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Mulder,
In December you wrote:
"If you contact Investor Relations they will send you the forms to send to the shareholders services based in Leeds.
Will cut dividend tax to 10% minimum."
So I got the form from PAF, filled it in, and sent it to LINK.
After one month of total silence, I complained to LINK. Their response is shown below.
"I have looked into this for you, and I have not been able to locate your details on our system. Your form indicates that your shares are held with Halifax share dealing and as such you will need to contact them.
We are unable to assist further."
Basically LINK are telling me to get lost, as my shares are not held by them, but by Halifax, who have previously declined to assist me with this.
Any further comment or advice?
I received my voting forms from Halifax a few days ago. They were dated 26 Jan 2024.
For some reason this is not listed as a Corporate Action, so you need to be signed up to vote at AGM's and EGM's to be sent a postal voting form. It is quite easy to sign up. From memory, I think that I did this over the phone, although it was some years back.
"Pan African buying back stock adds capital to it's reserves which can be released to an institutional investor at a later time for a premium and in the short term increases confidence in the stock at these low levels while maintaining liquidity at a higher price level."
the_shareminator,
That might be nice, but it doesn't happen that way!
PAF like most other companies who make buybacks, does not sell these shares at a profit, or even award them to staff or directors as a bonus, they simply cancel them.
The shares are destroyed.
The only benefit of this is that the company pays dividends on fewer shares.
RNS 12 April 2023
"Pan African, the South African gold producer, announces that on 11 April 2022, in accordance with the terms of its share buyback programme announced on 1 April 2022 (the “Programme”) it purchased the following number of ordinary shares of £0.01 each in the Company (“Ordinary Shares”) through Peel Hunt LLP (“Peel Hunt”) and RMB Morgan Stanley (“RMBMS”). The shares purchased will be cancelled."
The offer is for 13.5p, not 13.65p.
The extra 0.15p is a maximum bonus divi, that the BoD may elect to pay shareholders. There is no promise to pay any dividend at all. Why should we trust a BoD that is trying to steal the company from under us?
" In addition, the terms of the takeover offer include a permitted dividend of up to 0.15 pence for the period 1 July 2023 - 31 March 2024, at the determination of the Shanta Gold Board of Directors."
"everyone in the UK markets has to report a net short holding above 0.1% which will revert back to 0.2% in February "
Pokerchips,
You have failed to understand what I posted. What I said was;
" the banks and brokers who lend out these/our shares do not have to report this to UK regulators"
A bank or trading broker who lends out shares he is holding does, as I understand it, not have a short position. It is the shorter who borrowed these shares who has a short position.
Can you categorically say that your broker has not lent out shares he is holding for you to one of these shorters?
If so, then please list the brokers that are lending out the shares.
Stocknor,
It would be more useful if you posted rules that pertain to the UK, not American markets.
To the best of my knowledge the banks and brokers who lend out these/our shares do not have to report this to UK regulators, and there is little in the UK rules to stop shorters acting in unison to drag a stock down.
"In October 2023, the SEC announced new rules to increase transparency in short selling. The regulations require investors to report their short positions to the SEC and companies that lend shares for short selling to report this activity to FINRA."
"Unfortunately, short selling gets a bad name due to the practices employed by unethical speculators. These unscrupulous types have used short-selling strategies and derivatives to deflate prices and conduct bear raids on vulnerable stocks artificially. Most forms of market manipulation like this are illegal in the U.S. but still happen periodically."
Sorry getting my debtors and creditors mixed up. Previous post should have read:
Their problem is finding a deal that the people they owe money to, will approve. This includes payments to suppliers and for services, not just money lenders, which the word creditors suggests.
I admire your faith CuriousInvestor, and hope it comes good for you and anyone else still invested. The company's continued failure to submit the 2022 Annual Report makes their position look untenable to me. They are unlikely to be allowed to resume trading without it.
CuriousInvestor,
I fail to see why you are so upbeat on an RNS that says nothing of any significance, after 6 months of fruitless negotiations. Also I couldn't find any reference to your statement "the Heads of Terms are already agreed" in either of the last two RNS's. Perhaps you could explain what the Heads of Terms are and just who has agreed them?
AParky,
Their problem is finding a deal that their debtors will approve. Then agreement with financiers can be sought. Shareholder approval is way down the list, and they are likely to face a severe haircut, even if the company survives, imo.
" If there is an equity raised say 1 share for 10 you hold, I have been led to believe, shorters will not get the same, as any extra shares will go to who ever they borrowed from. Am I correct in thinking that."
Amers,
I am afraid that both options are wrong.
Any new placing or RI shares will be offered to the current owner of these shares. The shorter will have sold them very soon after borrowing them, as he aims to profit from buying them back later at a much lower price.
Hence, only the new buyer will be offered any new shares. The original lender can ask the shorter to subscribe to a RI on their behalf, but must pay them the cost of this.
"and with the price dropping fast Avo had no option but to suspend trading. "
The reason AVO suspended trading was because they had run out of money and were also unable to publish its audited 2022 Annual Report by 30 June 2023.
Mr Tibbs, that is really impressive analysis from you mate Dekker, .
As well as wrongly claiming that no dividends have been paid, we have this.
"Amazingly there is no financial information for the 2023 year, not even interim results."
Below is what I think he was looking for. Not too difficult to find, you just click on the RNS tab and scroll down.
RNS Number : 9897M
Shanta Gold Limited
20 September 2023
Interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2023
Kees Dekker may be an expert on Gold miners, but states:
"What is evident however that this company has never managed to return any cash to its shareholders since 2013 (No financials on their website before that despite being listed in 2005)."
I have held this share since 2021 and have received 6 dividend payments in that time. That is a good few hundred of pounds on a fairly modest investment.
Just where is he getting his information from?
Here's the statement.
"B) £10 million secured loan
Further to the Company's announcement on 30 June 2023 regarding discussions with a new lender to provide c.£8 million of additional financing for the Company, the Company remains in discussions with the same lender for a secured debt facility of an increased amount of £10 million (the "Loan"). "
IWTO,
I posted back in July, that the lender prepared to offer the £10m bridging loan, is the same party who had previously withdrawn a proposed £8m loan offer, which led to the cash shortfall resulting in the company's shares being suspended.
I suspect that they were unhappy for their £8m to be spent paying off old debt, so wanted most of this paid off before they were prepared to lend the company any more.
I still think that last years unsubmitted Annual Report is a real issue here.
Any company looking to buy into, or merge with AVO will want to look over the books.
However, AST have still not managed to get their auditors to sign off last years accounts, so there are no validated books to inspect. That raises a big red flag imo.
It might help if they published last years Annual Report. They are nearly six months over the deadline, which can't help when you are trying to market the company to a new buyer or partner.
"As stipulated by Rule 19 of the AIM Rules for Companies the Company is required to publish its audited 2022 Annual Report by 30 June 2023. In light of the above the Company will now not be in a position to publish its 2022 Annual Report before 30 June 2023."
"Really do think the Slovakians should settle though, they keep losing AST keep winning that's great for shareholders not so good down the line for slovenian taxpayers."
Just a minor point Panman.
Slovakia and Slovenia are different countries!