Mercantile Ports & Logis... Share Discussion Threads

[pj 1] 30/8/2017 14:04

Andrew Henderson- Id be tempted to substitute ''contracted'' for ''worked''

[tyranosaurus] 30/8/2017 13:39

Andrew Henderson - chief financial officer has worked at MPL for a year.

John Fitzgerald - non executive director - worked alongside MPL director Peter Jones in the past.

These two appointments are not going to rock the boat as they must know what is going on.
Probably well rewarded for their silence.

[mount teide] 30/8/2017 11:02

Another day, and Cenkos once again ploughing a lone furrow hard on the bid in a vain attempt to prop up the share price spike.

Good luck to their clients - bravely taking exposure to AIM's only falling knife welded to a 2 tonne anvil!

[pj 1] 29/8/2017 12:22

I was 'scammed' by SID a few years ago and lost 100%, and took a hit on QPP. Its very easy to make oneself look very stupid with hindsight.

[my retirement fund] 29/8/2017 12:15

fft okay thanks for your point. To be fair it is not very honourable poking fun at others whom had fallen in on this scam. MT is right that anyone can be scammed and fall for the false realities that the scammer creates.Non of us should lose sight of that fact. All that matters are that potential victims are warned about this company and that those with some responsibilities for allowing the scam to persist including accounting firms, regulators and stockmarket officials are continuously pressured to stop such activities from being allowed to continue.

[mount teide] 29/8/2017 11:46

"extras on Game of Thrones?" subcontracting out our 400 to 500 strong workforce? Like most shareholders i'd like to know where they actually are, because one thing we do know is they're not onsite at Karanja !

According to an Operations Manager at JNPT, for a marine construction project that is an order of magnitude greater than Karanja in terms of the technical engineering, ITD has never had more than 200 workers on site at any one time during the build out of the entire 225 acre, 1,000m container terminal 4, for which the main marine engineering construction work is due for completion in just 2 years

Which puts into stark perspective Gandhi's comments in H1/2014 that onsite land reclamation was progressing well at Karanja and the Contractor would in a few months have on site between 400 and 500 workers - a total lie. There was NO LAND RECLAMATION UNDERWAY AND NOT A SINGLE WORKER ON SITE and, THIS WOULD REMAIN THE CASE FOR ANOTHER 6 MONTHS due to a 50m wide fast flowing tidal creek blocking all access to the site.

At Karanja, apart from MPL's stage managed photoshoots - i doubt there has rarely been more than 30 workers on site at any time since construction began, for it to be consistent with Google Earth historic images and any objective examination of the progress achieved to date.

AIMHO/DYOR

[pj 1] 29/8/2017 11:02

Maybe the thrice ''mobilised workforce'' were the extras on Game of Thrones?

[fft] 29/8/2017 10:58

I should mention that the main reason both NEDs were called was to make sure that the aerial photos were actually of the right location. The RNS had indicated hundreds of workers and progress, so it was confusing to find land that matched the Allenby note with a net and various fishing boats still in situ. It was then it became apparent that all was not as it should be....

[fft] 29/8/2017 10:53

MRF,You may find that the people who paid for the plane also hired people to go in on the ground to take photos. Both NEDs were called before the photos were published. One said running the company was nothing to do with NEDs (!) and the other asked for all the photos, expressed his unhappiness and promised to investigate. It was obvious that neither NED had been to the location to check on whether progress that had been reported in previous RNS's was true or not. Neither had the nomad, advisors, brokers etc.

[my retirement fund] 29/8/2017 09:47

PJ1 there was more than one poster who went to the trouble of getting the site photographed. The one I have in mind was taken on foot rathet than aerial.It was possible to ascertain the accuracy of the site by a couple of contractor signs and a cheap access bridge to the site that they had built which was very clearly a total embarrassment to what had been claimed by management.

[mount teide] 29/8/2017 09:15

Predictably, Cenkos have been hard on the bid this morning desperately trying to prop the price up.

[pj 1] 29/8/2017 09:08

My Retirement Fund
29 Aug '17 - 08:15 - 790 of 792    0   2

That's only partly true. The initial photos did show what you claim, however we were not 100% sure the Photos had been taken in the right area. It was only when a respected poster from the thread managed to overlay an aerial photo onto google earth, and 2 different sets of 'ground' photos were compared, that we knew for definite we had the correct Port area.

Initially on the first 'sortee' the Pilot didn't get the correct area

[mount teide] 29/8/2017 09:04

Fraud can catch anyone out - ask probably the best fund manger in the city over the last two decades Anthony Bolton, who twice invested in foreign based companies when running his hugely successful Fidelity Special Situations Fund only to find years later neither company actually existed.


The site photos were either fake or the management had been lying repeatedly via company statements and verbal communication on an industrial scale - further research confirmed the photos were not fake.

Considering the enormous commercial success of the JNPT container terminals, the commercial prospects for a specialist break bulk/general cargo /ro-ro terminal equivalent on the Uran Peninsula is extremely sound - as its inevitable most of the 60m tonnes of cargo annually handled through Mumbai's Indira terminals will eventually migrate to the Uran Peninsula WHEN, a Port operator develops the terminal infrastructure and approach channel depths to attract the ship owners and managers currently operating dozens of liner services to the 30 odd Indira Harbour Terminals.

Back in 2014, at an 80% discount to the IPO price, although an investment in MPL had the potential to make a good return, it still carried considerable risk, should the inexperienced executive management, take the wrong decision as to the Terminal's specification, optimum use and target traffic.

I posted at the outset, that the professional experience of the SPL management left a lot to be desired but, we were prepared to overlook this major red flag on the basis that;

The port design and build out were being carried out by reputable marine engineering organisations, that were known to us - Royal Haskoning and ITD Cementation (Royal Haskoning has since disappeared without trace along with their design to be replaced by a low build cost, poorly designed, draft restricted, high operating cost coaster and barge terminal)

There was a £57m fixed price contract for the land reclamation, quay construction, approach channel and harbour dredging - the overwhelming majority of the build costs.( build cost to date is £96m for not even 50% completion of the terminal)

The port was strategically located from a road, sea and rail perspective to benefit from the inevitable migration of general cargo/ro-ro/break bulk cargoes from the old Indira Harbour terminals to the Uran Peninsula over the decades ahead. (remains the case)

We felt, provided:

The inexperienced management did nothing more than ensure Royal Haskoning's port design specification and dredging plans for the access channel and berth pocket were adhered to. (they failed to do this, changing the terminal specification to a much lower spec and then having the gall to suggest it would cost at least 40% more to build)

The port construction timetable kept on or close to schedule and budget, which should have included a 15% contingency allowance for general cost overruns. (MPL is now in year 5 of construction and still not yet reclaimed 50% of the 200 acres of land)

The experienced NEDS did their job and provided quality oversight. (with the share price falling 97% since IPO and an emergency cash raise at a 96% discount to the IPO price - clearly, their huge industry experience and contribution has served shareholders extremely well, as they saunter off into the sunset with £750k of shareholders funds collectively in their pockets)

An experienced Ports Sector professional was appointed to run the terminal (shareholders should not hold their breath)

Then this new port development would have good prospects of becoming a commercial success - and offer a potentially attractive risk/reward investment at a share-price in the 50p-60p region.


Unfortunately, following commencement of the build out, the passage of time slowly revealed the executive management had failed completely to carry out its responsibilities with respect to managing the port development project in a professional and commercial manner.

Cash burn - we could not and still cannot in any way reconcile the physical progress made with the totally implausible level of cash burn - it simply makes no sense.(which is why no port operator was prepared to offer an alternative route to the massive shareholder dilution of the £37m cash raise at a 96% discount to the IPO price, by taking a financial interest in the project).

Construction timetable - every construction progress target set by management subsequently proved to be a work of fiction.

Materially important claims were made by management in RNS that were subsequently shown to be untrue - laughably, in some instances by subsequent photographic and written statements unwittingly provided by the clueless, hugely incompetent executive management. (why did the NEDS let them do this? - since both NED's have done a runner after pocketing £750k between them during the last 7 years for doing lord knows what, shareholders will probably now never know!)

The executive chairman having a recent history of settling one high level investigation by regulatory authorities for insider dealing via an out of court settlement made highly concerning reading. Then to be the subject of writs for allegedly siphoning off tens of £millions of shareholders funds out of a company he had executive responsibility for, into companies owned by him and his family made extremely disturbing reading, considering our inability to reconcile the very high level of cash burn in MPL with the shocking pace of construction progress. Once this news became public knowledge, together with the fact Gandhi failed to step down immediately to clear his name, in our opinion, this alone made the company completely un-investible.

AIOHO/DYOR

[my retirement fund] 29/8/2017 08:15

Did you see the post where he was really bullish and some one had taken the trouble to pay a local to take some photos. The board had been banging the drum for a few years about the excellent construction progress being made.Anyway the poster kindly published his photo's for all to see and it showed the site virtually untouched scrub land except where a few local folk had made themselves a football field with a couple of makeshift goalposts.The was funny. MT went silent for a week or so then came back suggesting the photos may be fake.

[beeks of arabia] 28/8/2017 11:31

In fairness, looking back at the SPL thread, MT went away for a year and on his first post back stated he had sold and warned people - this was well before the last fundraising.

I'm happy to admit I was wrong - he's called it spot on.

[mount teide] 27/8/2017 12:21

Global Port Holdings - operator of cruise ship port terminals in the Mediterranean - IPO'd in May @740p a share raising £73m.

Results issued last week shows the impact that a large debt can have on company valuations in the sector, should a business report falling revenue and cash flow, particularly straight after IPO.

Global's share-price has fallen 30% in the three months since IPO.

As posted at the time, thought Global was fully valued at the IPO price considering the information made available to prospective investors, and the fact the cruise market has performed extremely well over the last 2 years and now looks toppy.

Despite the share price fall, with Global still trading on a rather rich multiple of 16 times latest forecast earnings; higher than global peer DP World (I hold) at 15 times, further share price weakness is likely, particularly with its large exposure to an area of the Mediterranean which continues to experience heightened geopolitical risk.

AIMHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 27/8/2017 10:58

Indeed waterloo - a billion new shares at 5p to sort out the crippling bank debt would be the work of financial genius.

If the ever scheming white collar criminal and his shameless "i earned millions in my last job, so i don't need to take this sh*t from MPL shareholders" frontman went down that route, the best advice anyone could give to those foolish enough to consider supporting it, would be to go to Las Vegas and throw everything onto a single number on the roulette wheel, because that would offer a far better chance of seeing the return of their money, never mind some profit on it.

AIOHO/DYOR

[diku] 27/8/2017 10:11

Anybody see another name change coming?...

[keith95] 27/8/2017 09:56

Mount Teide:

I thought I was filtered - Never mind.

"You may live in hope with your investments, we use in-depth research and long senior management industry experience"

I struggle to understand if "we" refers to multiple personalities existing in the same small brain - well if the head is big plenty of room for many small personalities I suppose ...

... but it strikes me, that this "in-depth" research might have picked up problems before investing, or indeed wondered about a "cartoon" web site home page and/or many issues before investing.


One can't have it both ways with others in terms of an argument - but one can argue for oneself that another is both crooked, incompetent, inexperienced, while inappropriately appointed because they lacked knowledge for a job at hand if one wishes ....

.. but no-one else will believe that person because of the inconsistent rants.


So goodbye to all the personalities of the one and have a good day.


I need to buy more popcorn :)

[diku] 27/8/2017 09:50

Morale of story is any project Gandhi is involved in one should Short it...easy money!!...No Advice Intended...DYOR!...

[mount teide] 27/8/2017 09:42

Regarding our investment in SPL/MPL - we set out what we considered to be a compelling risk/reward for an investment at an 80% discount to the IPO share price - when the facts changed, like all sensible investors, we reviewed the investment accordingly.

As everyone now knows, following commencement of the build out the facts completely changed for the worse, exposing the Executive Management as liars, who brazenly used Company Statements to mislead investors; which is Fraud by False Representation according to the London Stock Exchange Rules and Regulations. Hence our request to the regulatory authorities and SFO for an urgent investigation into the matter.

Why should investors at their own expense be forced to hire light aircraft to fly over a Port that had apparently been under development for 9 months according to Management's RNS's and other Company Statements, in order to prove management had blatantly lied, since there was not only no land reclamation work, never mind berth piling going on, as a fast flowing 50m wide tidal creek was preventing all contractor access to the site.

Why did Gandhi make these statements and so recklessly put himself at risk of being exposed as misleading investors? Some shareholders have suggested it was a crude, unsophisticated attempt to explain why according to Company accounts, MPL had 'spent' circa £44m of shareholders funds and bank debt by the end of 2014, when there was clearly no physical on-site evidence to support a tiny fraction of that expenditure.

At the time, as one prescient major shareholder pointed out, nearly all of MPL's cash was being held in Indian banks, and Ghandi's shipbuilding company was in dire straits and urgently needed a further cash injection to keep the lights on, that an unconvinced market was unwilling to give him because the business was already drowning in debt.

Hindsight has shown he managed to find cash from somewhere to stumble on for a short period until he could find a fire-sale buyer for the business. A MO that one Indian business journalist said seems to happen to nearly all of the major business projects Gandhi has been involved in during a highly colourful career.

Indeed, the journalist openly challenged Gandhi in the National business press to prove him wrong by demonstrating at Karanja that Gandhi could actually build an asset and commercially operate it successfully, rather than once again losing it in a massive fire-sale transaction as happened at Pipvav Port and his shipyard business; where professional operators have hugely embarrassed Gandhi by quickly re-enginnering the businesses into successful commercial operations. It so rattled Gandhi he recently raised the ludicrous idea of appointing third party professional port operators at Karanja, presumably in an utterly desperate attempt to show him how to run a commercial port.


AIOHO/DYOR

[waterloo01] 27/8/2017 08:29

It's all priming for another equity raise IMO. The sensible thing would be to raise enough to get rid of the crippling bank debt, which as MT has pointed out,cannot be serviced, even if you believe the company projection (which I don't) , but suspect it will be about providing further working and to get the port to the 'new spec'

However until the bank debt at 13% interest is cleared, this can never make a profit.

Current shareholders will be diluted once again to a massive degree. Bargepole

[beeks of arabia] 26/8/2017 20:04

So why did you invest then, and chastise anyone who didn't agree with your bullish stance?

A little late to preach to people, don't you think?

[mount teide] 26/8/2017 09:19

Keith95 - management blatantly and repeatedly lied to investors in market communications, aided and abetted by a Nomad that failed to carry out the most basic checks to validate the accuracy of many statements, despite repeated requests to do so.

In such circumstances, failure by shareholders to hold the Management and Nomad to account, only encourages such behaviour.



You may live in hope with your investments, we use in-depth research and long senior management industry experience - which tells us there is no chance whatsoever of this sea and road access constrained, part developed barge and coaster terminal, with a totally implausible build cost of £96m to May 2017, and burdened with £49m of 13.5% interest bearing debt, avoiding the fate of the money running out and the banks taking back the assets.

Anyone who invests in a marine construction project run by a management of proven liars, with an estimated build cost of £148m(£91m more than the fixed price build contract they awarded), and where the management went to great lengths to deceitfully conceal they had 'spent' circa £44m, before the first brick was laid, deserves to lose all their money - as in our professional opinion that is exactly what is going to happen here.


From 2019 to 2023, the terminal will need to report revenues of £40m+ annually to generate sufficient profit just to meet the interest and capital repayments on the debt. There is not one barge/coaster terminal anywhere in the world that we are aware of that has achieved anything remotely close to that ratio of revenue/profit. Like Dover, Europe's largest short sea port, the overwhelming majority of efficient well run ports in India, achieve a small fraction of that level of profitability.

AIOHO/DYOR