Member Info for researchit

The Board of Blackstar is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire a controlling interest in Ferro Industrial Products (Pty) Limited ("Ferro") for a total consideration of approximately £4.8 million, to be satisfied in cash. It is expected that the acquisition will be completed by the end of January 2009. Blackstar has agreed to acquire 56% of the issued ordinary shares in Ferro from a South African financial institution for £2.6 million and to acquire certain shareholder loans in Ferro, at face value, of £2.2 million. Interest is payable by Ferro on this shareholder loan at the South African Prime rate (currently 15%) plus 3%, compounded monthly and payable semi-annually in arrears. Interest at this rate on the shareholder loans to be acquired, equates to an annual running yield receivable by Blackstar of approximately 8% on its total investment consideration of £4.8 million. Ferro is a South African manufacturer and supplier of a specialised range of powder coatings, black and white plastic master batches as well as high quality porcelain enamels, glaze frits, glass coatings and glaze coatings used on ceramic products. Ferro has its own dedicated production facilities in South Africa for each product and its products are ISO accredited. Ferro has historically demonstrated a strong ability to generate cash flow through the business cycles. It has a strong reputation in the South African market a

The current Blackstar share price of 22.5 pence per share equates to a market capitalisation of £17 million with the company currently holding approximately £16 million in cash on the balance sheet. In addition, completion of the sale of our investment in DCD, which is expected in the first quarter 2009, will further increase our cash resources. Blackstar expects shortly to dispatch a circular to shareholders convening an Extraordinary General Meeting to seek approval, inter alia, for authority to buy back up to 14.99% of its own shares. Given the significant discount at which Blackstar's shares currently trade to its NAV, any buy backs would enhance shareholder value.

The Company was advised on 6 January 2009 that the Chairman, the Chief Executive, the Finance Director and Chief Operating Officer have all purchased shares in the Company on 6 January as follows: Stephen Pettit - 15,000 ordinary 2p shares at a price of 22.49 pence Garvis Snook - 50,000 ordinary 2p shares at a price of 22.25 pence Ashley Martin - 113,000 ordinary 2p shares at a price of 22.25 pence Rob Olorenshaw - 23,381 ordinary 2p shares at a price of 22.50 pence

I've just broke even !! Could the worm finally have turned ? There's been so many false dawns over the last couple of years that I doubt anyone is too excited about the meagre rise of the last few sessions, but this will rise again soon , and the sooner the better

I'd like to know where you get your info, because I know for a fact that one of there main stores in MK is 10% above target for this period and Next and Topshop are just about the only 2 big high st. retailers not to have thrown sales before Xmas, if Next were in trouble and had stock overhang surely they would have had to resort to the desperate meseaures that M&S , Debenhams BHS and even John Lewis , amongst many others have been forced to do . Results and statement due out imminent.....

Kalahari Minerals plc, the AIM listed mining exploration and evaluation group with a portfolio of copper and base metal prospects in Namibia, is pleased to provide an update released by Extract Resources Ltd ('Extract' or 'the Company'), in which Kalahari's subsidiary, Kalahari Uranium Limited, holds a 39.05% interest. Kalahari Executive Chairman Mark Hohnen said, 'These excellent results on the southern most line of Zone 1 again reinforce Rossing South's potential to be a world class uranium deposit and one of the most significant discoveries in recent decades. We look forward to further positive news and the release of an initial resource early in 2009 which will truly quantify the project's potential

Kalahari Minerals subsidiary Extract Resources, in which it has 39.05 percent interest, provides an 'excellent' update from its Rossing South project. Ambrian, which has a 'buy' rating on the stock, says: 'These results are outstanding, some of the most impressive to date... Rossing South is definitely the leading pre-production uranium asset in Namibia.' The broker says it is worth looking at peer valuations, noting Forsys Metals , which was recently bid for in an all-cash offer valuing the company at $759 million, providing a benchmark for Rossing South.

Kalahari Minerals plc, the AIM listed mining exploration group with a portfolio of copper, base metal and uranium interests in Namibia, was notified on 16th December that AIM listed Emerging Metals Ltd ('Emerging Metals') has increased its stake in Kalahari through the purchase of 6,250,000 new ordinary shares in the Company's recent fundraising, increasing its stake to 11,245,000 new Ordinary Shares, representing 6.28% of the Kalahari's total voting rights. Kalahari Executive Chairman Mark Hohnen said, "At a time of market uncertainty, the recent fundraising was a clear indication of the level of investment interest that exists for Kalahari, both through new and existing shareholders. We welcome the current stake building by Emerging Metals, in particular the involvement of Non-Executive Co-Chairman Mr. Stephen Dattels, who has an excellent track record within the mining sector having founded and/or financed a number of ventures, with his most recent being Namibian uranium company UraMin Inc. which was sold in July 2007 to Areva, the French government-owned fully integrated uranium company for $2.5 billion."

The news of the Rio Tinto stake is a huge vote of confidence on the prospects and quality of its assets and leads to hopes that in the future they may return for a larger chunk. The news flow on 19th November 2008 went some way to express the potential importance the market is putting on Kalahari Minerals over Rio's interests. Shareholders of Kalahari Minerals put a halt to the proposed merger with Extract Resources in which Rio has a stake in of 13.1%. Shareholders are concerned that if the merger was to go ahead Rio would gain too much control on the cheap.

You expressed concisely what I was thinking with regards to foreign assets. I think the market has had a downer on FWEB for far too long now and driven the sp to astonishing depths , I belive though that as you said with the £ so weak against the $ and euro that a deal can not be far away, let's face it the overall health is seemingly better now than 12 months back when Avgol wanted to deal at just over a quid a share. If Avgol were to come back : I use Avgol just as an example : and were to say offer the same price again they would be in effect picking up FWEB as a stronger company for roughly 60% of the original offer price due to currency pluctuation, if as I belive they cross-border trade in US$

read the latest rns , this is going only one way .......UP

Interim x-div (1.7p) 1st October 2008 Record date 3rd October 2008 Payment date 5th November 2008

Seems to be moving positively now . ROK 'n Roll......Sorry ...sorry ..sorry ..very cheesy, it's just the shock of the upward movement

Is anybody aware of BG's divi policy for this year. Have they made any statements with regards to raising their divi. It's pretty woeful at present levels , only a derisory sum !

reading your last comments you mentioned the " outrageous yield " . I was under the impresion that the 2.5p divi this year was a special dividend, after which the dividend yield would revert to the same levels as previous dividend payments. I've not heard of any special dividend this time round , or am I mistaken ?

The Jerry Zucker Revocable Trust increased holding to 10.42 % of voting rights representing a share holding of 12,764,121

I share your mistrust of Dayan and possibly his motives....but there was also some lumpy buys yesterday

CEO Daniel Dayan bought 200,00 shares on Friday and followed that up with a further purchase of 190,000 today !!! very interesting

I'm back on board this stubborn muel of a share. The heavy buying volumes today and Dayans 200,000 purchase on Friday, coupled with the recent stake building by Zucker and the seemingly improving health of this company due to falling material costs makes this sp too good to let pass by.

I've been out of these for a few months now, got a bit bored , especially as trade volumes fell, meaning everyone else seemed to have gotten bored too. I have kept a daily watch over the sp and noticed the downward drift of the last couple of weeks, can't really see any fundamental reason why, I think it's just a bit too unglamorous for most who are away chasing the miners this week. I do belive that if it drops to around the 28p point then you will see buyers return and a bid is surely on the cards from somewhere especially now there is a freeing of the credit markets. Large Pharmas and miners are taking advantage in their sectors of bombed out prices to takeover smaller co. and it will only spread to other sectors with finance now more easily available. I for one will return if the sp slips much further