Sorry guys, you have to help me with this. I just don't get how owning half of a bankrupt company is a good thing. Doesn't liquidation mean "sell everything, pay off creditors, whatever is left is divided among shareholders"? But there won't be anything left because in the earning press release they said:
"Since that time, results from Albatronics year end audit show a company in financial difficulty with a deficiency in shareholders' equity of $45.2 million, up from the $22.6 million adjusted deficiency in shareholders' equity reported in Albatronics' unaudited August 31, 1998 accounts."
As far as Nam Tai getting they customers, why? They don't make consumer electronics, not that they couldn't, but doesn't take a while to get set up? And the customers can go (those that haven't gone already!) to anybody the want. If Nam Tai was after the customers, they didn't need to spend 10M to watch Alby go under close up.
Ron, as far as your theory of "mess up on purpose to drive down the stock", that's pretty wild. If in fact Koo& co. did know Alby was doomed when they bought in, I have to believe that there is a realistic business goal behind the plan. If it makes the stock buy back more efficient as a side effect, OK. Give me scenario how this helps Nam Tai's basic business and you'll go farther towards convincing me. Maybe they've been busy the last 2 months copying schematics, tooling designs, and hiring away the most valuable personnel while waiting for the head shot from the bankers. I might be able to buy in to something like that.
We can speculate all we want, but the facts look to me like 10M flushed. |
