Circassia Share Discussion Threads

[me me] 21/3/2005 20:16

Would be nice if this did a WNL. Small MCAP could well rocket on the next bit of news. Dident add today will take a look first thing.

[trevor1959] 21/3/2005 19:49

I've been in CIR for nearly 2 years now. One thing I do know is that this time last year a few trades of 10K or 20K in a day would have moved the price up substantially. 400K, whilst only being £25 Grands worth, is a big trade for CIR. And whoever it was paid 0.25p per share over the ask.
Something in my water tells me somethings going to happen soon enough.

[wolstenhulme] 21/3/2005 19:42

Whats going on here!

Volume of a few hundred quid in shares and then a 400,000 trade today.

Very strange - something going on behind the scenes maybe?

[trevor1959] 21/3/2005 16:03

Someone thinks they know something?
I'm surprised it hasn't caused a tick up.

[me me] 21/3/2005 15:57

Might add today

[nick] 21/3/2005 15:32

Somebody likes this co. - 400k trade above offer

[me me] 21/3/2005 15:32

400k @ 6.25p 0.25p above offer

[miamigo] 16/3/2005 17:15

This was posted on the WNL board. Looks like Phillipe is pretty busy at the moment. Not sure if any of these goings on will have any effect on CIR, but worth a read nontheless.


Drilling for Oil? Start Prospecting in London: Matthew Lynn
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Where is the best place in the world to look for oil?

Under the Indian Ocean? In some of the remote regions of Africa? Down around some of those countries with long, tricky-to- spell names that used to be part of the Soviet Union?

No. The best place to prospect for oil right now is London.

The London stock market is going through a speculative frenzy over oil exploration stocks. Investors are piling into stocks based on little more than rumors and hope. Shares are being sold on the back of the purported expertise of developers, not business plans.

Is this just another dot-com style bubble? Or is there a real investment opportunity underneath the hoopla and the hype?

For a flavor of oil mania 2005, here are two examples.

On March 14, Afren Plc., a new oil and gas company, listed its shares on the London exchange at 20 pence each. By lunchtime, they had jumped to more than 56 pence, almost tripling in just a few hours. The London-based company raised 8 million pounds ($15.3 million) in its initial public offering.

Afren has a starry pedigree. The directors include Rilwanu Lukman, a former president and secretary-general of OPEC. Another director, Egbert Imomoh, used to run the Nigerian operations of Royal Dutch/Shell Group. The company clearly has people on its team who know a lot about oil.

White Nile

Investors in White Nile, however, might regard those gains as relatively paltry. Last month, the company soared in value.

White Nile is an exploration company set up by the former England cricket star Phil Edmonds. Listed on the London market at the start of February, the shares increased more than 11-fold in a week before being suspended. The Financial Times reported that the U.K. Financial Services Authority was investigating the price surge, which came just before an announcement that White Nile had obtained a stake in an oil field in Sudan. The shares are still suspended.

There have been plenty of other spectacular gains. Centurion Energy International Inc., which develops oil assets in Tunisia, has seen its share price rise from just 52 pence in 2003 to a high of 780 pence last month. Desire Petroleum Plc has seen its shares soar from 22 pence last year to a peak of 67 pence this year, before falling back slightly.

In total, 24 new oil exploration and production companies have been listed in London in the last 12 months, according to research by Al Stanton, an analyst with Bridgewell Securities Ltd in London.

Another Prospectus

``Every day there is a thump on the door, and it's another oil company prospectus landing on the doormat,'' said Stanton in a telephone interview. ``Share prices are being pushed up very quickly, with what I suspect are thin volumes and a lot of trading from private investors. The man in the street could well get burned.''

The oil exploration frenzy is starting to show some spooky similarities to the dot-com bubble of five years ago.

Take companies such as Afren and White Nile.

They don't actually own any oil in the ground yet.

Afren has an agreement to take part in a field in Nigeria. The rest of the money raised from investors will be used make acquisitions.

Likewise White Nile. Again, no actual oil. At least not yet. According to a company statement, it was created ``to identify and acquire projects in the natural resources sector with particular emphasis on oil projects within Africa.''

Emphasis on Presentation

While oil exploration by its nature always has been somewhat of a guessing game and companies jumping into that world may go on to great things, many of the new companies seem to be as much about presentation as future production. There are few better illustrations of that than FirstAfrica Oil Plc. It actually used to be a public relations business called Financial Development Corporation Plc before a reverse takeover at the start of this year. It's now in the oil exploration industry (and had been rewarded with a tripling of its share price).

The prospects for small, nimble companies that are good at finding oil haven't looked better in years. The demand for oil has been rising strongly during the last two years, and so has the price. The oil giants need to replenish their reserves.

Unrealistic Expectations

It's not necessarily a bad thing that some oil companies are being floated on the backs of personalities. The oil industry depends on contacts as much as anything else. The more difficult the territory, the more important it is to know the right people. That may well be a crucial factor for success.

The trouble is, a genuine investment story is being over- hyped, just as it was in the technology bubble. The market is channeling investment into an industry that needs it. Yet it is also creating unrealistic expectations and a playground for speculators.

Very few of the technology companies that surfaced during that bubble actually went on to make any money, and the same will almost certainly be true of London's new wave of oil companies.



To contact the writer of this column:
Matthew Lynn in London at [e-mail].

[me me] 10/3/2005 14:22

Hang on in there and top up if you can ;-) not too long to wait now IMO

[topvest] 07/3/2005 21:38

Quiet today. See that CFM have announced a deal today. Phillipe must be busy at the mo!

[trevor1959] 07/3/2005 10:42

My trade not showing yet as bigger than NMS. I would expect a lot of delayed trades to show up later.

[trevor1959] 07/3/2005 10:08

Back in with 40K.

[me me] 07/3/2005 08:46

Hi
Nice and sunny in Cyprus. News later this week i think.
Hi share price what have you heard??? Text me anything new
thanks

[mohamed99] 07/3/2005 08:37

yap .going slowly but steady ..................

[seva] 07/3/2005 07:54

This could go to 8p today.Very positive.

[alia] 05/3/2005 10:57

need some i nformation about griffin clearing ,contacted me about a new floatation ,screen4health due out march 24 any 1 with any information about either comp plz topvest

[topvest] 05/3/2005 08:56

theberg - you've lost me!

[me me] 05/3/2005 08:12

sharecropper
You are right ;-)

[theberg] 05/3/2005 04:47

The sum for the word « CapricornResourcesPLC » of length 21 is 1506.

[sharecropper] 05/3/2005 00:31

I have posted this before - the rumour is that CIR will be receiving assets from its sister companies. But I heard that over 2 weeks ago. Then it tanked! Maybe something is now about to break.

[sharecropper] 05/3/2005 00:31

I have posted this before - the rumour is that CIR will be receiving assets from its sister companies. But I heard that over 2 weeks ago. Then it tanked! Maybe something is now about to break.

[thecynical1] 04/3/2005 17:06

oh dear now Superflyer has joined the club...looks like the COP gang have turned up over here to ramp this the same as they ramped COP...small world guys...eh Super...you complete w*nker!!!! ; )

[topvest] 04/3/2005 16:50

Yes, looks like some news may be close. Unfortunately, I am light on these after having sold most of mine. I'll be holding the rest, which were bought in the original offer for subscription.

[me me] 04/3/2005 16:35

This looks good was expecting to see a T trade sell but we don't have one. Looks ok for Monday