Member Info for MartyPoppins

FH,

TC is certainly NOT a 'one trick pony':

- largest SH, effectively allowing him run his company as he wishes;
- enormous remuneration package that has seen him withdraw millions from his company over the years;
- vast amounts of SARs that potentially ensure further millions from his company;
- the apparant ability to issue shares of his company to family members at will for such relevant assets as sheep farms, rusty old bicycles, used bath tubs etc. etc.

I would consider that many tricks. And the next trick will be to change the company's name to The Tom Cross Benevolent Fund.

Continuing to follow this share and continuing to see it fall. Seems the market does not like the way Cross treats the company as his personal asset. Cross gets millions from the company, his wife gets millions from the company and investors get.......... nothing. Share price halved, and no dividends or buy backs despite a huge cash position. Very much an AIM company run by management for management ( and their families).

Now in the 30's. Time to drop the first word of the fund's name IMO.

I have no idea about rare earths, but I do know that markets don't move in a straight line. Gold and silver are up nicely over the past few months and, while the recent dip is a pain if you are a holder, it is normal following such a sectoral bull run. The general market outlook is very poor IMO , world politics are all over the place and interest rates continue to be cut. Thus the optimal choice of allocation for new funds may probably be (to remain in) cash, PMs or PM mining companies (although PM mining companies are not a sure thing in severe market crashes). I remain confident that the PM recovery will continue after this dip and that miners will eventually follow hugely, and have bought up all of HOC, FRES (......), and HGM after recent falls. And will then wait. Fortunately all 4 pay dividends (albeit some very low) - if you have to wait on a share, make sure it is a dividend-paying share.....

Looks like you got your wish.....

I have no idea why you guys continue to support a patiently overpaid, self -enriching, value-destroying management but so be it. In case you have not noticed (and I really don't think you have) the share price is now 27p, down from over 44p. So I suggest that you all pray to yout fat-as*ed Deity to actually do something for his $1.6m remuneration package (++) to rectify the matter. So far all I see from your God is gross inaction in any thing but matters concerning his own wealth.

M91,

Thanks - but actually I am fully aware of who the female was. It being his wife hardly makes the transactions any better, does it? And if the $198k annual rent was for staying in an apartment in London, that is even worse - at least the Kildare house was a property presumably worth $16m.

Why pay $17k a month for an apartment (....) housing 'staff' in London? No cheaper apartments available? I seem to recall the company making a $7m loss this half-year and yet it blows money like this away - so much for working on behalf of shareholders.

Related party transactions are supposed to be at arm's length - the only arm here belongs to a very greedy OF grabbing all the money he can. If you can't trust management on small things (although I imagine to most people here $198k is quite a big thing), you can't trust them on big things. As said, Nigeria is the perfect location for him.

Likewise I see that the currently-worthless warrants have been extended without explanation.

You don't see a pattern?

Like all LSE/AIM African ventures entered into (ACA, AAOG, SLE), this has turned into a total disaster. Lived in Africa for much of my working life so I should know better, but I keep giving the continent 'one last chance.' And always fail miserably in my investment.

There was a discussion some time back about a property that a bank had tried to repossess in lieu of a $16m failed loan repayment by OF and his mistress ($8m each). Which makes Note 20 to the accounts is interesting:

Property

"The Company holds an option to acquire a property at market value from Mr. Fanning. The option has a remaining life of seven years and six months and the option fee of US$381,000 is included in other receivables (Note 11) and is refundable when the Company either exercises or terminates the option. In 2018 Mr. Fanning was paid US$383,000 rent for the use of this property by the Company of which US$198,000 related to 2018, US$111,000 to the period 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2019 and US$74,000 to the period 1 July 2019 to 31 October 2019 and is included in other receivables (Note 11). "

Some questions:

1. Why would an oil company operating mainly in Nigeria wish to acquire a property in Ireland? Is SLE now into European property speculation? Might be more successful than its oil operations to date.
2. $198k annual rental cost for a house seems somewhat excessive, even in the beautiful Emerald Isle. So houses in County Kildare (not even in Dublin city) generate rents of $17k a month!!!!!!!? Why are we all bothering here - let's buy-to-let in County Kildare....

Are there multiple accounts out there - the (inflated) OF version and the normal version? Because I don't see anything either 'brilliant' or 'highly encouraging' about the following:

- pre-tax profit of $8m for 6 months to 30/6/18 turned to loss of $12m fr 6 months to 30/6/19;
- loan note income down from $23m to $10m;
- a situation exists whereby the company is totally dependent on a single loan to a single entity with one source of income. And because Eroton has been unable to make dividend payments, in turn MLPL has been unable to make loan note repayments without further financial assistance. And as a result, in the words of the notes to the accounts " Due to the inability of Eroton to make dividend distributions, the directors consider that the credit risk has significantly increased since initial recognition..........". How highly encouraging;
- And further, in order stop civil disorder, Eroton has decided to commission an FSO. Last time I looked in Tesco's, these cost more than a bottle of South African wine. Who is going to pay for this major asset, and how will it affect Eroton's ability to pay MLPL in the short run? And if Eroton continues to be unable to distribute to MLPL, how will MLPL pay SLE?

Recent debacles on the stock market with 'long-term' shares such as SXX, MTRO, SAGA and a host of others appear to vindicate my decision at this stage of the market cycle to refrain from buying anything but PM shares (on the dips). That has including buying FRES on the dips. My holding of the company grows, unlike the share price (.....), but I believe that eventually silver will get over $20 and pull FRES, which has been badly hit to-date vis-a-vis its peers, with it.

Owned this share years ago but off-loaded as it was going nowhere at the time. This TC reminds me of Oisin Fanning who runs SLE and is, despite an absolute lack of integrity, vastly overpaid for the (very) little he does - his total success to date has been to reduce the share price by 90% (while increasing own compensation to over $1.6m). So much for OF - perhaps TC is a better speciman of the human race.

Your view on a share is always moulded by the price at which you entered. I see that madam Cross sold her sheep farm at 50p, in which case it is in TC's interest to get the price to at least that level - hell hath no fury like a .....etc etc. Aligning investor interests with management interests (or following the money) is always a good idea, especially when the guy on charge appears to have unlimited control over the company, so an entry in the 30's seems a reasonable gamble.

Of course on the other hand the company deals with commodities (ans sheep) whose prices are out of its control. Perhaps any investment in it is just dead money, like in ENQ and HUR. Perhaps they will make more money from the sheep farming than from the gas.

This is AIM - are you ready to roll that dice? Or is it better to invest in low-risk stable Blue Chips like SXX, MTRO or SAGA?

Has anyone answered the question as to why, if MREL is an EU requirement as I have read, the matter is of any consequence, given Britain is leaving the EU, supposedly at the end of next month? Or is it actually a UK requiement?

Interesting to see that OF might be so sensitive to criticism - must be sueing a lot of Irish newspapers . In 2018, he recieved $1.6m in compensation - and shareholders received.........?

Reviewed my situation, and then sold 50% of my holding at a 75% (......) loss. This was supposed to be a reasonably solid LT investment, (with some risk, as always) but instead investors have been fleeced by management's mis-calculation and mis-representations. Becoming a bit of a never-ending story now on LSE now - for those not invested in SXX, they can loose their money insteas on MTRO (also hit by 'poor market sentiment'), or SAGA or TCG or DEB or anything Woodford-related or........

The UK is SUCH a mess ATM - utterly embarassing, and with utterly embarassing politicians (from all parties ).

Can't buy peach-flavoured smoke, but can buy cannabis and guns and ..........What causes more damage - me with a vapour or me, out of my head on dope, with an AK47?

To clarify: that's Notes to the accounts not Notes to the accountants and the Going Concern note has been written by eve itself and not its auditors - the note is not part of an audit opinion.

Things improving but cash remains to cover only one year's further loss (assuming a 6 monthly cash reduction of 6m). If not a further equity raise, what? Is Woodford still a major holder - if so, don't see him investing further funds.....?

SXX, TCG and now MTRO in just a few days. More to follow, given how nervous and unforgiving the market is ATM? Hardly bears thinking about.

Unfortunately the selling just makes the selling self-fulfilling. This was about -12% this morning. Now -30%+ with absolutely no further news - simply seliing inducing selling.

A small bunch of pl*nkers have been endlessly ramping this share for weeks in order to achieve a get-out price - all they have done is to get everything totally wrong. Hope no one followed their ramping.

M10,

Thanks. The practicality of having dividend-paying shares as your long term holds hit me hard with a Vietnamese fund that I bought many years ago, which then super-tanked in line with the world economy. However I know Vietnam a bit (I worked there) and what the economy is capable of, so I held on rather than sold. Held on for 8 long years...... The fund came back well and I sold at a profit (actually, of course, I should have held further as it continued up a lot higher, but I just wanted out). After I sold the fund, I received a dividend for the first time (with an ex div date pre my sale). The point is, had I also received dividends for those 8 (....) years I would have received back at least 30-40% of my buy-in price as income. Would have made holding so less painful...... Now I try to ensure that even my LT precious metal shares (not generally a sector with income shares) are, where possible, dividend payers (eg. POLY, HGM, CAPD etc) as, with commodities you never know how long you will hold. Of course gold is up now, but has been dead for years.

Hopefully ENQ will eventually be correctly priced - just taking such a long time....