Avanti Capital Share Discussion Threads

[banj] 29/10/2003 05:06

agree - get the muppets out of the boardroom ..quickly

[growbag] 28/10/2003 10:48

Well - Galloway did sell out their holding to Laxey as was speculated above. No more interest from Jim Mellon. Hardly surprising I suppose following the Po Na Na deal - ECI is no longer a virtual cash shell. The big question now is whether Laxey are going to pop up the rest of the stock they need to takeover the company. It wouldn't do the short term share price any harm - its dropping like a stone - as only ECI can.

[washbrook] 27/10/2003 02:40

rodders14.
I am well aware of that.
The share topped out at £22.52 on 12.1.2000,a drop of 92.8%.

[rodders14] 25/10/2003 21:43

They are not taking the share consolidation into account, although the 5500% rise looks good

[washbrook] 24/10/2003 18:24

How can Avanti Cap be up with Advfn,the stock is down 6.7% on the day

[phil7c] 24/10/2003 16:12

I don't know about Cambury but I still hold the original ECI certificates - AVA certs were not issued to pre-takeover shareholders as the price = the existing market cap etc etc.

[reflectivetrevor] 24/10/2003 11:58

Help pls

I have just found a share certificate for Cambury investments and also for e-capital. Could someone tell me if these are still valid as i don't seem to have received a replacement Avanti cetificate.

Thanks

[touch2002] 24/10/2003 09:14

Is the spread now effectively 2.83 - 3.05?

Thats some mark up?

touch

[bagshaw] 24/10/2003 08:40

Id just like to say a big well done (and thank you) to business link for highlighting these, I said on the 9th October I planned to be in and out inside 2 weeks with 30% (in my dreams!) but I beat that.

Cheers Pat, regards to he folks

Tony

[banj] 23/10/2003 22:21

me too growbag-

hope the muppets that pass for 'Directors' are sweating loads -

the gravy train is almost over a chaps, time to find another meal ticket -

come on Laxey, take this over, wind it up and return the cash to us shareholders

[wstirrup] 23/10/2003 21:59

Is this a case of...JOHN SIZE fits all? :¬))

[growbag] 23/10/2003 18:56

Not sure markfriend. It could be because of the share consolidation -

A vulture fund - well £$%^ me!

Laxey - that is a turn up out of the blue. If they own almost 20% of the stock, do Galloway still own their 25% or so????? Or did Laxey buy the Galloway stake - ? This could be interesting. Judging by the timing of the 17% increase in the share price, it was not the Laxey announcement that started this off - at least not in an obvious way. But whywould Laxey buy so much stock just prior to the share consolidation - what was the hurry?

Was it because Galloway wanted to offload theirs?

If Galloway still hold their stock they have enough between them to take control of the company - hello?

The shares should now trade close to £1.80 after the consolidation -

Following Laxey's track record they will look to breakup the company - I'm not sure this is a good thing at this point if this Po Na Na jolly works out Avanti can cash in as a growth and recovery play.

But still - I've lost so much on this one I couldn't give a toss. I'm just enjoying the show! :-)

[markfriend] 23/10/2003 16:28

I tried to add to my "expensive" long term holding and got a message that trading was suspended on this stock. Anybody know why?

[jeffian] 23/10/2003 14:23

Laxey's eh? As I said in post 54 above "If the shares trade at a discount to cash, what can they do for you that you couldn't do for yourself if they liquidated the company and gave you your cash back? This is exactly what ADVARC did to Lupus Capital and this one looks like a candidate for similar treatment." A number of us small shareholders tried to pushh for this in ECI days but couldn't get enough 'muscle' together, but Laxey's should do the trick!

Regards, Ian

[bbinvest] 23/10/2003 13:39

Thanks for that, vatattack

[vatattack] 23/10/2003 12:47

Laxey Partners roams the globe in search of big discounts to asset values.


FORBES GLOBAL last encountered Laxey Partners, the scourge of underperforming traded funds, in April as they were nipping at the R.O.C. Taiwan Fund. Principals Colin Kingsnorth and Andrew Pegge target closed-end funds whose shares trade at significant discounts to their assets' value.

Laxey failed to unseat Michael Ding, the R.O.C. Taiwan Fund manager, at the annual meeting in June. Meanwhile, it recently abandoned a raid on British Land, an operating company, after other shareholders showed little inclination to support a breakup.

Far from retreating to lick its wounds, Laxey has launched a spate of new attacks. It is all over the map: Targets this summer include funds investing in Russia, Chile and Britain. Past portfolios in its sights have ranged from the ASEAN nations to Cuba.

Kingsnorth, 39, has the air of a thinking man's pirate, the kind Johnny Depp might play. Rather than preying on merchant vessels, he and his crew are after the "tribute" that holders of so many closed-end funds (or investment trusts, as they are called in the U.K.) must pay in the form of a discount to net-asset value.

If, for example, a fund with 1 million shares has a portfolio worth $20 million and its shares trade at $19 each, then the discount is 5%. Closed-ends often do trade at discounts of 15% to 25%. Part of the reason reflects the expense of running a fund, says Kingsnorth. Most of the rest is explained by the market perception of the manager: One who seems able to do well is accorded a premium that can wipe out all or part of the fees, while less-well-regarded managers see their funds trade at deeper discounts.

If the discount gets wider than 10%, it can make sense to close a fund or change its structure. Closed-end funds have attractions compared with other kinds of collective investments--managers go to work knowing the size of their portfolios every day, for one thing, not the case in an open-ended mutual fund--but these charms begin to pale when you can't get out of an investment for at least 90 cents on the dollar.

Laxey, Kingsnorth says, is out to ensure that in such cases portfolio managers cash out their shareholders at or near the net-asset value rather than keep troubled funds going just so they can get their fees. Professional gadflies like Laxey usually take a stake in a fund sporting a deep discount and then agitate for change.

One tactic is to get a fund to liquidate, either by selling the securities it holds and giving the cash to investors or distributing the portfolio directly to the shareholders. Another is to change to an open-end fund, so that the sponsor buys and sells shares at the net-asset value, automatically eliminating the discount. If enough shareholders decide they want out, then the fund is forced partly or wholly to liquidate itself.

A hybrid approach is to allow those shareholders who want to cash out at or near net-asset value to do so, while the rest--if there are any--maintain their investments. This is what Kingsnorth says he would do if the attack against the R.O.C. Taiwan Fund were successful.

[tony14] 23/10/2003 12:45

RNS Number:2340R
Laxey Partners Ltd
23 October 2003

FORM SAR 3


Date of disclosure...23 October 2003...

DISCLOSURE UNDER RULE 3 OF THE RULES GOVERNING
SUBSTANTIAL ACQUISITIONS OF SHARES ("SARs")


Date of acquisition.......22 October 2003...................................

Acquisition in............Avanti Capital Plc...............(name of company)


(1) Class of voting shares Number of shares/rights If rights over shares
(eg ordinary shares) over shares acquired acquired, as opposed
to the shares
themselves, specify
nature of rights

.....Ordinary Shares.. ...79,300,335...shares .....N/a.............
...N/A..........rights


(2) Resultant total holding Resultant total holding Total percentage
of voting shares (and % of rights over shares
of total voting shares (and % of total voting
in issue) shares in issue)

...118,300,335...(19.07%) ...............( %) .............(19.07%)


(3) Party making disclosure...............Laxey Partners Limited............

(4) (a) Name of person acquiring shares or rights over shares ...Various
discretionary managed accounts under the management of Laxey Partner
(UK) Ltd.........

and, if different, beneficial owner...............................

(b) Names of any other persons acting by
agreement or understanding (see SAR 5)............................


Signed, for and on behalf of the party named in (3) above...................

(Also print name of signatory)........Christopher Bruce.....................

Telephone and extension number........01624 690904..........................

Note. Under SAR 5, the holdings of and acquisitions by persons acting by
agreement or understanding must be aggregated and treated as a holding of or
acquisition by one person. Note 3 on SAR 5 requires persons who must aggregate
holdings to disclose certain disposals.

For full details of the SARs disclosure requirements, see Rules 3 and 5 of the
SARs. If in doubt, contact the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers, Monitoring
Section, Tel. No: 020 7638 0129.


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

[business link] 22/10/2003 23:26

Well well,

Looks as if there is about to be a little more action from this dark horse.

Who would have thought it?

[jeffian] 22/10/2003 19:32

I slightly talked myself out of my main point. A £20m 'niche' investment bank (or whatever they call themselves these days) is very small beer. What do you think that they can achieve with your money that you can't do for yourselves (less management overhead, too)? You wanna invest in late night bars etc.? Well do it! You don't need these goons to go around 'cherry-picking' bust outfits.

As for the latest share transactions, something may well be going on but whether it's to the advantage of anyone here (as opposed to those somewhat closer to the boardroom table), I'd have my doubts!

Regards, Ian

[mart] 22/10/2003 17:38

fur, nice line in irony :-) Concur with jeffian about the view of the achievement of the board. BUT, what is going on? Something is up, so to speak.

[fur] 22/10/2003 16:23

12.7% of the issued share capital changed hands.

[fur] 22/10/2003 16:16

Excuse me ? has anyone noticed the small buy?

[jeffian] 22/10/2003 16:11

Regardless of what you think about the qualities of the Directors (and my opinion was pretty low in ECI days based on attendance at a few AGM's and what they actually managed to achieve with our money), the question I would ask myself is 'why does it take a high-powered board of Directors, duly 'incentivised' with warrants, to manage a measly £20m or so?'. If the shares trade at a discount to cash, what can they do for you that you couldn't do for yourself if they liquidated the company and gave you your cash back? This is exactly what ADVARC did to Lupus Capital and this one looks like a candidate for similar treatment. I put that point to the Chairman at an AGM in ECI days when the shares traded at a 40% discount to cash and he said they had lots of ideas in the pipeline and if I didn't like it I should take my money and invest it elsewhere - which is what I did reluctantly (I don't usually like selling £1 for 60p!) - but have happily done rather better than them with it!

As for knowing anything about running 'nite spots' - if 'playboys' Aspinall and Bilton are still on the board here (?), be aware that having a detailed knowledge from a customer's point of view does not necessarily qualify you to understand the finances of these things as an investor (otherwise George Best would be Chairman of Mitchells & Butler). The managed bar/nitespot sector is notoriously fashion-led with an insecure customer base and the sector is strewn with the wreckage of those who've tried. There must be an evens chance this lot will join 'em - with your money!

Regards, Ian