Member Info for Urraca

Some 300k ordinary trades in the last hour, all on the exact midpoint so they're not registering as buys or sells.

Large delayed trade of almost 1m shares from a week ago reported after hours, and a holding RNS about Tjaldur having a stake over 3%. Interesting company. http://www.tjaldur.com Helge Lund formerly of Statoil is there. Wonder if Faroe is building defenses against an opportunistic low ball bid from Delek?

Does anyone know the balance of shares held in Canada as compared to those held in London? I always thought it was a bit strange that they made the offer in Can$. It's come back to bite them now. Given the extreme parsimony of their offer it's hard to think they won't come back offering a bit more. But they might, in which case I'm guessing the sp will be back in the 90s. A good buying opportunity, if it did come to pass.

Does there seem to be a touch of desperation? Maybe the deposited shares are well below the 50%?

USA has just said getting rid of Assad is no longer its policy. This is a change from Obama's position, and a welcome clarification from Team Trump on just what its policy on Syria will be. IMO it was ludicrous to insist on Assad going from the moment Putin threw his weight behind him. Especially as Obama dithered, and didn't attempt to match the Russian commitment (although that in itself could have been fraught with danger). So, that leaves the EU looking increasingly isolated, now standing with just Saudi (who are waging a proxy war with Iran) and Qatar (who want to build a pipeline to Europe through Syria, which incidentally Putin wants to frustrate) in demanding that Assad goes. They've said so in their most recent policy statement, but it predates USA pulling back. Which will make what they say on 5 April very interesting. Their policy and sanctions, which has undoubtedly exacerbated the flood of Syrian refugees into Europe, is looking increasingly like King Canute ordering the tide not to come any further. Will the upcoming French and German elections finally force a sliver of clarity into the bubble of self delusion and denial of reality that is Brussels? I'm not back in yet, but GPX is moving towards the top of my watch list.

On the outside chance the oil price plunges, Faroe sp will go down. Also, they are sitting on a huge amount of cash. The window to buy assets at a bargain basement price is probably closing. Be nice to see them do something with it. Come on chaps, you could buy Serica outright. They've got no debt and cash generative so a good fit I think. Finally, they have shown an unfortunate tendency to issue equity to buy assets, rather tan using their huge cash mountain. On the plus side...well, not really enough space is there. FPM is my core holding though, that I add to from my gambling on other stocks. Its the ultimate AIM comfort blanket for me.

Big buys. Good buying opportunity at this price. I expect it to trade in line with PoO until late April when the Ithaca buyout is finalised - or not as the case may be.

Agree in4cedros, I'm going to do some more digging on EU intentions. The EU stated position for lifting sanctions has been rendered absurd by Putin's support for Assad. Not that the EU let reality get in the way of policy. Even the fact that they've made life materially worse for Syrians, and thus made the influx of Syrian refugees into the EU much worse than it need have been is not remotely acknowledged.

Much as I'd love to see the sanctions lifted, and agree it will cause a substantial rerate, don't hold your breathe. The JOINT COMMUNICATION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Elements for an EU Strategy for Syria was published last week (14th). This is what it says about sanctions (last para pg9 if you want to check): The EU will maintain its restrictive measures against Syrian individuals and entities supporting the regime as long as the repression of civilians continues. The measures targeting certain sectors of the Syrian economy will also be maintained as far as necessary. The current sanctions will be extended further as necessary. The EU will keep the impact of sanctions under constant review and will regularly consider options to mitigate any unintended consequences. Sorry guys, don't want to be down on this, but I'm always wary of trading on the basis of 'City whispers'. They're just as likely to be a pump and dump.

Yeah, I did think it might be Vlad topping up ;-)

More delayed trades from this morning. 1.1m buys. FPM is a great company, with the one drawback that Mommir has previously raised, that they persist in issuing equity to make acquisitions, instead of using some of their very large cash balance and/or debt. It's been a bit unnecessarily dilutive for lths I feel. Having said that FPM is a core holding in my PF, and I intend to significantly increase the weighting towards FPM. If Delek haven't made a move by Sept I may reconsider, but there is a good chance they will come.

Just checked fundamentals on london stock exvhange site. Balance sheet gave net assets of £270m as at end June last year. Been shrinking year on year, so say £230m now, about twice current market cap. Discount for quick sale, moght get 50p per share returned.

What is the estimated break up value if COC sell assets, return cash to shareholders, and wind up Bowleven? Roughly?

Yes, I quite agree Oli12. Maybe it had something to do with Sturgeon's helpful proposal to start another round of political instability on the possibility of Scottish indyref2. Thank God Faroe's in the Norwegian sector.

Hmm, just clocked this. Almost ten time more buys than sells, and price down by over 3%. Something smells fishy. Like Delek swooping in for another cheap steal. God, I hope not.

And write to Peter Hain at the House of Lords to tell him what you think of him.

Vlad, great to see you posting again. What you say about the difference in relation between Delek and Faroe as compared to the much closer relationship between Delek and the Ithaca board is exactly what I've been thinking. I believe there is a very high probability that Delek will try to take Faroe over, once its completed with Ithaca. That would build a decent size company for Delek to float on the stockmarket in the autumn. I expect they'll make a pretty penny - and they will need at least one other company to try and disguise what a steal Ithaca was. Faroe I think is the favourite, but I can't rule out Serica (not invested there at the mo, but its on my watchlist). Regards.

Looking like it, the price is tanking. Fine, I have a big chunk of money nvested elsewhere, and I don't think Delek will move on Faroe until they've got Ithaca in the bag. So Faroe in play from around the start of May. If they dip below a quid I'll be piling in.

Its an interesting question. I believe there is, or used to be, a threshold of ownership beyond which a full takeover bid had to be triggered. 30% I think. So if Delek end up with, say, 45%, they will be obliged to either reduce their holding below the threshold (incurring an inevitable loss) or go for a full hostile bid. Does anyone know for sure the takeover code?

I agree. I'm genuinely sad to see this news, and to have no Ithaca stock any more, after waiting so long for it. I know you should not get sentimentally attached to a stock, but.....