TOO ALL: OK, at least I now know I'm not the only one that thinks
Millennium holdings is a cruel joke of a PR firm. Anybody else think they
are crap????
I must say, I own CHAPARRAL AND HURRICANE, two small firms also in Kazakhstan that
IMHO, are sitting on 1/4 to 1/2 less potential reserves that AIPN, but whose
market caps are close and comprable to AIPN. Why is that the case? OPENNESS!!!!
They are much more open with the press and shareholders, whereas Millennium, does not
have a CLUE as to what to say and what not to say, so they say NOTHING!
That is RIDICULOUS!!!! Proof of the pudding??? Look at both Chaparral and
Hurricane today, both are up while AIPN is UNCHed.
Subject: Comments on Dow story
Date: Tue, Nov 18, 1997 06:21 EST
From: Bouhafa
Message-id: <19971118112201.GAA29835@ladder01.news.aol.com>
Yes, Donna, this is the "article" we have been waiting for from Hugh Pope. Clearly, all of us would have liked to have seen more of a focus on our company but, in retrospect, the brief mention is not surprising given the fact that Mr. Pope's sole contact appears to have been Gary Schultheis of Millennium. Those of you who have hadcontact with him or any of the other so-called "publicists" at Millennium understand that Gary is virtually
incapable of giving a straight answer to even the most innocent of questions concerning information that the company itself has made public. For example, the company has publicly stated that it is in partnership with DANK, Enterdynamics, and MED Shipping. This is public knowledge disseminated by the company in press releases and SEC filings. As shareholders in a publicly traded US company we should expect AIPC's PR firm to be able to provide at
least a thumb-nail sketch of those partners' business activities and the name of each company's CEO. This is not "inside" information, folks. Well, I have asked that and a few other reasonable questions and gotten zero response. In fact, I have been told that that is privileged information...which it is not. If I owned stock in a tech firm that joined a consortium of other companies I am sure that the PR firm of that company would have no trouble
telling me who the partners were, the name of each one's CEO, and a contact either at the firm or at its IR company. With Millennium, such questions are treated like state secrets...which they are not.
My guess is that Hurricane Hydrocarbons became the focus of today's WSJ article because of a greater openness on their part to discussing their activities in Kazakhstan. It is my guess...and only a guess...that if one called Hurricane's spokesperson/publicist, one would come away with a satisfactory understanding of the company's business plan and vision. When one talks to Millennium, one comes away with precious little information, alot of
innuendo, and more questions than one had in the first place. I trust that that was Hugh Pope's experience as well.
Now, let's take a close look at Gary's quote: "...it's a company in an area where people in America don't have a clear idea what's going on..." This ambiguous statement would suggest that Gary is one of the few people who does have an understanding of what's going on in Central Asia. That's curious. Until recently, I have had numerous conversations with Gary re: developments in Kaz. Not once have I come away with the impression that he had a
fundamental understanding or interest in the geo-politics of the region. His main focus has always been the stock, its future performance, its tremendous potential ("if you knew what I knew but cannot tell you..you would be very comfortable", "the company is about to metamorphosize itself from a caterpiller into a butterfly", "George keeps telling me I'm going to be a billionaire...ha, ha, ha", etc.). Whenever he has been asked a question about "the
art of the deal" in KAZ and how AIPC was positioning itself, his response has either beem "no comment" or "I'll have to check with George on that" (which never happens, by the way). For Gary to be propping himself up as one of the few people with a "clear idea" as to what is going on over there is ludicrous. If, in fact, he does have such knowledge, he should have shared it with Hugh Pope. The result might have been a more in-depth article about
AIPC. Unfortunately, Hugh Pope appears to have been given nothing....so he was forced to produce nothing.
It is the second part of Gary's quote that I find most disturbing: "...[and] it's made a lot of people rich". I had to wonder exactly whom Gary might have been referring to. Was he referring to AIPN shareholders who bought in at .40/share and are now rich on paper or are they rich because they sold? Is he one of those people? Furthermore, I view that comment as representing the height of insensitivity, Surely, Gary realizes that many more
recent investors, far from being"rich" are keeping the faith while nervously watching their investment that is at the present time underwater. In fact, some of the "serious" money that we have seen accumulating the stock in recent months is also far from being rich as a result of their investment. For Gary S. to be gloating, ubder the circumstances, about how many have become rich in this deal is a clear signal to me that this so-called PR firm is
totally insensitive to AIPC's shareholders and deserves to called on the carpet or outright fired by George Faris, whom I have been told does care about his shareholders. It is no surprise that there have been so many comments by shareholders, myself included, that Millennium is the worst PR/IR firm that they have ever dealt with
Now, it is possible that Gary will claim that he was either mis-quoted or that his quotes were taken out of context. This is often the reaction of PR firms when they are faced with embarrassing statements in the press. If that is the case, then as shareholders I think we have a right to expect a full clarification as to Gary's observation that "it's made a lot of people rich". I, for one, will be looking for that clarification but I will not
hold my breath. What I suspect will be the case is that Gary will be oblivious to his insensitivity and will, yet again, gloat over the fact that it was he that got AIPN front-page WSJ coverage when, in fact, he knows very well that Hugh Pope's phone call was none of his doing...it came unsollicited from Istanbul. Let's see which reaction proves to be true.
In the long run, none of what I have said may be important. If the company signs a JV and a financing package, etc. it won't matter what kind of incompetants are running its PR operation. I am very bullish on this story and I think today's mention in the WSJ might peak new investors' interests. The announcement of the PSA will be welcome either today or tomorrow. I just wish that this story would develop quickly so that it gets so big that
even our Central Asian "experts" in Boca Raton are incapable of doing it any harm.
Millennium repeatedly solicits our e-mail addresses for their press releases. This pro-active effort of theirs would suggest that they care about the shareholders. Well, when you call them to ask exactly who it is who has gotten rich, you might ask when Gary thinks you'll be rich, too.
Cheers...Faris
PS Millennium # 561-988-2334
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