Bill Cara calls for OSC to investigate Aurelian Deal !!!
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"In regard to the Aurelian Kinross affair, most of the frustration of the "Retails" we call ourselves, is that we are in the minority and feel shabbily treated by the whole sale process. Adding to the above comments, yes I feel Aurelian was set up as a fire sale, even when they had something like $100+ million in the bank and yes I feel that the "deal" was agreed and planned by the ARU and K boards of directors. I feel the Money Managers participated in the "staged" sale as the whole event looks and feels "undervalued" and carefully scripted. At the close of the initial share offer over 70% plus tendered to the first offer and from my reading, most investors interested in maximizing their return never tender on the first unless it is a bona fide superior offer. At $60 per oz in the ground, sets the bar very low for other Junior take outs that are coming. It begs a further question - has one or the other Majors condoned this low ball offer, with a hands off non competing offer, plus the bonus that they can now use the $60 in situ number as the new "bar" for value? All speculation but for sure, information that was available to Kinross was not released to the Public and for sure not to shareholders. Many drill holes not released since the April 18 cease of operations, plus a poorly attempted news release throwing away these drill holes as not "good enough" to move up the 43-101. Most were infill holes I believe but only because of the ruckus from the Retail community screaming for information to try and make sense and validate the offer from Kinross.
As for the Securities Commission, someone is asleep at the desk here. Perhaps all takeovers should have OSC approval prior to final conversion. Now after the fact, they will be chasing the guilty parties who may move offshore before the final judgment is rendered.
My last point is, at the AGM in the summer, nothing of this offer to come was disclosed - just business as usual. Disclosed at the AGM was the fact that the Government of Canada pension plan was one of the largest 5 shareholders in Aurelian. I cannot figure out why they would let the ship sink to a low ball offer when the blue sky of $1000 plus gold is only years away. Our pension plan probably has done well on their (and all Canadians) portfolio but why was the offer take it or leave when they most probably invested way before the glory hole and the risk then was much larger for a payback."
[Bill Cara note:
I happen to be pretty busy at the moment, but I will ask my friends if they can impress the OSC to look into this matter. I happen, btw, to like Patrick Anderson, and as some of you know I worked as a student in CA many moons ago with his CFO. I did attend their AGM after the discovery, and saw that step out drilling was likely to produce superb results. I have also opined in the blog that, like Guyana, I think that Ecuador is another Nevada for precious metals. But, frankly, I am not more involved than that. I have no axe to grind. But this overwhelming sense by shareholders that something is really amiss here should never be ignored by regulators and investigators. If the retail trader loses confidence in junior markets, then risk capital will become very difficult to come by, and shows like PDAC and Cambridge will die, and Toronto-Vancouver-Calgary will lose its place as the world leader in junior resource company capital finance. That would be a shame, not just for Canadians but for anybody in the world who wants to trade these markets.]
LINK....see Sept 13 comments starting about halfway down the page
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Who is Bill Cara?
Bill Cara is known internationally as “The Trader Wizard”. Retired from active business at the end of 2000, he began to write a trading blog in April 2004 that quickly became popular around the world, gaining popularity with mainstream media like Wall St Journal, Barron's and Forbes, where he is listed as their "Favorite" trading blog. There are as of the summer of 2007, approximately 100,000 readers in 140 countries, with an annualized hit rate of over 100 million. On July 7, 2007, he moved to Nassau Bahamas where he anticipates becoming a permanent resident, and where he will operate a registered securities firm called Cara Trading Advisors (Bahamas) Ltd. His book “Lessons of the Trader Wizard” is due for publication by ISI Publications in February, 2008.
As a private Canadian businessman, Bill Cara has extensive experience in the Canadian securities industry. He was the co-founder/CEO of Qtrade Investor (Canada’s leading online broker), founder and President of Security Traders International (offshore trading broker), President of William Cara Investment Bancorp (registered Ontario securities dealer), founder/CEO Canaccord Capital’s Eastern Canada Operations (Canada’s largest full-service independently-owned broker-dealer) and broker and portfolio manager with Dominion Securities and Dominion Securities Investment Management (now RBC).
Bill has been called as an expert witness by the Canadian Securities Administrators at a forum on electronic trading brokerage and also by the Senate of Canada Banking Committee Task Force on the future of Canada’s financial services industry. The Government of Canada has invited Bill to speak with Canada’s trade commissioner in three Asian countries. He has also been a member of the Government of Ontario Task Force that reviewed the operations of the Canadian unlisted securities market, now operated by the Toronto Stock Exchange. Bill also supported non-profit, non-governmental organizations committed to the United Nations Global Compact for Third World economic sustainability. |
