Bnp Agrin Share Discussion Threads

[carly2] 11/3/2005 09:03

So why don't we club together and approach the administrator and buy the assets and trade of the company on the cheap - beat someone else to it!!

[drewz] 10/3/2005 18:39

So near, yet so far...

[lord r] 10/3/2005 16:50

Finance for the Ghana project was allegedly coming from the Nordic Development Fund.

Can't see the Malaysians buying ATL as there are too many lawsuits to fight-against ex-directors & the main supplier, as well as the millions of dollars RAMAR owe to creditors.I'm sure they would LOVE to get their hands on the technology though.

No action will be taken by the regulators.All directors who are probably culpable have resigned and current directors will claim they are the ones who rescued the Company from Administration last summer.

Can we get the views from any other ATL employees please.

[richpoorkid] 10/3/2005 15:49

For what it's worth, I contacted the FSA late last year and stated my belief that the Company had been acting fraudulently. I was told that an investigation would take place. We shall see if it indeed has/does begin...

[foreigner] 10/3/2005 15:13

Please , please , please listen to Poobah on the Ghana issue. I am in complete agreement. This is a good idea that could be made to work and sold given the necessary professional marketing and sales effort. If anyone has any influence do not let the IPR go cheaply to Malaysia. Although I fully expect this to happen.

Thinks !!! They (the Malaysians)visited ATR not 2 weeks ago. I wonder why, given recent events? Or is that a conspiracy theory too far.

[carly2] 10/3/2005 14:53

Does administration mean they will run the trade to generate cash to pay off the charge - or is the administrator simply charged with selling the trade to repay the charged liability?

[edmondj] 10/3/2005 14:43

LOL, maybe if people post energetically like this all afternoon, it will revive the patient on its death bed!

[edmondj] 10/3/2005 14:25

British Bear,

It is the old dilemma of do you draw 'insight' from what directors and managers tell you - no, swear to you is the case - versus blunt 'insight' from what the share price is telling you. Both ways can prove right and wrong, on different occasions. This is what makes the investment game so compelling: like seduction there are no firm rules.

When are you alleging I have 'tipped' this share? It was years ago, so many I have lost count. Life moves on. More recently one was being pressurised to update and give a view when the shares were soaring; although I noted it I held well back from recommending a buy. I have stated plainly here (in the form of a question because I am legally identifiable) 'can this company survive for another AGM?' Honestly I don't find I have been ignorant of the risks.

Are you next going to cane me for not being clever enough to sell out, into the 40p + strength a year ago, on the directors' statements it was all coming good?! At least unlike the Universities Superannuation Scheme I was not buying then. You would think these people were being given the 'best possible' information.

[carly2] 10/3/2005 14:05

When I spoke to Greg Morgan recently, he said that whilst development costs had been stopped on the Ghana project, it was the case that it could be rolled out as and when Ghana wanted it without any further cost.

What do people think of the administrators- are they likely to make a better job of running it? Is their brief to generate cash from operation to pay off the charge (presumably the old supplier?). Maybe they could generate a profit where all others failed!!

Is it possible that AVT went into administration - rather than liquidation- a pointer to the possibility that it could be a profitable business

Could Ghana yet materalise even with AVT in administration?

[britishbear] 10/3/2005 12:51

At least EJ had the civility to post on this board again. He states he did not sell any so must have taken a pretty large hit on this - I would expect 5 figures.

It just seems that there was SO much wrong with this company (from the insiders) that it is amazing that someone like EJ cannot get to this information.

It is true that most of us have only lost a small percentage of our portfolios but many have lost their jobs.

Still leaves a bitter taste.

EJ losing the Telegraph gig is unlikely to be due to AVT although it could not have helped. It is one thing tipping a compnay where the share price goes down but few get it so spectacularly wrong so the company goes BUST.

[lord r] 10/3/2005 12:16

Edmond

Welcome back!This share has been an expensive ride for many of us including you but at least it has been interesting.

I assume the demise of ATL coinciding with the end of your Telegraph column is purely chance?

Surely recent events give Central Millenium and their far eastern friends the chance to buy this Company for a snip?

[bill.slygo] 10/3/2005 08:19

Company in crisis...workers unpaid...and the "Hands on" Chair ( Remember that one !!) was on the ski slopes of Canada...Whoever told that buffoon he could run a company? Stand UP!! Peter hibbit, Finn and Ruegg and Co.

[foreigner] 10/3/2005 08:01

BY the way. Mr Morgan is strangely silent. Has he run for cover or what ?

[edmondj] 10/3/2005 07:21

Well, I was one of those trying to get the required clean boardroom sweep - goodness, was it nearly four years ago? The City brokers intervened because it all wouldn't have looked too good apparently, but look what we have: a case study in inept management, money down the drain, but above all a once exciting company lost.

I'd spurred quite enough in the public press and expressed my indignation along the way (so far as was possible without impacting on the group commercially, but that accusation was still thrown at me) while continuing to support this company repeatedly with my own money. There has been no cutting and running or dumping, on my part, just a great deal of time engaged over the years and repeated assurances from directors that the sunny uplands were just around the corner. Even at last summer's EGM, when I pinpointed the quality issues and were US customers now satisfied, it was insisted so.

Call me an idiot if you like, British Bear, I've done my best to try and see this company succeed.

Time to move on...

[car973] 10/3/2005 07:13

Bet there's been a lot shredding going on recently

[denethor] 10/3/2005 02:55

--Test: please ignore--

[stu31] 10/3/2005 01:53

Lets kneecap the lot of them!

[bill.slygo] 10/3/2005 00:21

MERLIN you are correct in all that you say. I campaigned on this BB from last June through till the AGM to have the whole of the ATL senior management removed
When it became clear that they intended to hang on I called for an EGM which would effectively have forced their hand as they would not have wanted to face public scrutiny of aspects of their accounting and management. I was not successful because in large part people were persuaded that Morgan had the right stuff to bring the company around. The truth is of course that Morgan phoned influential people to reassure them and to ask them not to support the EGM..."Don't rock the boat" etc. But the fact is that they were terified at the prospect of an EGM and what its consequences might be for them.Not only were the clowns running this company incompetent they were possibly criminally so.I once described them as being "gangsters in suits", is there anybody now who would want to disagree?.......There was always the suspicion that they had paid out bonuses ahead of earning them as a means of purchasing shares in the company---a highly dubious arrangement!! You will know from the Annual report that information on salaries and other payments is not detailed.You will also know that one Spottiswoode ( that over bloated and prening ego)was head of the Remuneration Cttee. Has anybody stopped to consider why it took so long for ATL to clean out the stables last year!! Heads should have rolled in the first week. It was many months before Howell went.....one can picture it so clearly "why me? you're.. just as responsible" Did he threaten to expose them all?
What exactly were the details of his severance? A man whose feet should not have touched the floor took 3 months to leave and recieved a financial hand- shake to soften his pain. And Spottiswoode one of the architects of the collapse was considered essential to the future of ATL....the truth is that she knew the facts, and the salient fact was that as Chair Morgan was ultimately responsible....a case of push me and I'll push you .
And they have not been paying the workers wages ...the very workers who have invested their savings in the company.How contemptible. In view of what Merlin has posted and considering what we know and suspect then I believe that these people can be brought to account..they must be....These matters must now be brought to the attention of the regulatory authorities....in the old days my brothers and I might have settled for giving them a mouthful of liverpool dandruff...times change but the need for an accounting remains

[car973] 09/3/2005 23:40

Poobah, tell us about Ghana. Was this hyped or what??