Member Info for EdwardSeaton

Market cap equal Bisichi shares plus just £3m.

If anyone is interested, I have (on numerous occasions) raised the nonsense PE/Dividend/Yield figures they quote for Bisichi with LSE.

Likewise, the absence of 2021 and 2022 Annual Accounts on the RNS Live.

My point to them is that if this information is so wildly wrong, it is very much worse than useless. For whatever reason, they appear helpless to rectify.

It strikes me that short term traders and sellers have every reason to wail.

But if you are a buyer and long term holder, the lower it goes, the better.

Personally, I can't believe my luck that I can hoover this up at these deranged prices. Long may it continue.

There was a ridiculous rise in coal prices last year.

There is now an overreacting unwind going on.

Look through this hysteria, and the fundementals are unchanged - coal demand is at an all time high, and supply is falling due to lack of investment in new sources of product.

PS Regarding the coal price, we all need to remember the Thungela is now a South African AND Australian coal mining company.

To clarify, I did say 'publicly traded', by which I meant not LAS or Andrew Heller owned.

But yes, I am substantially committed, and will do what I can. And no, I am not Tim00, who I recall really is/was a substantial holder.

I have about 1% of the publicly traded shares, the majority of which are held in my pension.

I'm investigating now how I can most effectively attend the AGM.

The more I think about it, the more I think this is to do with the curious partial ownership of Bisichi by London and Associated.

Andrew Heller does not want to pay a dividend, because 41.5% of it will go straight to his brother's company.

I see a blatant conflict of interest here, that can only properly be resolved by combining the companies, or separating them.

I'm sorry, but I've never seen a company on here with more people saying 'Incredible company - it's about to fly!'

Sensationalists only make fools of themselves.

Previously, Beza, yes. But not this week.

Another email I have sent to Heller:

FAO Andrew Heller - Re. Companies Act 2006

Dear Mr Heller

As you watch the value of your company being destroyed on a daily basis on the back of spectacularly good 2022 results, I draw your attention to the Companies Act 2006, which clearly obligates you and your fellow directors 'to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members'.

It strikes me that the rage of the market is due to the iniquitous distribution of the exceptional (and lucky) 2022 profit.

I do not believe the enormous bonus you have taken would have been an issue, were it not for the tiny percentage of the excess profit that has been distributed to other shareholders (c.10%).

The £12m you now have sitting in the shares of ambiguously specified other companies is cash that you have chosen to invest rather than distribute, without specifying why. Either prudence is necessary and collective, or not necessary. What you have created is a perception of 'bonanza for me, prudence for you lot'.

I am also concerned that the curious structure of London and Associated Properties plc and Bisichi plc creates a conflict of interest between you and your brother.

Any dividend paid by Bisichi plc is effectively a transfer from your fife to his, and without any balance.

I'm minded to forward this email to your auditors and solicitors for comment.

You may say I am wrong, but the market clearly agrees with me, and is in a very vengeful mood.

Bisichi plc is now trading on a P/E ratio of just 0.5. Any director of a substantially profitable company so condemned should be embarrassed and ashamed.

Yours sincerely

Edward Seaton

Given that the Heller boys are majority owners of both companies, can anyone think of a reason why they would want to be so successfully trashing the value of their own companies?

I don't think there is an inheritance tax incentive. And they are neither buyers nor sellers of their shares.

A shrink would have a field day with the absurd amount of speculative over-analysis of this company on here. Dozens of comments a day...

This will sort itself out, and then it will happen again. If you don't expect these things, you really shouldn't be here.

People seem to forget that Thungela is now a South African AND Australian coal mining operation.

I have just emailed the following, and will continue to bombard:

Dear Mr Heller

You have now achieved the remarkable feat of having the lowest Price/Earnings ratio on the London Stock Market, whilst simultaneously reporting your best ever results.

Given that you are financially qualified, you cannot be mystified as to the reasons, very high up the list being evasiveness (last minute filing, pain of death trading updates) and ambiguity (£12m of investments in unspecified shares).

To be sitting on a P/E ratio of nearer 0.5 than 1 is such a spectacularly terrible achievement that I am left wondering if it is by design?

Yours sincerely

Edward Seaton

Personally, I'm not that obsessed about dividend payments, and it strikes me that Thungela is somewhat cursed by the expectation it has raised over the last 2 years that dividends will be huge.

Having said that, it strikes me that there is an internal conflict when it comes to dividend payments, in that 41.5% of all dividends paid by Bisichi are in effect a transfer from one brother's company to the other.

I think it would be much healthier and better for all concerned if the structure of London and Associated Properties plc and Bisichi plc was amended.

And I totally agree that having £12m of unspecified share investments gives an impression of evasiveness. I think we sort of assume they have bought other mining companies, with a few 'green' investments to soften the edges. There is nothing wrong with that, but why keep secrets?

The accounts spend a lot of time discussing their property investments, but they are now less valuable than their share investments, which represent around 1/3 of total net assets.

Taverham - I agree entirely with your comments.

I think the numerous legacy manufacturers that have fully committed to EV such as Ford are completely doomed in Europe. In the next 3 or 4 years, they will realise they have passionately embraced their own demise and pull up the drawbridge.

Others, such as Toyota, that have paid minimal lip service to EV, will reap the benefits.

And the rest will realise that a Chinese EV has more in common with a dishwasher than an ICE car as a manufacturing proposition, and wither away, Nokia style.

A tragic end to more than a century of European industry progress; but relatively neutral for Lookers.

It is quite incredible that this debt free, profit and cash generating monster is only has a market cap 4 times that of Hotel Chocolat, a company that has tiny and flat sales, a cumulative profit of less that zero over the last 4 years, and net assets hardly 5% of Thungela's.

Don't get me wrong - I'm thrilled that we have the opportunity to buy so much for so little. But I do wonder what is going through people's heads.

If you don't buy here, I have to ask where?

If you think a PER of 1.1 is crazy, wait until you see Bisichi's tomorrow.

You are basically asking two things.

1. What will the price of coal be for the balance of the year?
2. Will Transnet maintain its current (seemingly much improved) logistical performance?

With regard to coal prices, that is speculation. (I am positive about the underlying global supply/demand dynamic)

With regard to Transnet, they have quoted what they consider to be a disaster volume. They could easily ship 50% more than forecast, and the number of cargo vessels passing through Richards Bay in the last month is dramatically higher than it has been for a long time.

They will also earn from their Australian acquisition this year.

JP Morgan Chase clearly believe, as do I.

My guess for 2023? Somewhere between $500m and $900m.