Steve,
Telepanel started trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange in the summer of 1989. It started trading at around a buck and a half. After a brief IPO rally, it turned and headed for the sub-basement. Lagging the overall market by about nine months, the stock price bottomed in the middle of 1991. In the fall of 1993, it hit it's all time high of around eight and a half loonies. Those are Canadian dollars.
At it's peak, Telepanel's issued capital was around $12.5 million and it's market capitalization must of been pushing $100 million. I'm not any kind of new issue expert, but it looks to me, like early TLS trading took on a typical IPO trading route.
Now, 1994 was NOT the year to be a Telepanel shareholder. The stock was down big time from the getgo. Whoever held the shares from the start of that year until the end lost more than 80% of their capital. A somewhat similar situation to that of the poor folks who bought into the A&P orders and the ERSI merger prospects during the fall of 1997.
The "rallies" which started at the beginning of 95 and during early 96 were more like dead cat bounces. The first rally brought out numerous to-be-disappointed bag holders, and the second rally, in reality a head fake, set the stage for accumulating before insider "tax strategizing". That's CEO speak for the exercising of options.
We all know that the current bottom occurred at the end of 98. At that valley, Telepanel had spent in excess of $100 million developing their technology and their market capitalization (excluding consideration of debt) was around $10 million. Is that fitting? Could the 97/98 fall have been the "C" leg of the IPO correction?
I believe that the company was actually started in 1986 ... Year of the Tiger. The most amazing tidbit "derived" from that era is that many the faces marching at the head of that parade are still marching today. Another interesting tidbit is that there is one "apparent early days" shareholder who has regularly attended all "recent" annual meetings. He appears to be a very, very patient fellow.
Regards and Happy Deciphering, nF |
