sansione
02 May 2018
Re: HSBC up stake to over 7% - see RNS I assume you are joking!!
Bison722
01 May 2018
Re: HSBC up stake to over 7% - see RNS Poor ol’ winnet and jac,...........they’re guna be in tears when this comes to an end
indaknow
01 May 2018
Re: HSBC up stake to over 7% - see RNS Must be holding as a nominee for COC
angel al
01 May 2018
HSBC up stake to over 7% - see RNS So now a second II, in this case HSBC is purchasing these shares - is the sun going to shine on everybody soon? I hope so and we see a nice little rise.
Simonhare999
30 Apr 2018
40p this week? 6 month chart shows a successiin of higher highs and higher lows, if we can break the 52 week high of 37.9 then 40's here we come (if coc will allow it).GL all,Simon.
eagle51
28 Apr 2018
Re: Merrill Lynch International up stake... Indaknow - you say: "you went too far in expressing what would happen in the event of the liquidation when you couldn't have known all of the facts".I knew and understood a number of facts. 1. XEL owned 267MMboe of 2P oil in the NS, the vast bulk of it 1P2. The bondholders were owed something like $140m3. During a number of telephone conversations I had with Rupert Cole, he gave no cause for me to believe that a value as low as c.50 cents per barrel was anything like a fair price to expect to be paid for Bentley Oil in situ, albeit a long way (in time) from coming to the surface. 4. TRACS had a NPV10 number on Bentley of $2.5bn (2P)I knew (still do) how UK insolvency practitioners work and it is still my belief a UK liquidator would have obtained a good deal more for Bentley than was secured by the BVI liquidator. A BVI liquidator should never have been appointed because the debt was in a UK company and no demand was made for the debt to be repaid. The bondholders, with the directors' blessing, went in through the 'back door' by claiming on XEL's guarantee. They should have been told to go and take a jump. XEL's directors then did all the 'marketing' that was ever going to be done on Bentley IN ADVANCE of the liquidator even being appointed. Cole, Fairclough and a few other senior XEL people went with XER to the bondholders who eventually swapped the debt for Bentley in a tax wrapper.. Shareholders weren't told what offers were received (if there were any - we don't know how actively Bentley was marketed, or how) and the whole thing was about as obscure as it comes.No, I didn't know all these 'facts'. The fact is that many wise people would call all the above fraud. Am I supposed to factor this into my opinions? 50 cents a barrel? Is someone kidding? Shareholders got screwed - and badly so. Hedge funds did it. Cole and others were happy to let it happen in the end and benefited from it (plus ca change). According to a poster on the XEL board recently (whom I believe because he was quoting from Whalsea Energy's accounts) Cole was paid £80,000 to resign in year 1 of the new ownership. Smellier still.Am I right in believing you argued very strongly in favour of COC taking control of BVLN, which a significant majority of shareholders excluding COC, who had a very material non-independent interest in the outcome, voted against?If so, did you know all the facts? Surely you can't have done, because you can't have known what was in the minds of COC's people or what they intended to happen. You only knew what they told you. Where is the difference?Changing the subject, thanks for the kind (and unexpected) comments, Nice to Michu. You're clearly not bothered about not picking up any popularity awards. I know you got out of JOG early (tut tut). You've missed a chunk of profit but there might be merit in you looking again. My personal view is their game has only just started. Listen to what I have to say and then do the opposite. You should have a good chance of doing well 
all imo/dyor
Nice to Michu
27 Apr 2018
Re: Merrill Lynch International up stake... just read previous trail in more detail now and add that CoC and PI shareholders doing well here are far from mutually exclusive, imho.. as ever, it's all about timing - eg I was out of xel in very good time and out of JOG in very bad time - and there's good upside to come here from 34p imho..
Nice to Michu
27 Apr 2018
Re: Merrill Lynch International up stake... Haven't been on this BB in ages - but still hold a mid sized position here - and randomly look in this evening and see Eagle posting here and offer that, every minute of every day of the week - warts and all - I'd rather have him on a B/board than not. AIM is mostly about experience imho and the journey(s) this guy had on AIM oilers - and, I expect, way beyond.. very importantly in life too - is amazing... and he's clearly highly intelligent.. and he's maybe even growing into humility too.. so he's absolutely worth listening too.. imho.. Good luck to all fellow Bowleveners and indeed Oiler players generally.. hopefully our time is now
eagle51
26 Apr 2018
Re: Merrill Lynch International up stake... Thank you, Simon. Maybe you're right and the 'once bitten' badge is a fitting one to pin on me. It definitely would be had I not been bitten quite a few times before, although not always with such disastrous effect (as in XEL). I see so much dishonesty in the markets and all over the place these days that I'm now doubly cautious in checking out the integrity of those I place my trust in to run companies I invest in honestly, fairly and competently. The evidence, however, is that it my experience of being let down hasn't made me excessively cautious . I still warm to risk when I understand what it is. Returns can be spectacular if one's judgement is right (one invariably also needs luck where oilcos are concerned).Re dishonesty, I've been working for nearly 3 years to bring directors and others to account for serious fraud in another AIM company I had an investment in. An event I read about by chance caused me to suspect foul play but I initially only had information in the public domain to work from. I can't even begin to tell you how much time I spent siphoning out the false information put in the accounts and countless RNSs to get to the real position. It wouldn't be right to give any more details at this stage as it is supposedly still being investigated by 'senior intelligence officers' (they've missed out an 'un') but I'll pen the initials TLBQC as a reference point should the whole shocking affair make its way into one of the Sunday papers one of these days.Hope for your and others' sake COC turn out to be ok and just saw BLVN as being a poorly managed company that needed their input to make a decent returnGLall imo/dyor
indaknow
26 Apr 2018
Re: Merrill Lynch International up stake... EagleI don't disagree with your summary of events at XEL or the prospects of the investment. Cole, Fairclough, et al failed shareholders in a spectacular way.I'm not suggesting that you encouraged people to invest or made their decisions for them. I'm simply saying that whilst people are free to choose, they are not free from influence and my view is that you went too far in expressing what would happen in the event of the liquidation when you couldn't have known all of the facts. Despite your acerbic tendencies, you do come across as an intelligent chap. As a result people will have taken your view as fact and imo that was dangerous.On the COC front, shareholders only have themselves to blame if something untoward happens here. COC were able to get their way because sufficient numbers of shareholders felt inclined to see changes and voted. The minority owe the majority no apology for the majorities apathy in terms of controlling what happens to their investment.
Simonhare999
26 Apr 2018
Re: Merrill Lynch International up stake... Eagle,I appreciate your comments which although I may disagree with, appear to be set out with honest intentions at least, although you do seem to be suffering with a case of 'once bitten, twice shy' syndrome which is perhaps clouding your judgement here somewhat.You say that COC are likely to begin siphoning off funds via consultancy practices, however isn't it true that since COC took over they have significantly reduced the ongoing overheads, especially since the heady days of the past when KH, the Chief and all the other cronies had a sizeable piece of the pie on a regular basis.GL,Simon.
eagle51
26 Apr 2018
Re: Merrill Lynch International up stake... Indaknow - my posts and opinions about XEL were almost always based on the numbers. Shareholders should not have been robbed of XEL's only asset (which was fully proven as to likely longer term value) in the way they were. If you're saying that personal greed and dishonesty should have been factored into my views then fine. I'll end every post in future with a whole string of caveats so that everyone knows the world is a dangerous place to live in. XEL should have been de-risked completely in about 2011/12 when the shares were flying at about £4 each, based on info fed into the market at the time that indicated upcoming reserves confirmation from TRACS that would see everyone in clover. But the directors didn't want to raise money at that time because they were about to sell enough of their free shares to see them ok for life. Three of them trousered £4m each right at the top of the market, yet 3 weeks later a Company director was telling people openly at an oil conference attended by the relevant three (I listened to the video much later) the shares were a cert to more than double in the next 12 months. When the reserves report was published 3 months later it was rubbish. The shares tanked and never again reached anywhere near the levels the directors had sold at. Institutions abandoned ship in their droves. They tend not to like people whose behaviour is even worse than their ownMaybe you'll say I should never have invested in XEL (which I did after all this had happened - I was blissfully unaware, but became so, which is when I first realised I am a very forgiving type. Investment decisions aren't made with the benefit of hindsight sadly. There are a few reasons imv why XEL failed - dishonesty on the part of directors and bondholders being only two of them. A crashing fall in the oil price and Coles's conceit and incompetence in equal measure were just as important. Almost the perfect storm. I argued the numbers - are you suggesting that me saying that a lot more than 50 cents a barrel would be achieved by a UK insolvency practitioner in a liquidation (which is what would have been required to repay the debt in full) was wrong?XER owned Bentley and owed the money. Hedge fund bondholders (with the apparent blessing of XEL's directors) petitioned in the BVI to have XEL (the listed company) wound up under a guarantee shareholders weren't explicitly made aware of. No demand for repayment of the loans was ever served on XER because the bondholders wanted Bentley in a tax shelter along with its brought forward losses. It was in my and a lot of other experienced investors' opinion tantamount to fraud. Ref people who lost their life savings, I met with a number of them on several occasions. Not a single one made anything other than their own decisions about investing in XEL. That I had more faith than some others in an honest outcome is apparently a sin. I always argue my points strongly because I am often attacked for posting what I would regard as sensible views based on years of experience at the right level in Woking.I don't really see any point in carrying on as minds are already made up. What XEL taught me in particular is that some hedge funds are ruthless and sail very close to a wind called fraud. They prefer to have money belonging to other people than to allow those others to have it themselves because they're greedy and unprincipled. Maybe COC are alright and will play things fairly.But maybe they won't. Bison, I don't know what COC have planned - there are many different ways they could cause money to find its way into their bank account instead of accounts it should more fairly be paid into.It would seem I was wrong not to see in advance how a number of hedge funds, possibly acting in collusion with Company directors might cause shareholders in one oil company to lose a fortune. Yet, when I warn others what I now see might happen because there is a hedge fund that has an extremely powe
Simonhare999
26 Apr 2018
Re: Massively undervalued Bison,Forgive my schoolboy error, I've re-calculated below.As for Bomono, I had written it off but VOG apparently haven't so who knows, anything is a bonus from here.My point still stands that we are currently hugely undervalued as the market is at present assigning a value of precisely zero to our 25% Etinde stake.Cash in hand - $80M = 18p/shareCarry on drill - $40M = 9p/shareDrill completion payment - $15M = 3p / shareFID Payment - $25M = 5.5p / shareCurrent Total - $160M = 35.5p / share25% Etinde value $125M - $250M = 27p - 55p / shareS.P. on successful drill - $245M - $370M = 54p - 81p / share
Bison722
26 Apr 2018
Re: Massively undervalued simonI think your figures are a little on the high side.......those amounts should be in $ not £ and bomono..............write it off mate, the market has, KH did a good job of destroying the potential of that asset for BLVN holders
Why nicknames
26 Apr 2018
Re: Massively undervalued Still down on my original investment - But would gladly offload at that level, HA
