that any of them are in fact animal molesters - and also publish pornography. College Hill is now not returning calls made by staff at www.Shareprophets.com . Does this stop the 19 writers on that site covering companies daft enough to pay College Group £10,000 a month to manage its media relations? Not in the slightest. Does it affect our coverage? Er…not in the slightest. Companies who think that writing a cheque to some daft parasites each month means that they can manage how and where they are covered are just kidding themselves.
And so to my next fallout which is with YellowJersey PR, which makes me think somehow of custard and cowardice. Its gripe is that it represents Arian Silver (AGQ) where, on www.shareprophets.com I have flagged up its various funding issues like a failure to get a placing away.
In case you missed that scoop it appeared here
That is apparently not the sort of coverage YellowCustard’s clients want. I am sorry to hear that. And so
4207 days ago
The PR spokesman for Arian Silver (AQG) and I have just had a curious chat prompted by my prior articles and also by a question posed at the company’s AGM. Let’s get the facts straight here and cut the AIM Cesspit-type bullshit – Arian needs cash fast.
I alleged in a recent article that the company had failed to get a placing away – you can read that here.
At the AGM this article was flagged up, my name was mentioned (oooh er missus: infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me) and the company denied categorically that it had failed to get a placing away.
Er…. Up to a point.
4208 days ago
I was going to dedicate this blog to a well-known City fella who does not honour his debts. He happens to be Welsh but apparently if I use the phrase’ welshing’ on your debts these days you get done for racial aggravation and fined £150 quid. Heck, in for a penny in for a pound but not here sadly. Your esteemed editor thinks I should expose this POS and his employer elsewhere and so I shall. But it begs the question would you invest in a company that you know has told a porky?
Now you might think that no listed company would do such a thing. It is after all against the rules laid out very firmly in the AIM rule book that company’s on the cesspit market must ensure that every RNS issued is true and verifiable. As such, if a company misleads investors or actually tells a lie it would be booted off or publically censured and thus this would be a terribly rare occurrence. Well think again!
I can remember just one company that I have “embraced with my tender love” which was publically censured by the authorities for telling porkies. As it happens, that company was privately censured as a result of my investigation in 2006 but it was only two years later when it sinned again that the FSA finally got around to giving it a public rebuke. That company was 3DM, now known as Environmental Recycling Technologies (ENRT). But its directors from 2006 are still in place. It still raises money to fund its dreams and so other than having its bottom spanked in public it has sailed on as before.
Now, I could list a number of companies which I have shown quite clearly to have misled investors via RNS announcements just in the past few weeks
4209 days ago
It is time to highlight and celebrate the very worst of AIM with the inauguration of the AIM Cesspit awards sponsored by Shareprophets.com.
At an awards ceremony in late June, real trophies will be presented to those who have helped make AIM the Cesspit it is.
There are seven awards of which two are objective mathematical awards and the rest awards where the winners will be decided by the investing public. The Cesspit year runs from May 1st 2012 to May 1st 2013.
The awards are:
IPO of the year – an objective award for the IPO which moves most rapidly from IPO to suspended pending clarification.
The Darwin award – an objective award for the company that destroyed most market capitalisation in the 12 months prior to its shares being suspended pending clarification.
Entrepreneur of the year – investors vote on which AIM CEO has destroyed value most spectacularly in the past year.
PLC Pig of the year – investors can vote on which AIM CEO or Chairman was most grotesquely over-remunerated relative to performance Cesspit lie of the year – investors vote on which RNS issued during the year by an AIM listed company was most misleading.
Cesspit deal of the year – investors vote on which merger or acquisition of the past year did the most to destroy value Cesspit entrepreneur of the year, the most coveted award, handed out to the man or woman whose over promotion of a stock, under-delivery and ability to destroy value has done most to contribute to making the Cesspit regarded as it is today.
The awards process starts today with nominations.
To make your nominations just
4209 days ago
I will try to make this the last Quindell (QPP) piece of the week but I have slept on it and the statement of yesterday threw up far more questions than it answered. I am afraid that I must again start with that £15 million loan AIM Cesspit listed Quindell has advanced and which appeared on the year-end balance sheet.
The company says that its share price is driven down by misinformed press speculation. Such speculation abounds when a company declines to answer a simple question or two. To whom was the loan made, why and when and on what terms? I put the question to foxy PR bird Bex (via her assistant) on Monday morning. On Monday Afternoon I put the question to Twitter obsessed CEO Terry via his assistant. In both cases I was promised a call back with an answer. I have to tell you that no such call has been received.
And I am not the only one asking this question. Why the refusal to explain and to answer?
But I move on.
4210 days ago
AIM Cesspit listed Quindell Portfolio has yet again put out a statement saying that there is no reason for its share price tanking other than wicked shorters and the press getting it wrong. Sorry fellows here is a good reason “you do not fxxxxxg well answer valid questions.”
My top question has always been “To whom was the £15 million loan on the year-end balance sheet made and why?” There is no reason why Quindell should be making loans so what the hell is going on. I contacted Quindell via its foxy PR bird Bex this morning and was told I would get a call back with an answer. I have had no such call. Others have asked broker Cenkos. No joy. I tried the company direct. No joy.
And that is the problem with Quindell.
4211 days ago
Just a reminder that my Tomograph Newsletter goes out bi-weekly with its Weekend edition set to go out late on Sunday evening.
And of course the Wednesday edition is the only way to get an alert to my free share tip of the week.
The weekend issue this time is a Two more reasons to despise David Cameron/AIM cesspit edition.
The only way to get all of that is to REGISTER HERE
Planned delivery time is late Sunday evening
4211 days ago
Some clown bought a stack of shares in AIM cesspit listed CPP (CPP) on Friday sending the shares soaring. This offers a slam dunk free money opportunity as a bear to short the stock at 4.25p-5.25p. Your upside as a shorter at 4.25p is a gain of between 3.25p and 4.25p. There seems no downside risk.
The facts are that Hamish Macgregor Ogston the founder of CPP and 57% shareholder has until May 31st to decide whether to make a bid for shares he does not own. He says he will – if he bids – pay a maximum of 1p per share. He will only hand over that cash if he gets enough acceptances to take him to 75% at which point he will delist the company.
And so under the Hamish option you get either 1p in cash (maximum) or shares in an unlisted company run by Ogston which will – I suggest – be impossible to liquidate. The market price ahead of delisting will thus be c 0.8p-1.2p.
Option 2 is that Hamish walks away.
4211 days ago
The dog that was Pan Pacific Aggregates continues to bark loudly in its new incarnation as Astar Minerals (ASTA). On Friday its shares were the second worst performers on the Cesspit, slumping 20% to 0.2p as 8,332,132 shares changed hands. Oooh er missus sounds like a big one. Er…no.
That represents trading volumes of just £16,664.26 assuming trades happened at the mid. I suspect that there were more sellers than buyers but I am being generous. And so on volumes which in value equate to the cost to the taxpayer of keeping Abu Qatada and his family in the UK for two weeks, the market cap slumped by 20%. In other words more than £100,000 was wiped off the market value.
Fear not…worse is to come
4212 days ago
Shares in AIM cesspit listed Great Western Mining (GWMO) tanked on Friday after an RNS which – in the wake of the US Oil & Gas (USOP) and Teknomining debacles – simply does not was. At 2.55p and capitalised at just £2 million this company is heading rapidly towards having shares of “toast investment grade.” Its problems are manifest but the history of it and other companies established by Liam McGrattan and cronies is the issue.
With every McGrattan resources promote we start with the big claims. The shares motor ahead. The placings ensue. And then McGrattan steps down from the board to pursue other business interests, run a Paris hedge fund or whatever. Then cronies such as Nial Rind step down. And then with USOP and Teknomining we have now firmly established that the claims made were sheer 100% bollocks.
We have yet to establish how many shares (for which they paid sod all) in USOP and Teknomining McGrattan and his cronies sold, when they sold and at what price. That would be fascinating data I suspect.
Great Western was a tad different in that as its front man it has Emmett O’Connell who arrived with a half decent reputation. But
4212 days ago
They do not like it up ‘em. Shares in some of the darlings of the AIM Cesspit have taken a bit of a hit of late and some folks, the believers, believe that this is the result of a great conspiracy involving myself, Evil Knievil, Lucian Miers, Zak Mir, Red Evans and others. How about a quick look at the facts.
It is almost flattering to think that our wee band could wipe £300 million off the market value of Quindell (QPP). If only we were so powerful. As it happens Zak, myself, Evil and Lucian were all bearish on this company and we have been proved right. We are not always right but here we were correct. But the whole world is asking valid questions of Quindell now and that is why the shares have tanked. It is just that we called it correctly first. Is it a crime to be right and to ask valid questions?
4212 days ago
Last weekend I exposed how Verdes Management (VMP) a company listed on the AIM Cesspit market had misled investors in a series of RNS announcements as it struggled to say afloat in recent months.
Verdes is a tin pot company rapidly running out of cash. The big questions are for WH Ireland, its nominated adviser (Nomad) and broker. The questions go the heart of who misled investors and the failure of the regulatory system on the Cesspit AIM market.
You can read my original expose here
On AIM the Nomad must sign off on any statement. A Nomad must therefore satisfy itself that the statement is true. If a company issues misleading statements ultimately it is the Nomad that should carry the can, although on the Cesspit this never seems to happen. The broker raises money for a client and takes a commission of (usually) 5% for doing so. Both Nomad and broker are paid a retainer by clients such as Verdes.
Questions for WH Ireland:
4213 days ago
On 9th may AIM Cesspit listed Sirius Minerals (SXX) updated investors on the planning process for its proposed mine on the North York Moors. The RAF has asked a few questions which Sirius says that it will answer. But there was another submission made to the North York Moors National Park Planning Authority which Sirius, er…neglected to detail its release. It is not good news.
At this point I hand over to the ever excellent Roger Bade of Whitman Howard who writes in his morning missive:
4213 days ago
With its shares having tanked from 14p a few weeks ago to just over 7.41p with most of the falls following annual results on Tuesday, Quindell Portfolio (QPP) – hitherto a darling of the AIM Cesspit – has put out a statement late last night. It is a truly dismal effort. In the words of Evil Knievil “it is not an invitation to short but now an obligation.”
The statement, crafted by foxy PR bird “Bex” SH who also acts for Cupid (CUP) reads:
The Company is aware of recent press speculation regarding the equity swap and an active short position in relation to the Company’s ordinary shares. In light of this, the Board wishes to clarify that further to its recently reported record results, the Company has a strong balance sheet and continues to trade profitably with significant traction in the insurance sector. The Company knows of no valid reason for the recent share price decline. Furthermore, the equity swap asset, which has also been subject to speculation, accounts for a small part of the Group receivables and is not a material contract in relation to the size of the Group. This was issued as part of the funding for the acquisition of Accident Advice Helpline, announced on 3 December 2012 and was deemed to be the least dilutive funding mechanism at this time. It is not currently being exercised, and the Company believes that the counterparty will continue to not make any material transactions in respect of the Company’s ordinary shares unless the share price is at substantially higher levels.
Er… in plain English what on earth is all of that about?
4214 days ago
I revealed some weeks ago how AIM Cesspit listed oil company Sefton Resources (SER) had instigated a smear campaign against its two principal critics, myself and Daniel Levi (aka Brokerman Dan). It is suing us for libel but has also engaged in underhand smear tactics. This has backfired as the Daily Telegraph has now confirmed to my comrade Mr Levi who, how and when Sefton played this sordid game.
As such I can reveal that Dan Levi will be filing a Solicitors letter with Sefton within days seeking a public retraction and potentially leading to a claim for vast damages for defamation. He has already agreed with Sefton’s uber-expensive City lawyer Pinsent Masons how this will be served.
Ooooh that Dan plays hardball. He is such a gritty Northern hard man.
I am, of course, a really nice guy and like to handle things on an amicable basis.
And as such I have simply dropped Sefton boss Jim Ellerton a friendly note
4215 days ago
Bear raider Evil Knievil and I chatted tonight and he is in celebratory mood following the post results meltdown in the share price of AIM Cesspit listed Quindell Portfolio (QPP). The numbers raised red flags but it is the shocking revelations of how shareholders cash was used to punt on Quindell’s share price that has caused the stock to slump.
I revealed here a while back that Quindell was Evil’s biggest short. Bear raider Lucian Miers also wrote up his concerns about Quindell here on Shareprophets two weeks ago as you can read here.
Is it illegal for a company to use CFDs to bet on its share price going up? Evil tells me that it is not since a CFD is a derivative. However
4215 days ago
There is always intense competition for Bulletin Board Moron of the week but J Bravo Esq is this week’s winner with an absolute stonker on the subject of AIM Cesspit listed lifestyle Management Company, oops I meant to said oilfield services company, Vialogy (VIY).
Mr Bravo posts on ADVFN
4215 days ago
On the AIM Cesspit new records appear to be smashed every day and the latest one might just have been set by EastCoal Inc (ECX). It was already listed in Canada but on December 28th it raised a gross $9.5 million at 12.2p per share thanks to Cenkos and dual listed on AIM. On Tuesday May 7th its shares were suspended at 3.875 pending clarification of its financial position. This morning the finance director has quit.
I asked its PR firm (Tavistock) if this was a new record for IPO to suspended going possibly tits up
4216 days ago
Just a reminder that my Tomograph Newsletter goes out bi-weekly with its Midweek edition set to go out today by Noon.
This is the only way to get an alert to my free share tip of the week.
This issue will also give an update on the AIM Cesspit campaign plus a plea for potential assistance as I consider legal action against Sefton Resources, its directors and advisors now that it has been shown how it contrived to libel me.
The only way to get all of that is to REGISTER HERE
Planned delivery time is Noon today
4216 days ago
Er…yes I suppose I am if you call raising utterly legitimate issues mischief making I am guilty as charged. That was the allegation put to me by the CEO of AIM Cesspit listed Verdes Management (VCM) today as I asked him about the Alfa Romeo his company bought from him. He has promised to get back to me about the suggestion that he tried to get a new Linen suit put on expenses but was refused. I had a few other questions for him but it appears that Adam Webb is not my new best friend and does not want to speak to me anymore.
I am almost in tears.
To read about the Alfa Romeo bought by this company that was making no revenues click here or perhaps the staff jolly to Le Mans is more interesting – that story can be found here.
And I am not finished with Verdes yet…
4216 days ago
At the weekend I exposed how Verdes Management (VMP) a company listed on the AIM Cesspit market had misled investors in a series of RNS announcements as it struggled to say afloat in recent months. I detailed the pay accorded to the main man Adam Webb while the company played “jeux san revenues” with other folk’s cash, that is to say money raised from investors. But where did all the money go?
4216 days ago
At the weekend I exposed how Verdes Management (VMP) a company listed on the AIM Cesspit market had misled investors in a series of RNS announcements as it struggled to say afloat in recent months.
I detailed the pay accorded to the main man Adam Webb while the company played “jeux san revenues” with other folk’s cash, that is to say money raised from investors. But where did all the money go?
4217 days ago
AIM does not do irony but if it did Verdes Management (VMP) would win all the prizes. This is a typical tale from the Cesspit, directors and advisers keen on trousering the moolah, shareholders screwed and misled. If AIM was credible this company would be put out of its misery at once but the long running farce just keeps on going. No-one gives a damn about rules on the Cesspit.
Verdes, I am not making this up, describes itself thus:
“Verdes Management was established to support UK companies who have encountered difficulties during this economic climate. Drawing on our collective expertise in the City, the Verdes Team have unique resources that enable us to identify weaknesses in UK PLCs and offer independent advice and solutions.”
Fabaroonie. That sound great. Until you note that this company itself has been a total train wreck with its shares plunging from more than 3p three years ago to 0.09p on Friday. The company is – by my estimates more or less out of cash and has debt and is loss making. But at least there is the vast City experience of the board. Would that be the board that has failed to get a meaningful placing away? Has failed to compete on any advisory mandates? That said it had raised money last Autumn but er…did not? That misled investors in at least two RNS statements in the past six months? Yes that board. You could not make it up.
This reminds me of an entry in the “worst letter I wrote” contest.
Dear Jim
Can you fix it for me to appear on It’s a knockout?
4219 days ago
Just a reminder that my Tomograph Newsletter goes out bi-weekly with its Weekend edition set to go out on Saturday evening/Sunday morning.
And of course the Wednesday edition is the only way to get an alert to my free share tip of the week.
The weekend issue this time is a UKIP Glory AIM cesspit edition.
The only way to get all of that is to REGISTER HERE
Planned delivery time is late Saturday or Sunday morning
4219 days ago
The fallout from the Teknomining Scandal and the growing belief that US Oil & Gas (USOP) will turn from comedy to tragedy ( while remaining a long running farce) has had a knock-on at Great Western Mining (GWMO), a company also from the Liam McGrattan stable listed on the AIM cesspit.
If you need a reminder of the TeknoMining & USOP farce – where I accuse certain directors of being liars read on here.
Great Western was, like US Oil & Gas and TeknoMining, founded by Liam McGrattan from his offices above a dodgy drinking den in a ropey part of the badlands of Dublin, Ireland. As is the way Liam himself stepped down some time ago to pursue other business interests (did he dump his stock thereafter?). But he left his long time senior gopher Nial Ring on the board. Ring is Mcgrattan’s senior gopher, young Brian at US Oil & Gas is the junior gopher.
But on 29th April Ring also quit Great Western with immediate effect. This follows a familiar pattern (see US Oil & Gas, Teknomining etc.). What Shareprophets can reveal
4221 days ago
Fully listed Ruspetro (RPO) is the sort of company that should be on the cesspit AIM market – in fact its track record to date would put even parts of AIM to shame. Although the company – at 39.25p – is valued by the market at £140 million it is in reality already controlled by its banks – the equity is grotesquely overvalued.
As a reminder this was the company that served up a bullish trading statement in late November only to issue a grim profits warning at 6 PM on the Friday of the week between Christmas and New Year. It then announced it would refinance its debt via a bond issue. And then said that it was not going to. It really is a laugh a minute with our comrades from Siberia.
4221 days ago
I offer no comment on this weekly feature it is a simple matter of observation. The two tables below show the most active discussions on the ADVFN and iii Bulletin Boards as of a Thursday morning. I exclude discussions about the FTSE or blue chip stocks as in those cases private investor sentiment and trading has little influence on the share price. I include the odd fully listed stock were PIs can drive the price at the margin.
Column two in each table shows the percentage of clients at spreadbetting form IG Index who are long of each stock. It is fair to assume that IG has a large enough client base and so its long/short balance is indicative of market sentiment as a whole. And the boards at iii & ADVFN have sufficient posters to also represent Private Investor sentiment as a whole.
4222 days ago
Norseman Gold (NGL) has been kicked off AIM.
The suspended shares are being de-listed at once. This was a bad tip from me and fits in with the general rule “never tip dual listed Aussie companies on the AIM Cesspit.” Good Australian companies can raise plenty of cash back in the land of high culture. Bad ones tap up folks on the Cesspit. I apologise for getting it wrong – its management including David Steinepreis have an awful lot more to apologise for. The game is not 100% over but I would suggest that if Dave tries to list anything in London ever again you pass on that offer.
The company is now again in control of its assets. But it was told by AIM that it needed to present a business plan and show that it had the working capital to execute it within six months of its suspension or get de-listed. The management asked for a one month extension but did not deliver and so the shares were booted off the Cesspit.
The shares remain listed on the ASX
4222 days ago
The history of Australian companies seeking a dual listing on AIM is not a happy one. With a vibrant mining sector in the land founded as a penal company, as a rule good companies have no need to travel to London to tap up British investors via the AIM cesspit. And so that brings us nicely to Scotgold (SGZ).
In the year to June 30th 2012 its five man board (with just 2 executive directors) cost shareholders (in remuneration only) A$640,000 – let’s call that £430,000. That was an increase on 2011. What an annual report does not disclose is the expense claims submitted by directors. But one always suspects that this will add a few bob to the outflow. This company has been kicking around as Scotgold since May 2008 and so lucky shareholders have – over that years funded the board to the tune of, shall we say £2 million. Revenues to date? Natch. Nil. This is a gold development company and as we know – and here I quote the Scotgold annual report: “The company’s aim is to remunerate at a level that will attract and retain high-calibre Directors and employees. Company officers and Directors are remunerated to a level consistent with size of the Company.”
Sure, so what value have these high calibre men (including a company secretary who has 2 other full time positions but still extracted A$166,000 in fees from Scotgold last year) delivered for shareholders? Aha. Oh Dear.
