Member Info for bandit1

This blog in on the money IMO. We know that BUR has the resources and tenacity to push this all the way and they have over £1bn of lost shareholder value as an incentive. Will the ‘City’ close ranks to protect their regulatory ‘reputation’ which in itself is somewhat of a contradiction? Perhaps they will, but there is a lot at stake here and there is an opportunity for the regulators to use this as a seminal moment given that it is high profile case and will send a powerful message across the market and possibly across the pond if there are US entities bang to rights. Perhaps I am overly optimistic but on the other hand, if BUR fail to bring a successful actin due to technical or other reasons the level of cynicism from the investment community will only go one way.

Well just speed read the documents and I am delighted that BUR are taking this all the way to the courtroom. I believe that it is just a question of time before those involved in the alleged manipulation activity are in front of a judge having to explain themselves. Civil actions may not provide much in the way of financial compensation ( difficult to tell) but they will ensure that individuals pay for their actions of the market manipulation of the claim by BUR is upheld. If Hedge Funds were involved here and if they have deep pockets they could potentially be wiped out given that in excess of £1billion of value was as a direct result of the manipulation. Some people will be very worried today as this will be career defining for some on the wrong side of the law. In hindsight to plan an aggressive short attack in this was on a company with the litigation skills as BUR May have been a grave mistake IMO.

I for one hope that we don’t have to wait too much longer for the release of the interims which will hopefully contain a thorough update on cash position, update on OML18, Barryhoe etc. and indeed plans to return some of the accumulated cash reserves back to shareholders. Perhaps this may stop those in their tracks who dream up almost daily, an endless number of spurious claims none of which ever come to fruition - yet they keep going! Fanning has 9.5m shares and did not participate in the Tender Offer. He has recently bought more shares at 37p and here we are at 29p on the bid. I imagine that he is not feeling too chirpy at the share price so I expect that he will be very keen to get back onto the front foot with the next update. Sooner the better as the constant drip, drip makes the journey back up a little more challenging.

STS69. I’m afraid that you are wrong again. The difference between myself and trolls is that I am upfront about the fact that I am not a holder and indeed I also have a very good reason to criticize a company and in this case the CEO for poor communication ( some of the worst I have seen) and some sloppy transactions. Furthermore I have been correct in my assessments here , and the market agrees with me. What have I said which is unjustified? I will also say that I rarely criticize companies in which I am not currently invested but as someone who owns a property on the southern coastline of the Moray Firth and who interacts with people in the O&G industry up there, I feel that Cross is fair game due to his unconventional and some may say aloof style of management. That can create doubt, frustration and often leads to shareholders selling. That is what we have seen here. Perhaps you are under water hence your irritation with myself. Others may be prepared to acknowledge that my warnings over the last 6 months have been justified. And other thing do you have any idea where Hanson has gone by any chance?

My initial investment here was around £1 a share and I saw it rise rapidly to £ 1.50 before the torturous drop on failed fund raising etc. I have invested more at lower levels but still have a relatively high average. I continue to believe in the asset(s) and the strategic story but I remain extremely doubtful about the skills of Secker. Citi found Gangfeng not Secker and yet he is incapable of managing this transaction to completion properly, failing to ensure we have a clean approval process and not identifying that there was a three-stage process. The success of this company going forward will be inhibited IMO until we secure the services of a capable commercial executive with the ability to lead and negotiate and communicate at a much higher level than Secker has shown he is able to. So, we wait again on final approval and when it c9mes as we all hope it will I would like to think that the Chairman can see Seckers limitations and appoint a new CEO. By all means make Secker the exec responsible for delivering production but I fear that we will not maximise shareholder value with h8m at the helm. I am alone with this view?

Not to worry chaps he will probably turn up again in another guise! Most common reason for a poster to disappear without being abusive is multiple ID’s. No idea if this applies to him, but he asserts that he is an active buyer of PMG and that should be reason in my book to ban someone! Despite the shortcomings of Cross as a leader/communicator I may even consider a punt in here if it drops to 25p as it will be largely de-risked at that price and could rally a bit from provided there are no more related party transactions.

I suppose being associated with Woodford was good for the company when Woodford’s reputation was on the up then the opposite happens. Most of the stock owned by Woodford has been snapped up but others were selling at the same time knowing that this was only going one way until the big blocks have settled down into longer term hands. Trouble I have is that SocGen appear to have been trading this heavily and someone is certainly selling down still with many ALGO trades going through daily. This has overshadowed decent update today. I still think that the CEO should have issued some statement about the Woodford saga as he sat on The Patient Capital funds Board from memory and it was all too cosy. He should have clarified his position or even better resigned but he did not. Mud sticks at nervous times like this when people are tarnished by association rightly or wrongly.

I have a number of posters on filter so don’t read their posts. Be assured that the Takeover Panel will be all over any potential concert party implications giving that IOG were in an offer period 6 months ago. I am also certain that the IOG BOD will be in touch with the Panel through their advisors should they suspect any collusion. Seems that there is a lot going on behind the scenes both operational, of course, but potentially corporately too which we need to hear about and hope this is sooner rather than later.

Kieffy - there are few institutional investors here. The share register is full of nominees used by private investors. The problem with the share price is that there are not enough II’s . Important for people to understand this.

Just to add to my speculative musings, RRE are bound by rule 2.8 of the Takeover Code which amongst other things restricts a potential offeror from bidding for 6 months and 1st October is anniversary date but this rule is set aside if another entity makes a bid. Probably barking up the wrong tree here but in the absence of any clarity on the unusual transactions what else is there to do?

In their interim announcement yesterday they said something like ‘ we now have significant financial resources to take advantage of market conditions ‘ . Whilst this is a typical statement we know the Marathon deal has been a success and their CEO is ambitious and pure speculation on my part but is it possible that RRE are using the cover of Spreadex to build a position here? Is it possible that they will attempt to acquire blocks from Administrator or other large holders?

I agree that it should come as no real surprise that MTR and no doubt other investors who participated in the most recent placing have been selling recently and who could really blame them. We are an explorer with no direct revenue stream as yet and therefore have to look to the capital markets to raise funds and GH has done a terrific job to date in doing so. Some will take immediate advantage of that and that is their prerogative. In the fullness of time let’s hope that we do generate a substantial revenue stream from the proposed JV with NC on Hav and perhaps others as they are proven up. GH has a financial background and will know that by issuing warrants, as he has been forced to, as a sweetener to attract HNW or quasi institutional funds ( MTR etc) there is the potential that they will sell in the market thereby suppressing the price. So, GH has the right to be frustrated as we are with the performance of the share price but he should also have expected it IMO. Yes, it would have been great if a number of serious II’s had taken the plunge before now to counter these sellers but it is still too early for the big boys IMO until NC press the button on Stage 2and/or the other attractive prospects are more advanced which is the plan. Also, we have over 3 billion shares in issue so I would say to those who repeat the same stuff daily decrying traders taking their 10%, this should be expected. I do not trade GGP as this has the potential to break out at any time and that is the risk of making a few bob day to day. I look forward to the day when the serious investors join the party but until then we must suck up the frustration and remind ourselves of the bigger prize ahead of us. We have a floor here around the current levels IMO and GH will have a well considered comms strategy to maintain momentum despite the expected selling pressure. Keep the faith.

For many months I have been clear that I sold out many months ago and that I was aghast at Cross’s leadership style. In my view he runs PMG as though it is his own company showing little or no respect to small shareholders by keeping you in the dark save for announcements which MUST be made including financial accounts, acquisitions and directors dealings. The recent acquisition of land owned by his wife raised many eyebrows and IMO has contributed to this next leg down. Yes the renewable strategy was alluded to previously but as is the norm with Cross no detail was provided such as the capital required, the strategic vision for wind farm development, timescales etc. In other words all the things you expect to see when a company uses cash and takes on debt to develop a new area rather than investing that in the core business. This new departure could take many years and cost a lot of money without any certain ROI.
Before anyone bleats about another post from me having sold out months ago, I do so to ask existing shareholders to reflect upon your investment in a business managed in this way. It is your cash to do what you want but this is no way to act as the CEO of a listed entity and the market is waking up to this rather quickly. All IMO.

Jerseycrew is on the money with his view about the share price. Like many, I have a significant investment here which I have acquired over 18 months but unlike many on here I don’t fret, hour after hour about the share price due to the fact that I am not here for 10% or 20% but for 200% or 300% minimum. Many of the regular commentators on here probably trade a large chunk of their holding which is apparent from their posts and I certainly would not be too critical of them for that due to the flaky shareholder base and what I see is that the traders will often sell on days like this despite a good RNS because they think other traders will sell! In time, longer term institutional investors will, eventually, start to scoop up these shares. This has not happened as yet to any great degree IMO otherwise we would of course see more TR-1 notices and the price would be 3p and not 1.8p. Specialist funds like Sprott will start to acquire decent holdings at some point but they won’t do that IMO until such time as they can be certain that NC are in for the duration on Hav and we cannot yet be sure despite some incredibly positive rhetoric from their CEO. Moving to Stage 2 will help certainly. I also sense that the release of only part of the results on BH today may be a teaser for more and hopefully better results but not 100% sure that GH should bother playing games like that when he has no need to do so. Is it frustrating at the moment when we are on the cusp of something big yes a little, is it exciting - yes indeed, is patience required - you bet it is. At some point soon I feel that GGP share price will start to reflect the considerable potential which many believe is possible and so I will sit tight for the big prize whilst others fight over the crumbs along the way. Many thanks to Paddy and others for excellent research.

Pleased to see that serious investors ignored another poorly constructed piece in The Times over the weekend ( going downhill in my eyes at as fas5 a pace as the BBC ) and that the company have issued this important briefing today as another key step in re-building trust and confidence in BUR. A month or so ago I was calling for this in order to attract new investors and I believe it will do so. I would also like to see a statement from the SEC before too long about the alleged market manipulation. It irritates but does not surprise me that regulators have crystal clear facts in front of them with electronic audit trails yet take forever to act - yet wonder why market participants do not hold them in very high regard. A clear statement from them supporting BUR’s claims would encourage remaining shorts to rush to cover I am sure.

Well the ALGO’s still have their vice grip on the price here and whilst volume has come down quite a bit here since the market manipulation allegations, it is being played like a fiddle with, I suspect, the same trading money being churned around day in day out. The larger investors who were not spooked by the mud slinging and who remain invested will be keen to know what else the company will be doing to restore faith in the business before they invest more. A waiting game for the investors and an active game for the traders. No-one knows if the SEC are going to come down hard on those who conspired to drive the price down and indeed even if they do it is difficult to be sure what impact this would have on the share price. As someone with a large investment I would like to think it would recover a large chunk of the drop but in this market who can tell. One thing that I can be sure about however is that being able to write a scathing report about a listed company ( refuted by BOD) which is jumped on by short funds destroying shareholder value which has taken years to build, almost overnight will encourage more of this behaviour, not less. What may change this is severe sanction by the regulators if they find against those responsible but I am sure that I am not the only shareholder sceptible in the extreme. Perhaps the BOD have decided to move on and let the numbers do the talking and if this is the case I would expect them to update the market.

Thomasbrowne - you are clearly a loyal shareholder here who contributes regularly, which has to be applauded, in supporting your investment decision. I am also a shareholder but don’t post very often as there is little to say at the moment apart from speculating about the results of P3 trials and a potential commercial license deal which will be announced in the fullness of time. For all invested we hope they are very positive and enable the BOD to secure a deal without the need for much more dilution. I feel that our BOD are inexperienced commercially, have made some schoolboy errors along the way including reference to dilutive fund raising more recently ( unnecessary IMO) in the RNS then to omit to mention potential dilution in post-RNS presentations presumably on the advice of some adviser , is a little amateur in my book, but we all make mistakes. When you are running a listed company these mistakes have consequences however and this has contributed to the recent sharp drop IMO as that is how AIM works. Re LO, I have said before and I will say again that people should do some research on funds such as Lombard. They are past masters at taking a punt when companies are in need of cash and screw an attractive deal out of the BOD and who can blame them as there is no guarantee of eventual success. I have invested in numerous companies where LO or Capital or some other aggressive fund participate at a low price, the consequences being that they will sell down over time, usually into a rise to minimize the drag and often with the aim of ultimately having a free carry. Do this week in, week out across sectors and it is a good business model. It is a little rich IMO for shareholders to complain that it moderates any increase and increases volatility as LO stepped up and took a risk some time ago and are being rewarded handsomely for that. I say suck it up as a part of the competitive market dynamics but as long as you are aware of their motives you can build that into your own investment decisions. Good luck all.

DD - I agree with your points and if you have been around the markets as long as I have you will know that when we are in a period of volatility for risk assets, especially small caps, and therefore any clumsy reference to potential dilution is just the excuse for MM’s, short term traders and nervous investors to sell out after a good run. Significant moves down as we have seen here are becoming fairly normal on small caps when there is a risk of a fund raise. I do hope that larger investors are attracted rather than an open placing but of course there remains the possibility that we may secure a commercial deal which nullifies the need to dilute.

Well my take is slightly different and yes I am an investor here and have bought more on the drop. Any experienced and commercial executive of a listed entity should know that if you state in an RNS that you will seek funding by dilutory and non-dilutory options the share price will get hammered. It would have been much better to have simply stated that funding options were being considered full stop. Whilst I remain excited by the potential here we suffer from inexperienced executives who do not fully understand how markets work and why did their advisers not suggest less damaging wording? And yes, Lombard will sell down gradually as they bravely, bailed the company out at a time of need but that is their modus operandi and will always put the brakes on the share price. I will add more on further drops and I agree with others that this is essentially a binary play on Med Gel but one that I am content to buy into.

42Trader - many thanks and does much to re-affirm ones belief in the company. At some point the market will appreciate that very bright spotlights have been aimed at the company as a result of the MW attacks and from what I have read there are no skeletons in the form suggested by the sharks. Very transparent and more so than many listed companies that people happily invest in day in, day out. When will the tide turn? Who knows the answer to that but as a medium term investor I can sit tight for now and let the day traders fret about that. This note will influence s9me I am sure that the rich pickings from driving this down hard have already been earned IMO.