Gran Tierra Energy Share Discussion Threads

[deanroberthunt] 18/2/2011 13:28

thought Simon C said this was a bargain at 30p....lol

[minky65] 18/2/2011 10:56

will there be a final twist ? There have not been as many sells as you would expect from a company that is going the way of Lord Lucan.

[bozzy_s] 17/2/2011 02:16

Big thanks to the bears who posted after the initial announcement re. sale of aviation business. You saved me a fortune!

I notice that renound pump and dumpers held on a bit longer. That's why most people lose on AIM stocks. They're rose-tinted, and can't accept a contrary opinion.

I agree totally with Loverat. AIM investing is very, very profitable if you use your own eyes, ears and brains, and ignore idiots on BBs. There are so many good AIM companies out there. GTE seems to be a bad egg, whatever market it was traded on.

The bleedin' obvious is to look for companies which make a profit every year, and have been trading for a long time. Look for strong asset-rich balance sheets without too much debt.

Then look at ownership. Some companies are 50%+ owned by the directors. Look at what that could mean for minority shareholders.

Some companies are overloaded with debt (GTE an example). Look at how the bond-holders, debtors, could possibly force a debt-for-equity swap to become majority shareholders - and as a result vote their own proposals through and eliminate minority holders. Even if the assets, technology, and trading seem ok.

It's not rocket science. It takes about 30 minutes to research these per stock.


Hope GTE works out ok in the long run for the minority shareholders. I remember OCZ delisting 2 years ago. It relisted on Nasdaq last year and has 100-bagged since announcing it's plan to leave AIM! 5p to $8.00.

Difference is they swapped to enhance shareholder value. GTE is delisting, it seems, to transfer all value to 'insiders'

[999rp] 16/2/2011 21:56

I feel the same pirion1950, surely there is something going on with the company and inside dealing. i have lost money on this and am not happy, even though its a risky buisness tradign shares but this is criminal.
anybody got any good ideas how to uncover whats happened to this company.?regars
99rp

[bookiebuster] 16/2/2011 21:35

The casino comparison gives casinos a bad name. They both attract mug punters but a casino at least has a fixed set of rules for how it operates. With AIM there are no hard and fast rules. If directors want to take the PI to the cleaners they can easily maneuver around the rules & regs as they've done here

If I may offer my own allusion; AIM is like a game of pin the tail on the donkey

Spot the PI

[deanroberthunt] 16/2/2011 20:04

a rigged casino

[loverat] 16/2/2011 19:01

There is no trust whatsover left in AIM. There hasn't been for years.

It has been called a 'casino' and I will continue to use it as such. The odds are actually quite good when you find your way around.

[minky65] 16/2/2011 18:56

Pirion - I couldnt agree more , its criminal.

[pirion1950] 16/2/2011 18:31

I cannot but feel that there has been some big inside manipulations here. The company has money to pay off the first note with the money they received from the aviation sale. However they choose to wait until the note is in default (Feb 15) and announce the conversion route, which in effect gives the note holders the company, with nothing over for common share holders. This in my mind has been planned between the Management and the Note Holders, which makes it a Inside Tansaction under the Insider Trading Act and is unlawfull. This is not only imoral but must also be illegal. I wish Financial Times could get hold of this unless they already have. The Management, Board and Note Holders should be investigated, if any trust in the market and AIM in particular shall remain.
P

[minky65] 16/2/2011 17:58

They can , but what happens then? IMO the BOD have done some back room deal with the II's ,just watch this company suddenly prosper once they have gone private.

[yasx] 16/2/2011 15:19

Albertedwin,

Thank you for that.

Making a mistake is not a bad thing - repeating the mistake certainly is.

Good luck.

[deanroberthunt] 16/2/2011 15:01

Simon, good call, does 30p look low now....aint hindsight wonderful

[6kenny] 16/2/2011 14:30

you guys should lodge complaints with the FSA and FOS and if enough of you do it, it may spark an investigation?

[deanroberthunt] 16/2/2011 14:27

all shareholders are equal but some are more equal than others

[mikeja] 16/2/2011 12:57

It would be of interest to know the relationship between management and the Loan holders.The terms they have been offered are utterly ridiculous.Perhaps Mr Grant found a horses head in his bed.Certainly the management have done their best to shaft shareholders to benefit the Loan Holders.Time for the FSA to take an interest.

[albertedwin] 16/2/2011 11:49

yasX: Many thanks for your helpful and constructive post 2569. I fully accept your comments in the spirit in which they are intended. On this bright new day there is obviously no purpose in musing on the misgivings of the past and/or pursuing fruitless complaints. Risks were taken in the knowledge of adverse circumstances and matters have turned out against holders. The very substantial losses incurred combined with clear lessons to be learned will henceforth provide the primary stimulus while seeking out sounder, and hopefully very much more profitable, "pastures new" !

[nick rubens] 16/2/2011 10:10

Can't shareholders vote against this?

[minky65] 16/2/2011 07:08

could not agree more , were being screwed.

[6kenny] 15/2/2011 22:25

boohkoh,

NO ..COMPLETELY WRONG, the game is up here, pack up and move on. May I pass on my sincerest sorrow for all of you who continued to hold GTE shares.

yasX, your post above reminds me all too much of ANGM....gold next month, then next month, then next month, then we forgot a part for the machine, then gold next month.

I sold both ANGM and GTE some 2-3 weeks ago and piled into KEFI.

Good luck all of you with your future investment decisions, to think this was touching 8p not so long ago...

Shameful, absolutely shameful....

[boonkoh] 15/2/2011 22:10

I've just thought about it through some more, and I have an interesting twist:

The $17m raised from the sale of the aviation business hasn't been used to pay down the loan notes right? Am I right in assuming that the A, B, C loan notes will convert to preference shares, AND GTE now have $15m cash to use?

If so, then if you think about it, the company really only has to be sold for $13m (well, technically sold for $30m but actually buyer would pay $13m as $17m cash pile), which on a revenue of $40m isn't all that inconceivable.

Any amount above $30m will be distributed to common shareholders, at at current prices market cap is around £1.5-£2m, which is rather cheap. I think that GTE, with its $17m cash pile now, should fetch around $40-$50m at least.

However, I'm mulling selling my shares as I don't want to have to keep track of illiquid unlisted shares.

[yasx] 15/2/2011 21:27

Alberedwin,

Referencing your post 2561.

I sympathise with your stance, given that, by your own admission, you held the shares for a considerable while, hoping those at the helm would steer the ship away from rocky waters.

There is a harsh lesson to be learned here - blaming the regulatory environment might arguably have some merit, but the real lesson is that one only ought to back good management. This is not as easy as it sounds, since some of those running this outfit have credible backgrounds. But, when the disappointing releases started to appear a year or two ago, investors ought to have cut their losses and only retunred if and when a demonstrable and sustained turnaround showed. It did not, and at the end of the year when I looked in, the balance sheet looked a mess, and I only perused a few of the releases from the past year and the whole thing did not seem right to me - cash burn, the issue of D Loan notes, the garbled RNS in Decemebr and the rest.

I hope you are able to absorb the loss and live to fight another day. Your support for the company has, in one sense, been admirable, but in my experience if the Board of Directors repeatedly let investors down, it is time to cut and run, irrespective of the potential of the company concerned. If, as happens occasionally, they change their spots, then you can change with them. But to back them despite the obvious failures borders on recklessness. The features of these types of outfits are all too similar - huge cash burn, continually tapping investors for cash, poor cashflow, irregular updates, excuses for poor performance, endless promises of jam tomorrow and the rest.

I hope you embrace this comment in the manner intended - for the avoidance of doubt, it is not intended as criticism.


All the best.