A friend pointed me at an interesting, hard hitting blog with the above title, written by someone who calls himself "Dr. Benway".
From Wikipedia: "Dr. Benway is the name of a recurring character in many of William S. Burroughs' novels, including Naked Lunch and Nova Express. He is referred to only as "Dr. Benway" or "Doc Benway" (his first name is never revealed).
He lacks a conscience and is more interested in his surgical performance than his patients' well-being."
The last sentence does indeed seem to be valid for the blog.
In the blog, rather specific cases are mentioned regarding Australian listed companies.
Some of the companies have links to companies listed on the Singapore or Malaysia exchanges, so readers of this blog might be interested.
The readers should themselves judge if they agree with the contents and/or if the wording chosen by "Dr. Benway" is too strong/controversial for their taste. As usual: "reader beware".
Articles regarding the Blumont group: here, here and here.
Articles regarding the Catcha group: here, here and here.
Other articles: here, here and here.
Showing posts with label Blumont. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blumont. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 September 2014
Wednesday, 2 April 2014
Penny Stock Saga: were the share prices manipulated? (3)
Two recent developments in the "Penny Stock Saga":
Article from the Straits Times (Singapore)
Court orders CEO to pay up $1.8m debt owed to bank
THE chief executive of an investment holding company who is locked in multi-million dollar lawsuits, has been ordered by the High Court to pay up a $1.83 million debt owed to a bank.
Ms Quah Su-ling, executive director of Ipco International for more than a decade, failed in her appeal to rescind the summary judgment against her sought by the Bank of East Asia for monies owed from a share margin facility. Ms Quah had also appealed to put the proceedings on hold.
.....
Ms Quah's woes began last year with the plunge in the share prices of three listed companies: Asiasons Capital, LionGold Corp and Blumont Group.
She had invested up to $120 million in their shares.
She claimed Goldman Sachs gave her 1 1/2 hours last October to repay $61 million, which is the margin call on her trades in the companies.
Announcement by Blumont:
"The board of directors (the “Board”) of Blumont Group Ltd. (博诺有限公司) (the “Company”) wishes to announce that G1 Investments Pte Ltd (“G1 Investments”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, has received a notice dated 2 April 2014 from the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force (“CAD”) requiring G1 Investments’ assistance with the CAD’s investigations into an offence under the Securities and Futures Act (Chapter 289) (the “SFA”). The CAD has requested for access to, amongst others, all corporate electronic data from 1 January 2011 to-date, information technology equipment and data storage devices (if any) belonging to Mr. Neo Kim Hock, the Executive Chairman of the Board, and Mr. James Hong Gee Ho, Executive Director of the Company.
Further, the Company has been informed that Mr. Hong has been requested to assist the CAD in its
investigations into a possible infringement under the SFA..."
Looks like the net is tightening.
Article from the Straits Times (Singapore)
Court orders CEO to pay up $1.8m debt owed to bank
THE chief executive of an investment holding company who is locked in multi-million dollar lawsuits, has been ordered by the High Court to pay up a $1.83 million debt owed to a bank.
Ms Quah Su-ling, executive director of Ipco International for more than a decade, failed in her appeal to rescind the summary judgment against her sought by the Bank of East Asia for monies owed from a share margin facility. Ms Quah had also appealed to put the proceedings on hold.
.....
Ms Quah's woes began last year with the plunge in the share prices of three listed companies: Asiasons Capital, LionGold Corp and Blumont Group.
She had invested up to $120 million in their shares.
She claimed Goldman Sachs gave her 1 1/2 hours last October to repay $61 million, which is the margin call on her trades in the companies.
Announcement by Blumont:
"The board of directors (the “Board”) of Blumont Group Ltd. (博诺有限公司) (the “Company”) wishes to announce that G1 Investments Pte Ltd (“G1 Investments”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, has received a notice dated 2 April 2014 from the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force (“CAD”) requiring G1 Investments’ assistance with the CAD’s investigations into an offence under the Securities and Futures Act (Chapter 289) (the “SFA”). The CAD has requested for access to, amongst others, all corporate electronic data from 1 January 2011 to-date, information technology equipment and data storage devices (if any) belonging to Mr. Neo Kim Hock, the Executive Chairman of the Board, and Mr. James Hong Gee Ho, Executive Director of the Company.
Further, the Company has been informed that Mr. Hong has been requested to assist the CAD in its
investigations into a possible infringement under the SFA..."
Looks like the net is tightening.
Sunday, 12 January 2014
Onerous terms of Blumont's credit line
I have written little (here and here) about the penny stock saga around Blumont and other connected counters in Singapore. I do hope that the court cases and the investigation by the Singapore authorities will throw more light on this (for many people involved rather painful) affair.
The Edge Singapore highlighted a new credit line of USD 30 Million that Blumont has taken up, the details of which can be found here. In short:
In The Edge Singapore Alex Molyneux (not yet appointed as Chairman) remarked:
".... if you 're not an investment-grade company, you don't borrow at 5%, 6%".
But is that really the case? Below is the graph for the yield of the so called "junk" bonds, the lowest grade of corporate bonds:
Many junk bonds are indeed yielding only 5-6%, that seems to contradict Molyneux.
Seth Klarman (Baupost Group) mentioned in Capital & Crisis (December 2013):
"It is almost embarrassing that five years after a crisis - a crisis that can happen again - we're back to those levels of speculative behaviour. It's really astonishing. Everything that can be financed has gotten financed."
The article, titled "The Silly Season", continues:
"You can find good evidence of this in the exuberant corporate junk bond market. This is where the iffy borrowers go and interest rates are high. In fact, it's often called the high-yield market. But today, it seems just about every company has been able to borrow, or refinance, at record-low rates. The High-Yield Index, a proxy for the junk bond market, hit an all-time low in yield this year."
For Blumont, apart from the incredible terms of the loan, there is also the issue how it plans to repay the loan, after only six months. The company owns chunks of not very liquid mining companies that are unlikely to pay any dividend in the near future. If it can't pay back its loan, it might be in danger of losing the assets it pledged against the loan.
And for the global situation regarding risk and return: it looks like we are back to the situation in 2006/07, the "goldilocks" days. Does the world really have such a short term memory, that all the events of 2008/09 have been forgotten?
The Edge Singapore highlighted a new credit line of USD 30 Million that Blumont has taken up, the details of which can be found here. In short:
- To be repaid full within 6 months after the first drawdown
- Interest rate of 10% per year, to be paid monthly
- Drawdown fee of 5%
- Administration fee of 0.5% per month
- Arranger fee of 4%
In The Edge Singapore Alex Molyneux (not yet appointed as Chairman) remarked:
".... if you 're not an investment-grade company, you don't borrow at 5%, 6%".
But is that really the case? Below is the graph for the yield of the so called "junk" bonds, the lowest grade of corporate bonds:
Many junk bonds are indeed yielding only 5-6%, that seems to contradict Molyneux.
Seth Klarman (Baupost Group) mentioned in Capital & Crisis (December 2013):
"It is almost embarrassing that five years after a crisis - a crisis that can happen again - we're back to those levels of speculative behaviour. It's really astonishing. Everything that can be financed has gotten financed."
The article, titled "The Silly Season", continues:
"You can find good evidence of this in the exuberant corporate junk bond market. This is where the iffy borrowers go and interest rates are high. In fact, it's often called the high-yield market. But today, it seems just about every company has been able to borrow, or refinance, at record-low rates. The High-Yield Index, a proxy for the junk bond market, hit an all-time low in yield this year."
For Blumont, apart from the incredible terms of the loan, there is also the issue how it plans to repay the loan, after only six months. The company owns chunks of not very liquid mining companies that are unlikely to pay any dividend in the near future. If it can't pay back its loan, it might be in danger of losing the assets it pledged against the loan.
And for the global situation regarding risk and return: it looks like we are back to the situation in 2006/07, the "goldilocks" days. Does the world really have such a short term memory, that all the events of 2008/09 have been forgotten?
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