It would seem that if there were an attack by noteholders against this thin stock, now is too early. I could see it in the period before maturity, but now? The stock is trading funny though, not that much volume, but upticks are meet with supply, as if someone is working it on the short end. I've played around with some long notes/short common arbitrage math, and there may be some formula that could appeal to some black box type? I glazed over before I could find it however. Anybody have short position numbers?
TVX has too many remedies to apply to this, unless management is in cahoots with the convert holders. I don't see that either, as NDY holds 3.5 million shares and Gabelli (no slouch) owns 2 million. Is there a big noteholder?
The notes only trade in the 60's, so TVX could use their cash pile to start hammering away at it. Or they could sell the rest of TVX/NDY, or even their split of just one or two mines to raise cash to clean this up. They could buy the stock here. Today's cap is only US 32 million and a chunk of that is held as alluded to earlier. They have 96 million in the till, and a few million would cure this situation. They could sell the whole company. They could bring in a partner for Hellas, and take a cash infusion for the stake. This just doesn't strike me as a company at the end of the tether unless Hellas is going to blow up right at the finish line. Again, extremely unlikely. They have several desirable properties, not crap. Others would be more than happy to step up for them, and IMO they will. |
