Origo Partners Share Discussion Threads

[zcaprd7] 05/1/2023 08:57

Chairman's letter regarding the class action (could be big, but 3 years) gulp:Dear Shareholders,Over the last year, the Company has sold its remaining legacy assets and has made a cash distribution to shareholders. In January,the Company sold its investment in Six Waves, a Hong Kong based gaming company, for about USD 2.2 million and in Marchdistributed USD 1.7 million to shareholders. Following an auction with a single bid, that of the controlling shareholder, Origosold its Moly World investment for USD 200,000. This past October, the Company sold its entire investment in Celadon to thecontrolling shareholder for USD 50,000 following an auction in which no bids were received. Earlier this year, the Companyannounced a delay in its plan to wind up the Company and return any remaining capital to shareholders and alluded to a pendingclass action lawsuit that could benefit the Company. I would like now to report on what we know about that lawsuit.Well before this board's involvement with the Company, about thirteen years ago, in 2009, the Company invested in R. M.Williams ("RMW"), an Australian company with livestock and other farming operations in northern Australia. The Companyinvested about $20 million in RMW's equity and about $3.1 million in RMW's debt. The primary business objective of RMWwas to raise cattle and other agricultural products in Australia and ship the cattle to Asia for sale. Beginning in June 2011 and in response ponse to a television program that raised concerns about animal welfare, the Australian Minister of Agriculture issued severalorders that effectively barred the export of live cattle to Indonesia. In 2013 RMW went insolvent. When RMW went insolvent,RMW owed the Company about $8 million for the loans including accrued interest, and the Company owned about 24% ofRMW's equity. RMW's total debt at around that time included secured debt held by one of Australia's large banks which may ormay not have been compromised in a settlement, the unsecured Origo debt and a small amount of other third-party debt, andRMW had shareholder equity of about AUD $85 million. There were legal proceedings involving RMW and in or about 2019RMW's liquidation was completed and RMW was stricken from the Companies' Register.In 2014, Brett Cattle, an Australian cattle company, brought a claim against the Australian Minister of Agriculture, effectively theCommonwealth of Australia, that essentially alleged that the Minister had exceeded his authority in issuing the order barring livecattle exports to Indonesia and seeking damages. This claim was financed by an organization representing farmers in Australia'sNorthern Territory, "the Northern Farmers Fighting Fund" or the "NFFF" and prosecuted by one of Australia's leading law firms,the Minter Ellison firm. In June 2020, the Federal Court for Australia issued a long and complex judgment ruling that theMinister in exceeding his authority had committed the tort of misfeasance in public office and that the Commonwealth was liablefor the damages that flowed from his wrongful conduct both to the plaintiff that brought the action and to other businesses thatwere similarly situated and also suffered losses flowing from the Minister's tortious conduct. In October 2020 the Court orderedthat the judgment be publicized to alert other possible class members. This past May, the Company learned of this lawsuit from alocally based former shareholder in RMW.The composition of the class has not yet been determined, but the class when constituted will be represented by Minter Ellison,and the class action is being financed by the NFFF in return for 10 per cent of the gross recovery. The Commonwealth has noappeals and has essentially conceded liability. So the issues appear to be whether RMW's damages are the kinds of damages thatqualify it for class membership and what is the quantum of those damages that properly flow from the Minister's tortiousconduct. If the lawyers determine that RMW is eligible for membership in the class, RMW would join in excess of 200 otherclass members eligible to share in total damages Minter Ellison has estimated at around AUD $1 billion. Given that the NFFF isfinancing the litigation, there is not the usual issue of the costs of litigation. In terms of the timing of any payment, the judgmentis accruing interest at 8% per annum so for this reason and, we are told, local political considerations, the Commonwealth isincentivized to wind the matter up sooner rather than later. That said, Minter Ellison have indicated that the whole process couldtake up to three years (or even longer).We had hoped that by now we would be able to quantify any possible recovery to determine whether it is worth Origo's while toparticipate in the lawsuit, i.e., whether the probable amount and timing of an award can be reasonably expected to offset theCompany's running costs. Unfortunately we are still not in a position to do that but have been informed that a mediation with theCommonwealth of Australia scheduled for 9 December will produce some clarity. Shareholders should note that there is a widerange of possible outcomes both in terms of the amount of any recovery and the timing of its receipt. That range is between zeroand a large number that could reflect the amount Origo invested plus accrued interest. There are other administrative issues aswell including that RMW was liquidated and struck from the Australian Companies' Register several years ago (and so needs tobe restored to the register with directors or liquidators appointed to run it and to determine distributions to creditors andshareholders) and that the Company subsidiary that held this investment has also been liquidated. Based on our review of thefacts and various discussions we have had, we believe that nonetheless the claim is worth pursuing because it could result in asubstantial monetary recovery - at little or no out of pocket cost to the Company. Shareholders should note that given theCompany's expense structure, it is unlikely that there will be further distributions without a recovery from RMW.

[zcaprd7] 04/11/2022 11:36

Another update slipped out last week:27 October 2022Origo Partners Plc ("Origo" or "the Company")Shareholder UpdateThe Company has sold its entire interest in Celadon Mining Ltd ("Celadon") to the promoter for USD 50,000 as compared tothat asset's last reported carrying value of USD282,000. In various announcements over a period of years, the Company hasreferred to representations from the promoter that an asset realization was imminent. No sale has materialized, and basedon available information the Company cannot now foresee a future monetization of that asset. The Company's interest inCeladon has been for sale for several years in accordance with the Company's announced strategy of selling assets andreturning excess cash to shareholders, and, besides this bid, the Company has received no offers for the asset.The Company's plan to wind up has been delayed because of the possibility of inclusion in a pending Australian class actionin connection with the Company's investment in R. M. Williams, a now defunct Australian agricultural company. TheCompany hopes to provide further details on this situation and its possible monetary ramifications for shareholders beforethe end of the year.

[zcaprd7] 03/8/2022 18:38

They're not using the rns system, as promised:Further to its 6 June 2022 announcement, Origo updates the market on a recent development that will affect the ?ming and amount of afinal shareholder distribu?on.As noted earlier, the Board and its administrator have been conduc?ng an intensive review of the Company's legacy investments, oneresult of which was the Six Waves mone?za?on and $1.7 million distribu?on earlier this year. As part of this review, the Company hasrecently learned of a pending class ac?on lawsuit that may lead to a further cash distribu?on to Origo. The Directors are now evalua?ngthe possibility of par?cipa?ng in this lawsuit and will update the market in due course.

[zcaprd7] 27/4/2022 19:30

Someone else had a punt...

[zcaprd7] 26/4/2022 09:50

Interesting now, has anyone done the maths?

[zcaprd7] 21/2/2022 16:16

Is it worth the trouble with that spread?

[bean02] 21/2/2022 13:47

Sold on the last spike .25:.3. Had a little back at half price. I'll wait ...

[zcaprd7] 17/2/2022 10:29

We keep getting told zero, and then this latest one came along, I dumped my holding into the latest twitter pump and dump, but keeping an eye on it.

[robizm] 10/2/2022 15:30

The previous managers were the worst crooks. 10 million invested and 200k back. What is left asset wise

[zcaprd7] 06/2/2022 18:27

Has it been pumped again?

[bean02] 04/2/2022 16:15

Blimey. Happy Friday :-D

[zcaprd7] 30/1/2022 23:52

After they've frittered most away on running costs, yes other holdings, also written off, and I suspect no more pleasant surprises amongst them... I wonder if they've dragged any of the money out of China yet?

[dennisbergkamp] 29/1/2022 15:52

So as shareholders, $420k will be split between us?

The market cap is £600k

Assume we have other holdings too

D

[dave4545] 29/1/2022 14:07

Sorry 80% you get the gist they get most of the loot.

[zcaprd7] 29/1/2022 12:57

Yes, 20/80 on the fisrt £15m from memory, and don't think we're close to the 15, interesting after having slagged off the holdings and written them down to zero, they get this out of the blue. I'd have assumed they'd have written to all the companies they held shares in, and asked if they'd like to buy them back?

[dave4545] 28/1/2022 08:59

Remember preference shares get 90% of any proceeds from sales

[patersonlee] 28/1/2022 08:55

Very quiet here. Interesting that the recently sold asset was considered worthless on the balance sheet but raised a pretty sum

[dave4545] 25/10/2021 09:06

Interesting looking at this now

The usual suspects the pump and dumpers all long gone and the price now down over 75% from the highs.

You warn people about the preference shares and got stick, and still they carry on from one stock to the next telling people how amazing they are then selling minutes later.

[zcaprd7] 04/6/2021 08:55

You are, no doubt, aware of the distribution ratio between the Prefs and the Ords?

[bean02] 04/6/2021 08:49

Stretching her legs now. Anything over £500 is .226

[bean02] 04/6/2021 08:04

Half their market cap. Sat here waiting on spike day :)

[zcaprd7] 19/4/2021 21:16

How can you remove the Prefs?

[alexios1201] 13/4/2021 12:57

Re same activity,Someone can pick the investment vehicle and continue trading as an investment vehicle Just need this Celadon sale to go through, distribute the cashRemove the prefsThis should clean the companyThis is my thinking, not sure how soon can this be done, someone with the corporate experience should know

[alexios1201] 13/4/2021 12:54

Sorry yesThey are incorporated in Isle of ManAppologies