Myself and some other investors attended the Annual Meeting of JBOH in Las Vegas on June 25th 2000. Below are some notes from the meeting posted on the Yahoo JBOH message board by Carl.
For those of you not able to attend the annual shareholders meeting here are some notes the group I was with made.
Annual Meeting
The annual meeting report
After the normal bull, we got to questions and answers. Jarrat was super defensive on the very first question and even got to the point of almost yelling(no lie). After Jim explained why we were there, he seemed to calm down somewhat. Let me get this out of the way first. The man seems arrogant and believes his way is the only way period, end of subject. I think this could change based on what the market does with the small amount of information he gives them. That said, I will give you the good points and bad points(IMO) and let you make your own decisions.
Remember one thing, this is one person's opinion and my long suit is not my writing skills.LOL
Jim's Questions:
These questions are not in the order they were asked. When Jim asked his first question, that was when Jarratt got defensive and started raising his voice. To Jim's credit, he held his ground and Jarratt calmed down. I don't think I could've done as good a job as Jim without losing my cool..
1. What is the status of after-hours trading online?
A. While there is after-hours online trading there is not enough volume to warrant the expense at present. Jamie Lewis said a substantial investment(approx. 500k) would be required to impliment after hours online trading, when the volume is there they will be ready.
2. Any plans to offer level 2 quotes?
A. Level2 is in the future,(not sure when) probably late this year.
I'm a little fuzzy on this one as I can't remember exactly when he said it would come online.
3. Is the company open to being acquired by another firm?
A. Yes they are open, but are dedicated to making it on their own and growing the co. through acquisitions of smaller players as those players become too weak to continue. Jamie Lewis explained that it's cheaper at the present time to acquire than it is to advertise. They also said to look for an new add in the near future. This one will have narration!
4. Will JBOH be seeking NNM listing in the near future?
A Not at this time. Reason's are your stock price must be over $5 for a determined length of time(See nasdaq site for all the info on NNM--Carl) and they must wait for the conclusion of the SEC investigation b4 even thinking about it.
During Jim's questions he bought up the point that a group of us had gotten together before the last conference call and compiled a list of questions that we thought were important to us and the rest of the individual investors out there. We told them that our representative, Relaxed and Happy, had delivered them personally to Mckovsky and assoc. in New York to be forwarded to them. They were shocked to learn this and stated that they never had seen the questions. On a personal note, I brought my sister with me. She sat behind us and watched for "body language" when certain questions were asked. When this came out she said they were indeed caught off-guard and had no idea we had done this. I might add that Relaxed had sent both Jamie Lewis and Jarratt copies of the questions via Fedex, calling later and talking with their assistants to insure they got them.They also mentioned that having a PR firm handling press relations was not working out and they were going to bring it back in-house. (our feeling was that Mckovsky was not doing their job).
I know this will come as a shock, but during the recent downturn, JBOH has been buying back their own stock. We were, also, shocked! We asked why they hadn't issued a press release stating this? Their reply was that they had issued one in the past(early last year I think) and didn't want to by accused of pumping their stock with useless PR.(the used the example of TRAC. Right or wrong)
Regarding the SEC investigation, they stated that they thought it would be closed sometime in the third quarter. They were very confident on this and stated they had already taken the charge in the 4th quater to cover this.(remember they said "they thought" it would be concluded in the 3rd quarter) They also stated that all the documents were in D.C. waiting to be signed off. Who knows how long this will take(my opinion).
Carl's questions
1. Given the average of 1/2 question asked per conference call, and the historiocally low turnout at annual meetings, would you consider allowing individual investors to ask questions in the quarterly CC's?
A. There were specific cos. listed that allowed II's to participate if time permitted. One specific reference used was the company CMGI, htere were others also. After some discussion, they said they would consider it in future conference calls.FWIW
2. As you look at the numbers so far for the 2nd quarter, is there a chance of meeting or beating the .18 a share that was reported for the same period last year?
A. On this they were vague(rightfully so). They stated that revenues were down for the entire sector. Volume, margin and of course MM activity. To give you an idea, here is the breakdown of revenue for JBOH as a percentage.
Commissions 32%
Interest 28%
Clearing 24%
Trading 15%
Other 1%
IMO, commissions, clearing, and trading will be down from the previous quarter, although I don't know how they will compare to last years quarter. Interest will definately be down because of all the margin calls, less on margin equals less interest to me.
3. Can you please explain the move of the holding co from Tn. to Nevada?
A. After I mentioned the tax benefits and also the limited liabilty they would face being a Nevada corp., they were surprised(body laguage) and said that those were the reasons. Sheepishly, I might add.
4. A hefty premium was paid by Merrill for Herzog. Any thoughts of selling off JBOH's MM activity.
A. They simutaniously answered NO!! In fact they stated that it was the greatest area of grow and profit. They also stated they were trying to do more MM activity and hoping to acquire more in the future. They also stated that they were the only fully integrated company(other than SCH) in the sector. Meaning trading, MM, and clearing capabilities. They see this as a competitive advantage(rightfully so IMO).
5. How successful, so far, has the offering of the Citibank/JBOH Visa card been? Can you give us some #'s?
A. They stated that they weren't too worried about the # of accounts, The objective of the card was not to generate a lot revenue, it was offered to inhance the selection of services they offered. They are trying to become a onestop shop for investor. They didn't give us an answer about # of accounts which leads me to beleive the # is very low.
That's all I can remember for now.
REMEMBER do your own DD
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reposted here by request by Knott |
