Member Info for CJohnSpain

Quite a fancy profit margin at Qeton.

Hello Rusty, thanks for your long post. I realised you were letting off a lot of accumulated steam and it all came out in a geyser. No problems. Good luck to you and let's hope for some definitve positive news soon. And best of luck in any dealings with management. all best CJohn

Hi Rusty, the fact I haven't met you at a CRV company meeting is completely irrelevant. I accept you exist and have a right to give your opini�n. I assume there are a lot of other CRV holders you haven't met either. They have a right to exist and give thieir opini�n too. Meeting Rusty is not a condition for being allowed to post about CRV. I've followed the share for several years and have been a holder for around a year. But am highly unlikely to attend a CRV meeting. I don't find attending company meetings is helpful for the sort of investment decisions I make. Reading company reports I do find very useful however....... It's amazing what you can find there. For example: you mention Pressfit The Company wrote off its value some time ago. Bad decision investing in China in my opinion. Too many fraudulent companies; and even when they are not fraudulent; there are worrying cultural differences regarding debt collection. If you mean you and your friends each own several % of the company, then you are in business. You will have a serious lever over the board. if you just mean TOGETHER you own several % of the company, that is not very exciting at all. Indeed, I could say that about many of the companies I invest in. I don't happily accept bad practice at any company. I've been involved in several activist manouevres over the years. However, there doesn't actually seem to be any SERIOUS grievance at CRV. If there is, please let me know. I'm happy to put an e-mail contact on here, if you have good reason to believe there is mal-practice. I'd be happy to lend my support in that case to any manouevre. I do understand the difficulties of substantial positions in illiquid companies; I only invest in small caps and micro-caps; and am often in that position myself If it's any comfort, there is a body of research showing that buying stakes in illiquid compaines has a positive return over comparable investments in more liquid companies. all the best I

In any case, the value here is in the very marked discount to NAV. (I make a living from buying stakes in such companies.) Companies trading at a significant discount to NAV are nearly always problematic for one reason or another. In the case of CRV, the modus operandi of buying stakes at huge discounts to asset values in often distressed companies in distressed economies puts off many people. But they are absolutely clear that that is what they are about. No one who has a stake the company can complain they were misled. .

Hi Rusty, I can't see how you ended up buying into CRV in the first place. They've been absolutely clear as to thier approach - logn-term value - in every report I've read. There could be no confusi�n. The job of the directors is to increae NAV per share. This they have done. Short-term price fluctuations are beyond their control; indeed, beyond the control of all managements.

The debt collection in RSA has been a success. They bought a portfolio of debt. They have already made a profit on it. And there is more to come. Read the company RNS's. It's always helpful. Kwikbuild has other interests is RSA. It's those they are intending to sell.

I've never believed that it's worth losing sleep or one's temper over an investment. If you're unhappy sell out. But don't make things worse for yourselves by wilfully failing to understand or ignoring what facts we do have at our disposal: eg the quite marked rise in NAV per share

Hello Charlie, in September 2016, CRV bought a portfolio of non-performing loans from a major South African bank for 20,000,000 SA Rand. in August 2017, as PARTIAL repayment of the loans in the porffolio, CRV received 21,663,537 SA rand. And there is more to come.

Hi Karina, Ah, yes, I see re the $3.5m!

I was wondering if the Qeton venture is tied in with their investment - loan - in Angola?

Hi Karina, re Qeton, I wasn't sure where you got the $3.5m figure from? Were you annualising the 6 month increase in balance sheet value? Ps Many thanks for the posts on Panda and for your other excellent research. Much appreciated!

There was also a tantalising lack of detail about Qeton Ltd, set up to trade mobile phones, tablets and accessories into emerging markets. Trading has now begun; and they've upped the balance sheet value from $576k to $1.8m. .

Day - 101.

You thought it would all be wrapped up on day 1......

Hi Rusty, Of course, you are right: they must meet minimum standards of keeping shareholders and the market informed. My feeling is -at least in the time I've been invested: about 10 months now - they've done that. Certainly, I've read back through past reports and the not very extensive CRV BBs. So I can see there have been two or three previous "false dawns". there have also been one or two errors in the several years I've been folllowing the share. The investment in the Chinese company struck me as naive and wrong-headed, for example. Overall though, they've grown NAV per share and NAV; and this is a decent record. Nor does the remuneration package strike me as onerous or unfair! So, in my view, shareholders haven't been mistreated ((yet)). All the best and we will hear soon (ish).

It's worth remembering that CRV is three directors who occasionally - presumably - hire half a secretary to type up the occasional report. Such economy of means is positive in a company that isn't yet generating operational cash flow. But it brings with it economy of communication. What's more, anyone who's read and understood CRV's annual and half-year reports can be under no illusions as to the type of Company. Why would it be in the interests of EXISTING shareholders for CRV to telegraph a potential change in the order of a magnitude? it would not. (And it might conceivably impact on negotiations, if indeed a deal is in the offing.) I'm invested in CRV precisely because of its unorthodoxies. It stands at a slant to the markets and non-value investing conventionalities.This may make us a lot of money. Patience and forebearance are needed.

So it does seem as if something is afoot. In lieu of anything else having been mentioned, I wonder if my speculation nregarding Panda mightn't be the most likely possiblity?

I have quite a large holding in CRV with 3 different brokers. Hargreaves Lansdown is one of the three. they don't quote an on-line price - as the share's quoted in dollars - but I can certainly hold them and deal in them.

That would be a huge expanison in scale. Even at current share prices that's almost $50m. If the shares are issued at $12.50, $100m +! ((One outcome of the Panda trial could be to insist the original transaction went thorugh at the orlginal price. That would require the sort of sums of this share issue. Or something could be negotiated before going to trial..)) Note: this is mere speculation on my part.

Dear Draft, of course, the investment is legit!! It's a damn pity they are paying it back though; I'd prefer for conversi�n to take place.