Bisichi Share Price (BISI)

So LAS itself is virtually totally risk averse.

So Stonehage Fleming Inv Mgt which own 8.81% of LAS (just over 7.5M shares) has its money tied up there doing zero for them basically, year in year out while John & the rest of the board rake in £1M a year now (oh & I forgot John get's £10,000 from Dragon as well - that will help pay for the holiday no doubt).

I'm not sure how many actual staff LAS employ themselves or size of salaries etc.

Stonehage Fleming Inv Mgt own 17.95% of BISI which is 1,916,154 shares. So they have been getting some income from that, but whose going to want to buy there shares stuck in this structure with mine-life dwindling etc?

How much did both investments cost them in the 1st place ?

So in summary the 40%+ of cash that was originally invested by outsiders in LAS is doing nothing for its holders other than pay 40%+ of Directors salaries etc. Then on top of that amount of cash, the outside investors in Bisichi are very much in the same boat, only they are getting a dividend most of the time, but that hides the fact that the directors are milking a fortune off it, sucking the pot dry without virtually any skin in the game.

The only saving grace for the outsider shareholders was the sharp spike in the price of coal which brought a considerable sum of money into the business & they got a decent return for once, but it will be back to crumbs for them, while the directors milk the pot dry again slowly but surely year after year.

Some outsider shareholders might have got lucky & got out when the opportunity arose (surprised Stonehage Fleming Inv Mgt didn't sell a good chunk of there holding - or maybe they did - I didn't look for it historically but could find enough buyers for the rest). In the meantime that 40%+ of the original outside money in Bisichi is again being used to finance the Hellier Empire & repayment on it can't be demanded etc unlike the bank lenders etc who can do that.

LOTM

Hi EdwardSeaton,

So looking at LAS or (LAP as it likes to be known).

John Hellier gets a basic salary of £558,000 + £38,000 of benefits & another £33,000 for pension as opposed to Andrew Hellier's basic salary of £495,000 + £42,000 in benefits.

John Hellier owns 1,872,410 LAS shares, Sir M Hellier & family owned 48,080,880 LAS shares that's 56.35% of LAS ( I can't tell if that figure actually includes John's holding or is completely separate to it). I also noted that Stonehage Fleming Inv Mgt own 8.81% of LAS (just over 7.5M shares).

LAS own's 41.52% of Bisichi

Within Bisichi - Sir M Hellier's estate owns 3.09% of the company (330,117 shares) & Andrew Hellier separately owns 7.35% of the company (785,012 shares) I'm again noting Stonehage Fleming Inv Mgt own 17.95% of BISI which is 1,916,154 shares.

So the Hellier family in essence control 51.96% of Bisichi (41.52% + 7.35% + 3.09% ).

I'm not entirely sure why Bisichi is incorporated into LAS's accounts given it is only 41.52% owned by that entity I would have expected ownership to be over 50% before they needed to be added in so that complicates things even more & then you've got Dragon as well ! a 50/50 split between the 2.

So that's going to need to be looked into in a lot more detail to try & work out what's what.

What is clear is that LAS doesn't like using its own cash, it likes to use borrowing's either from banks or from Bisichi.

Bisichi has a portfolio of properties that it owns (& has some borrowings against) valued at over £10M ( so effectively just under half of that investment is not from the Hellier family) It gets around £1.1M annual in rent from it (less interest on the bank loans), but it then pays LAS over £0.2M a year to manage that portfolio on its behalf !

Andrew Hellier has an outstanding loan of £42,000 from Bisichi ! Yet didn't re-pay it when receiving £1.6M+ in salary plus dividends on top of that !

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They simply want to make enough money each year to get a handsome salary for themselves at the expense of those invested with them, whose money gives them virtually no return on it be it dividends or capital appreciation.

LOTM

Hi EdwardSeaton,

The directors paid themselves a bonus of £2.611M in 2022. (just to put that in context that is more than the shareholders received in total dividend for the year 22p per share at a cost to them of £2.348M)

1 of the Executive directors doesn't own a single share in the company, another just 40,000 shares & they have base salaries of around £200,000 per year.

They'll tell you how well the company performed & they should be awarded accordingly. Well the honest truth is the company didn't perform in 2022, they only reason they made so much money was the massive increase in the price of coal which is totally out of there control.

What was in there control was mining output - although they use outside contractors to do the mining which obviously increases the cost of it. Output fell, there were issues, poorly selected ground for stripping etc & in the first half of 2023 they ran into more issues around a fault which if they'd test drilled it right they would have known about it.

So did they deserve a bonus on that basis? I'd say maybe a small one at best given the largeness of there base salaries. If they'd got £0.5M between them I'd have said they'd done pretty well for themselves, all things considered. That would have given them another £2M to either pay as a dividend 20p per share or "invest" in the market, heaven's forbid.

There is simply no way they should have walked away with more of a reward than those who fund the company & have there cash at risk. end of story, totally disgraceful & contemptable.

They must be laughing every day about how lucky they are with this wonderful set-up no risk & just a gravy train.

I'll have a deeper look at LAS before passing any comment in that direction.

LOTM

Yes, I am obsessed with the foolish LAS 42% holding. It serves neither company well, nor their shareholders, nor even the Hellers. They should either merge the companies, or preferably, separate them. What they have now is the worst of both worlds.

I am not aware of being hoodwinked, but if you say so.

I understand you are troubled by the salaries, but all things being equal, if they paid themselves nothing at all, I very much doubt the share price would be in a materially different place today.

I am no fan of the way the company was being run under Sir Mick, and have been exceptionally vocal in expressing my opinions to Andrew over the last 12 months, most recently this morning regarding their opaque investments in opaque investment companies.

I told him that I was not surprised that Bisichi was priced as if failure was imminent, and that was a disgraceful position for a company with cash and investments in excess of £20m and a balance sheet with net assets of £35m to be in.

I don't tend to do my ranting on here, because I very much doubt the directors of Bisichi will read it. But that does not mean I don't rant.

EdwardSeaton,

Sadly you are obsessed with the LSA holding & that has blinded you for a long time now.

You spoke to the board at the last AGM & got hoodwinked by them.

There salaries & bonuses are obscene for what they are doing/achieving. Yet you simply don't get that.

This latest £2M investment should have set more alarm bells ringing.

LOTM