Mercantile Ports & Logis... Share Discussion Threads

[my retirement fund] 23/6/2018 20:01

Hirco. Yes I remember that fraud. If you recal with Hirco a few institutions got activist and whent out there to try and find out where the money had been spent and secure any assets.You will recal they got no where and returned empty handed simply because fraud is so rife and laws are to difficult, complicated and often unsuitable for helping a comercial enterprise which has been subjected to fraud.I think we can safely expect that no one in their right mind would waste their time trying to bring this lot to account based on the many previous frauds including Hirco.Im afraid its investor be aware and dont go anywhere near a London listed off shore registered enterprise that has supposedly been set up to conduct business in India.

[sophia1982] 23/6/2018 12:35

Hi Mount Teide and others,

I have been previously involved in an Indian horror story (Hirco) and I am totally surprised that nobody does anything here where there are so many red flags...

How is it possible?

Thank you all for keeping me out of this!

[pj 1] 21/6/2018 13:12

I would have thought that any creditors to Nikitall Gandhi would be quite pleased to note his travelling expenses and apparent disappearing funds from MPL.

[my retirement fund] 21/6/2018 13:05

MT its all very well getting orders against individuals and organisations in India. However once your got a judgement in your favour your still entirely responsible for enforcing it. Thats going to be virtually impossible in India ! This is why AIM over its very long history is littered with all manner of Indian based businesses that were clearly subjects of large scale frauds that eventually vanished leaving investors with nothing.

[mount teide] 21/6/2018 12:25

The II's have been absolute mugs to have let the MPL management get way with this debacle for 8 years. They don't seem to understand that with the huge increase in build coast together with the reduced port specification, there is now no port business model that will enable shareholders to see the return of any of their investment - the equity is now effectively worthless.

At least two of the MPL executive management do not have the industry experience or commercial knowledge to run a Port business, while the third - a white collar criminal(industrial scale insider trading) - who sits in the shadows overseeing this investment disaster for shareholders is rarely heard from and never seen, despite being the most senior member of the executive team.

When i put this to a major II, he too could't believe how Gandhi as a senior executive was totally inaccessible for shareholders: so with his investment clout why has he not elected to take this further? For someone who is slowly coming round to the view this could be a fraud, he is still very nervous about the suggestion of sending in an independent marine civil engineering consultant to carry out a full analysis of the cash burn and asset value to date.

Our view is that you can only lead II shareholders to water; if they choose not drink, then they have no one to blame but themselves if they lose all their investors funds - which is a CERTAINTY with MPL in our opinion.

Why are the II's reluctant to take action against the management?
It has come to the attention of one II, that if he attempted to take legal action against the company/directors at some point in the future, it would probably end up in an Indian court, for which he has no appetite whatsoever.

Consequently, I am increasingly of the opinion, the II's will continue to try and avoid any confrontation - we would expect them to use a damage limitation strategy to protect their reputations first and foremost. Losing everything at MPL, while irritating could probably be largely 'lost' in terms of the overall performance of the funds they manage.

Effectively, letting the management get away with the 'loss' of over £110m of shareholders funds to save their own reputations would probably be a small price to pay. I am sure each could effortlessly write an entirely plausible and eloquent 'analysis' for their investors, as to why the loss of their 'investment' in MPL could not have been reasonably foreseen and, put the matter down to experience. Many MPL PI's of course know otherwise!

[mount teide] 21/6/2018 12:06

AIM Handbook

Principles of disclosure

An AIM company must take reasonable care to ensure that any information it notifies is not misleading, false or deceptive and does not omit anything likely to affect the import of such information.

General disclosure of price sensitive information

An AIM company must issue notification without delay of any new developments which are not public knowledge which, if made public, would be likely to lead to a significant movement in the price of its AIM securities. By way of example, this may include matters concerning a change in:

— its financial condition;
— its sphere of activity;
— the performance of its business; or
— its expectation of its performance.



Further to the Shareholders CIRCULAR to raise £37m dated 31 October 2016, Jan 2017 Website Photographic Update and March 2017 RNS Project Update:

Port build out performance between June 2016 and March 2017 fell at least 95% short of expectations for Land reclamation and 90% short for Berth piling operations. This likely non performance was known to management from June 2016, since land reclamation work stopped in June 2016 and did not begin again until Jan 2017.

Claiming otherwise in the Shareholders Circular to raise £37m, by stating that reclamation and piling operations had continued without material interruption since Oct 2015 and, embellishing this deception with hugely optimistic land reclamation and berth piling progress targets through to March 2017, smacks of a clear and unambiguous attempt to mislead the market, presumably in order to generate II support for the £37m Placing and Open Offer in November 2016.

If SPL/MPL had stated in the shareholders circular that all land reclamation and berth piling work had stopped in June 2016(Google Earth and the Company Website provides a wonderful audit trail) and, would not begin again until Jan 2017 - imagine how that would have been received by the Market approached to support the £37m Placing and Open Offer, particularly since there was a 14% debt interest payment ticking away on the £25-35m of bank debt drawn down at that point in time. And a huge cash burn that bore no resemblance whatsoever to the asset value of the progress made to that date - or anytime since after accelerating away like a Saturn 5 rocket following commencement of construction.

[diku] 20/6/2018 22:25

If the banks are lending so much money then should they not be monitoring the situation on the port build?..

[pj 1] 20/6/2018 22:18

Company's do not commit fraud, individuals do. In this case a reverse concert party.

[my retirement fund] 20/6/2018 22:11

It was pretty simple they had 200 million odd of shareholders funds at the time not to mention an AIM london listing with backed up by a list of credible shareholders. The loan was secured several years ago you see before the industrial scale siphoning off of the cash had gone into full swing.

[diku] 20/6/2018 22:10

phowdo...though true but very hilarious...



phowdo
19 Jun '18 - 12:41 - 1157 of 1171
0   0  0

Best to treat AIM like the Wild West where everyone, including the law enforcement, is out to get their hands on your stash by foul means and fair.

[mount teide] 20/6/2018 16:12

It is interesting to note that during the 12 months following the request for the market to put their hand in their pockets for another £37m in order to 'protect' the 2% of value left of their investments since IPO, the Directors deigned to grace shareholders with just one photographic update, while Google Earth has provided half a dozen excellent updates free of charge!

Perhaps, MPL should do away with Redleaf Comms and the MPL website and just take out a low cost Google Earth business Account - it would not only save shareholders a fortune but guarantee a much more frequent level of photographic communication, and spare shareholders the embarrassment of having an investment where the Directors are accused of using stage management in the nostalgic old video and photographic updates still on the website! Which still look remarkably up to date when compared to the latest Google Earth images despite, being but a spec in the rear view timeline mirror.

Indeed, such has been the pace of progress, at the end of Q1/2017, the Directors could have issued the mid June 2016 photographic update but just changed the date to 31 March 2017 and, only the forensic eye of an industry professional would have been able to discern the extremely marginal difference between this and a Google Earth image of the 31st March 2017!

The one MPL photographic update(Jan 2017) in the year following the £37m placing, demonstrates perfectly investors have since seen 80% of the value of their investment disappear like morning mist! Indeed IPO are now more than 99% down!

If as previously suggested by Jay to poster 'Kemche', that the CEO is only seen for 1.5 days a month, we would like to know what he is actually doing for his £175k a year plus film star travel and expense account? We cannot in anyway reconcile this with the activity we would have expected of a CEO of a Port Development Company.

Likewise, what does the Executive Chairman actually do for shareholders, when he is'ant busy dealing with high court writs alleging that he siphoned tens of £millions of pounds out of a previous company he had executive responsibility for, into businesses owned by him and his family or, dealing with extremely serious insider dealing charges brought by the regulator against him, through the rather unusual route of an out of court settlement!

Like many things in MPL it makes little sense!

Looking back at the complete indifference of MPL management from IPO, suggests they have always regarded shareholders as sheep for the fleecing, and that the shareholders circular to raise the additional £37m was nothing more than an amateurish attempt to bring a little sophistication to the shearing process.

Incredibly, it was fully supported by the II's who clearly, like the Nomad did NO on site due diligence(had this confirmed by two II's), while only 66% of the allocation shamelessly offered to PI's at a staggering 96% discount to the IPO price was taken up, for what is a real estate project.

With the paper loss of more than 99% of their original investment and 80% of placing 'top up', we remain astonished that II's are yet to demand a forensic audit of the cash burn to date, cost analysis of the construction progress made and outstanding costs to completion.

And also why, they did not demand the resignation of most of the Board and the Neds prior to the additional cash raising at a 96% discount to the IPO price.

If a private company were developing Karanja, we believe it could be run by just two suitably qualified and industry experienced people - a Ports Sector Professional and a qualified accountant. With all the key development functions outsourced to Industry professionals through competitive tender, there is simply not enough work to necessitate the employment of any further staff - even once the Port is operational and run by a third party Port Operator.


AIOHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 20/6/2018 15:51

As a ITD Cementation shareholder i wrote to ITD on three occasions in late 2016 and during 2017 requesting information as to the current status of the £57m MPL Karanja Contract. Particularly since ITD is now a shareholder in MPL and a beneficiary of huge additional revenue from the project over and above the original contract specification.

Still yet to receive an acknowledgement never mind a reply!

It is interesting to note that on the ITD website under 'Marine Structures' there is very detailed information of all the existing Major contracts currently under construction or recently completed, many with photographs.

Karanja Port - despite being of greater contact value than a considerable number of the Major Projects detailed on the website, is conspicuous by its absence!

One ITD Project that may be of interest to MPL shareholders is the CONTAINER TERMINAL AT MUNDRA FOR ADANI PORT. It has a fixed quay wall and terminal infrastructure very similar to what MPL shareholders were expecting at see at Karanja, albeit with an engineering specification an order of magnitude greater. Since it is the only port on the Indian West coast capable of handling the latest generation of containerships, which have deadweights in excess of 160,000 tonnes. (A cargo capacity some 40 times larger than the largest vessel now expected to be handled at Karanja).



The Adani Port Container Terminal has a super-heavyweight specification quay of length 713m, with a width of 30m and minimum draft of 17.5m for handling ultra large container ships, with lengths in excess of 400m and beam of 60m. Ships so large even the JNPT terminals are unable to handle them due to draft restrictions in the approach channel that would need an estimated £700m of dredging to deepen the channel by a further 2m to handle these ships.

To put the size of these vessels and the engineering specification of the quay and port facilities to handle them in some perspective: the largest ships capable of directly using the Karanja facility are 4,000 deadweight tonne dry bulk coasters - Adani Port's target containerships are so large they would be able to carry on board up to eight of these little coasters as deck cargo in addition to some 15,000 TEU of containers!

Adani Port has 80 acres of reclaimed hardstanding, heavily re-inforced to enable 5 high stacking of heavyweight deep sea containers and handling within the storage compound using twelve 41 tonne high capacity container gantry cranes. The port's annual container throughput capacity is more than twice that of Karanja at 1.4m TEU's. It was completed in early 2017 some 3 months ahead of schedule by ITD - a remarkable achievement since it started construction some considerable time after Karanja.

Total cost? - try £152m

MPL's management's latest estimated cost of Karanja Terminal to provide a 360m lightweight open jetty for small coasters serviced by a yet be be verified -3.5m below CD access channel and, around 90 acres of reclaimed land, strengthened to a specification a small fraction of that at Adani - £148m.

A good example of why the MPL share-price has fallen from 250p to 2.2p for a project that has £12.5m per annum bank debt capital and interest payments now running; with no revenue and less than half the land reclamation work completed.


AIOHO/DYOR

[marvelman] 20/6/2018 12:07

Superb stuff MT...but it seems still not enough to deter some buyers who had bought yesterday and of course are now feeling the pain of the inevitable false dawn synonymous with the ticker MPL. The lesson learnt by me at least...DO NOT TOUCH INDIAN COMPANIES WITH THE PROVERBIAL BARGEPOLE....

[mount teide] 20/6/2018 11:29

Since MPL never answers messages sent to the website email address - anyone wishing to contact the company may have more success trying the email addresses of the CEO's two other Mumbai based Businesses:

ASKAR CAPITAL ADVISORY PRIVATE LIMITED

A company he was supposed to have left 8 years ago to join SKIL/MPL according to the MPL website - information which on investigation has proven to be entirely false, since he remains one of the three executive Directors there to this very day.

or

HKB HOLDINGS ADVISORY LLP

which he set up in 2015 while working 'flat out' for MPL shareholders for 1.5 days a month according to Jay the laughably named COO. The MPL CEO is a founder Director along with two other Mumbai based financial sector executives.

or

The Noble LORD FLIGHT at his House of Lords address - who since helping the scam artists get their £37m London Capital Market placing away has, like Lord Lucan, disappeared without trace.

AIOHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 20/6/2018 10:56

A 600m share placing at 2p would not even raise enough (£12m) to pay another 12 months bank loan capital and interest payments.

They currently owe circa £95m in capital and interest to the banks - with no revenue generation.

From start up it will normally take a new port 2-3 years to generate sufficient revenue to start creating positive cash flow - this usually occurs once the port is running at around 70% of the design throughput capacity. A hair-raising prospect when you consider MPL will need to make Bank Capital and Interest payments totalling circa £40m over the next three years!

And don't forget the original cash flow projections in the Arden Note were based on a 200 acre terminal NOT A PART COMPLETE 90 ACRE TERMINAL WITH A SMALL LIGHTWEIGHT OPEN JETTY THAT HAS NO MONSOON SEASON PROTECTION - MEANING THAT IT CANNOT BE USED BETWEEN JUNE AND NOVEMBER FOR ANY CARGOES (DRY BULK/KILN DRIED TIMBER ETC) THAT MUST BE KEPT DRY TO AVOID CARGO DAMAGE/EXPENSIVE CLAIMS. Its why the cargo running distance between ship and warehouse in the Old Harbour general cargo terminals is less than 10 meters - so they can effectively work vessels all year round in all weather.

AIOHO/DYOR

[phowdo] 20/6/2018 09:26

One more round of placing money I reckon.
Those who invest Other Peoples Money will be incentivised to participate in the usual city way.

[my retirement fund] 20/6/2018 08:47

I predicted some years ago now that this will become bank owned when the money to pay the interest runs out and that connected parties will then take it off the bank privately leaving investors with nothing.Only then will this fraud be complete. So the big question is, when is the money going to run out ?

[phowdo] 20/6/2018 08:35

Falling on no volume.
Are the MMs frontrunning a placing like last time?
I estimate it to come in at approximately 1p.

[mount teide] 19/6/2018 22:30

ANYONE WHO SUPPORTED THE October 2016 £37M PLACING AND OPEN OFFER SHOULD RE-READ THE ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTATION TOGETHER WITH THE IPO ADMISSION DOCUMENT BECAUSE AS WE PREDICTED in OCTOBER 2016:

What shareholders will see at best for £150m is NOT WHAT IS PUBLISHED IN THESE DOCUMENTS BUT:

90 - 100 ACRES OF RECLAIMED LAND/HARDSTANDING

350m LIGHTWEIGHT OPEN JETTY - severely weather and tide affected

APPROACH CHANNEL DREDGED TO 3.5M AT BEST

MAIN ACCESS ROAD - A HEAVILY POTHOLED, UNLIT SINGLE LANE GRAVEL TRACK - LARGELY UNUSABLE DURING THE MONSOON SEASON FOR HEAVY COMMERCIAL VEHICLES.


WITH A COMBINED ASSET VALUATION CONSIDERABLY BELOW THE CURRENT BANK DEBT!


AIOHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 19/6/2018 21:14

Were white collar criminal, Executive Chairman Nikitall Gandhi's Insider trading offences, publicly exposed following dawn raids on his company offices and family residences by fraud investigators and the Mumbai Stock Exchange regulator, followed by an Insider lending scam at Mercantile Shareholder's expense?

SKIL/Mercantile 2012 Accounts - buried away is a Loan at a highly preferential rate to an insider. Not just any insider but to a company controlled by MPL's own white collar criminal himself!

The main Mercantile shareholder, Nikhil Gandhi, at the time controlled 28.91% of the company. He also controlled another company (Grevek Investment & Finance Ltd), which in SKIL's accounts, SKIL had lent £1,732,665 as at December 2012 ("demand deposit"), up by £1,314,721 from £417,944 the previous year. It is unsecured. The interest rate is 5% per annum.

However, the company had interest income in 2012 of £5,114,000 and average cash balances of £63,813,000. This suggests an average interest rate of 8.01% per annum.

Scandaloudsly, it would seem that the company was using shareholders funds at the time to give a number of huge loans to an insider, at a 3% interest benefit (at least) , in order to help finance Gandhi's outside business and investment interests and activities.

Shortly after, SKIL/Mercantile raised £48m at an interest rate of circa 13.5%

We can find no evidence in subsequent accounts that interest was paid on the loan or any of the Capital was repaid, or whether the bulk of Mercantile's cash deposits, has since been moved to more secure, better regulated institutions.

A complaint to the Nomad's representative proved a total waste of time!


AIOHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 19/6/2018 20:54

INDUSTRIAL SCALE FRAUD BY FALSE REPRESENTATION OR A MINOR CONSTRUCTION SLIPPAGE? - you be the judge?


Karanja Terminal Berth Piling

WHAT THE MARKET WAS TOLD BY THE WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL AND PROFESSIONAL SCAM ARTIST MASQUERADING AS THE MPL EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN

08 April 2014 - RNS 'The coming months will see significant progress on the development of the approach trestles, revetment, reclamation and PILING WORK FOR THE JETTY - By the end of 2014 we expect FIRST REVENUES from the Logistics park'

29 May 2014 - RNS 'Since the period end(Dec 2013)....Every quarter will see progress being made on the three key areas for building our port, including dredging, reclamation and piling. By the end of the year(2014) WE ARE EXPECTED TO HAVE PLACED APPROXIMATELY 275 PILES.

15 Sept 2014 - RNS ' Over the next few months, works will CONTINUE to progress, with a particular focus on ground reclamation and CASTING OF PILES FOR THE JETTY'



THE REALITY

Mid JAN 2015 - after 18 months the tidal creek preventing ALL access to the site is finally bridged allowing mobilisation of the principle contractors workforce on site to commence. Land reclamation commenced in Feb/March 2015, following completion of the first trestle.

29 OCTOBER 2015 - Photographs POSTED ON THE MPL WEBSITE OF THE BERTH PILING GANTRY UNDER FABRICATION ON AN INDUSTRIAL ESTATE ON THE URAN PENINSULA!

So, SOME 1 year 6 months after telling the market to expect SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS ON THE PILING WORK FOR THE JETTY - AND SOME 9 MONTHS AFTER THE EXPECTED DATE TO HAVE COMPLETED PILING OF THE BERTH BY LAYING 275 PILES;

THE MARKET IS TOLD THE PILING GANTRY TO CARRY OUT THE BERTH PILING WORK IS NOT EVEN ON-SITE BUT CURRENTLY UNDER FABRICATION ON A SMALL INDUSTRIAL ESTATE ON THE URAN PENINSULA!


09 March 2016 - Photographs POSTED ON THE MPL WEBSITE OF PILING GANTRY ON-SITE READY TO START BERTH PILING!

So, TWO YEARS(The time it took to build the new JNPT Container Terminal) after telling the market to expect SIGNIFICANT IMMINENT PROGRESS ON THE PILING WORK FOR THE JETTY - AND 1 YR 3 MONTHS AFTER THE EXPECTED DATE TO HAVE COMPLETED THE PILING OF THE BERTH BY LAYING 275 PILES, THE MARKET IS TOLD THE PILING GANTRY HAS FINALLY ARRIVED ON-SITE AND IS NOW ON THE TEMPORARY POSITIONING PILES READY TO COMMENCE LAYING THE FIRST OF THE 275 PILES!


After nearly 5 years from the commencement of 'construction' just 45% of the Land Reclamation has been completed (most of which is still undergoing preparation for port related activity), and a part finished, lightweight 360m weather affected open jetty - which ACCORDING TO MANAGEMENT HAS A CARRYING COST OF OVER £130M!

WE THINK IT SHOULD BE CLOSER TO £30M - BECAUSE THAT'S ALL IT WORTH ON THE OPEN MARKET.

Tip to management - If you're going to run a financial scam, for your own credibility try and use a little more sophistication, so as to at least give it a veneer of plausibility! Anything less suggests a wilful and squalid treatment of shareholders bordering on contempt.



AIOHO/DYOR

[pj 1] 19/6/2018 19:14

I wonder when they will re-consider the Ship Repair Facility?

[phowdo] 19/6/2018 12:41

Best to treat AIM like the Wild West where everyone, including the law enforcement, is out to get their hands on your stash by foul means and fair.