Mercantile Ports & Logis... Share Discussion Threads

[mount teide] 09/3/2019 22:05

'Honestly you could not make this up.' Where the MPL shysters are concerned that is surely the understatement of the decade!


Not a single photo update of construction progress on the Website for 14 months - yet 8 photo and video updates in H1/2016 before announcing via a Shareholders Circular they would need another £37m via a placing or the lights would go out and existing shareholders would probably lose all their money, despite ITD Cementation winning a tender to build the port for £57m and Mercantile raising £73m at IPO.

You know the world class marine civil engineers who built the 225 acre JNPT container terminal 4 just 5 miles away in 2 years 1 month, yet are now in the 6th year of 'construction' at Karanja building a 200 acre shallow water barge terminal and have not yet completed half of it, despite the Port Concession stating a two year build time!

AIM's Greatest Ever Work of Fiction as it is more commonly known to scammed retail shareholders detailed how the 200 acre port would be complete by Q2/2017 if only the market would gave us another £37m.

The clueless II's did just that against better advice and some 2 years later found they had been well and truly shafted - as all they had got for the money was another 15 acres of reclaimed land making a grand total of just 90 acres of the 200 acres that should have been complete in May 2017 and about another 50metres of lightweight jetty.

After making hardly any construction progress since November 2016 despite blowing through the best part of another circa $40m - $50m, in November 2018 the Mercantile scam artists came back from their 6 month monsoon season annual holiday to tell the market they needed yet another £30 odd million - not to complete the port, as they're calling it a day at 90 acres or so, despite the original admission document over a decade ago clearly stating the £73m raised would be used to build a 200 acre port, including a 100 acre logistics centre.

Yes, you know the Logistics Centre that the chief scam artist told the market via a company statement to expect first revenues from by the end of 2014! Some five years later and after raising another circa £130m in shareholders cash and bank debt, the convicted insider dealer tells the market that the land reclamation is going to stop at circa 90 acres - meaning NO LOGISTICS CENTRE!

The II's, instead of telling the appalling shysters to stick their crack pipes where the sun don't shine, they stumped up yet another £30 odd million of their clients retirement funds at a 99% discount to the price they first bought tens of £millions of shares for them at!

AIOHO/DYOR

[pj 1] 09/3/2019 20:37

Honestly you could not make this up.

''He said that with the modernization of port and jetties, the facilities for fishermen is also considered with priority. Mr Jankar also said that due to the Karanja port, the industry and business will flourish in this region.''

Please see my post below

PJ 1
26 Feb '19 - 11:23 - 1392 of 1406 Edit
0 0 0
At least the local fishermen have been allowed to return to moor their vessels where they originally moored them before land reclamation commenced.

[waterloo01] 09/3/2019 16:10

Completes really fast! Praise for Gandhi, a 'pioneer' and threat of 'a few more port projects' Gravy train can keep running! (Apparently Mr G is highly respected in Japan. lol)

[waterloo01] 09/3/2019 16:04

Done as an e-inauguration and done from a stage in Mumbai. What will the pictures show or attempt to show.

[diku] 06/3/2019 20:59

So the fishy port for fisherman is finally ready then!!...

[escapetohome] 06/3/2019 20:29

Up?

Whoever is buying these needs brain surgery.

And fast.

[lefrene] 06/3/2019 16:07

I presume the inauguration ceremony as per MPL tradition, will take place at a safe distance from the scene of the crime?

[mount teide] 04/3/2019 13:05

'A number of COSMETIC and infrastructure workstreams are being completed on site, including to the office block, access road, border fencing, installation of CCTV security systems and demarcation of Custom Bonded Areas, before commercial operations commence next month.'

COSMETIC being the operative word!

Watch out for circa half a dozen token barges of ultra low value bulk cargo such as fertiliser etc - that collectively wouldn't generate enough revenue(never mind profit) in a month to even match the Board's outrageous £25k a month expenses bill (now in its 10th year and approaching £3 million in total, before a single rupee of revenue has been generated).

The AIM casino and the City has certainly proved a rich cash vein to mine for the convicted crook running the company and his extremely well paid advisers - the Mumbai Taj Mahal and its white gloved butlers would certainly raise a glass to that!

[phowdo] 27/2/2019 10:53

09 February, 2018
"The Company, therefore, expects to start receiving its first revenues in a few weeks."

27 February 2019
"before commercial operations commence next month"



Same story every year...

[tiltonboy] 26/2/2019 12:18

It's beyond bizarre that Gervais Williams is buying this.

[mount teide] 26/2/2019 11:47

One poster on the LSE site described the MPL Shareholder list as 'impressive'

He seems to have completely overlooked that most are 99% down post their £73m IPO 'investment' and 80% down on their £37m placing top up 'investment' from Nov 2016 - and again heavily supported the recent further £30m fund raising at a 99% discount to the IPO price for what is a straightforward commercial property development.


MPL Share Information at 31 December 2018

HUNCH VENTURES……………………….……………..21.75%
M&G INVESTMENTS MANAGEMENT LTD……………..18.21%
LEGAL & GENERAL INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT….12.31%
SCHRODER INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT……………….9.94%
MITON ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD………………………….9.67%
CANACCORD GENIUTY WEALTH MANAGEMENT…....…..7.59%
SKIL GLOBAL PORTS & LOGISTICS LIMITED………………5.16%
BRITISH STEEL PENSION FUND………………..……………3.81%
_______
88.44%

[mount teide] 26/2/2019 11:36

phowdo - either that or too busy taking magician lessons from the former windsurfer turned white collar crook ex Globo CEO, who convinced them the company had £100m on deposit when in fact it was just loose change.

[mount teide] 26/2/2019 11:30

PJ1 - thats probably because the management intend to RNS it as evidence of first revenue from the Port!

[phowdo] 26/2/2019 11:29

Did Grant Thornton audit the progress made here?
Or were they too busy having their CAKE and eating it?

[pj 1] 26/2/2019 11:23

At least the local fishermen have been allowed to return to moor their vessels where they originally moored them before land reclamation commenced.

[papy02] 26/2/2019 11:10

Thanks, MT. I am in no doubt about the final outcome, but want to avoid unpleasantness (aka share price rises or undue delay in the Sp falling) along the way.

[mount teide] 26/2/2019 11:02

Good to see the sheriff of AIM on the case !

[papy02] 26/2/2019 10:36

Given that the IIs appear to be irrational buyers, is it safe to go back in the water and short MPL again? Any thoughts welcome. Eg likely timescale to banks pulling the rug?

[mount teide] 26/2/2019 10:13

Hi waterloo - Late October/Early November 2018 are the latest images according to my version of Google Earth Pro.

The six month SW Monsoon season(more commonly known as the management's six month fully expensed annual holiday), from May to October and its near permanent cloud cover means that new images during this period are about as likely as winning the lottery.

[waterloo01] 26/2/2019 09:59

Has google earth been updated since Nov 18?

[mount teide] 26/2/2019 09:14

MRF - compare the latest Google Earth image with that of Dec 2017/Nov 2018 - it does not take the experienced eye of an industry professional to confirm that no land reclamation or virtually no hardstanding development has occurred and that the pace of construction of the jetty has dropped to a snails pace.

The clue was in the 2018 Interims, when they shockingly detailed that just £1.8m of cash was left by June 2018, and that the banks had put a block on any further drawdowns. Clearly, this meant all work was stopped to retain cash to pay the Board's fees and £25k a month expenses while they schemed and plotted to tap the clueless II's for another £30 odd million via their now annual £30m November placing !

Certainly gives weight to the whistleblowers allegation that he left last year after not being paid for many months.

ps: if the Google Earth images are incorrect(about as likely as Diane Abbott winning the Grand National riding side saddle on a Shetland pony!) - perhaps the Board for the first time in over a year could post some 'progress photos' to the website to allay shareholders worst fears!

[mount teide] 26/2/2019 09:02

eta - yes, I heard after viewing the latest Google Earth images of what $150m of British workers Pension Fund 'Investments' look like, the Taj Mahal white gloved butler was taken to hospital by ambulance after sustaining serious rib injuries from laughing so hard.

The Mercantile Board - the only people on the planet able to instantaneously raise blood temperature to boiling point with a simple Google Earth image or Progress Update RNS!

They say a fool and his money are soon parted - some of the clueless major shareholders here despite being given all the evidence on a silver platter have been taken for a ride three times and still can't work it out!

Following the release of the Google Earth images the white gloved butler is getting inundated with calls to his hospital bed from the Mumbai investment community wanting to know if the Board will be going for a fourth raise via their now annual £30m plus November raid on British pensioners 'investment' savings - place your bets!

One thing we can tell them is when the 10 year post IPO bell soon chimes for this port 'development' project, that despite raising nearly 4 times the amount in equity and debt of the £57m winning tender offer to build the entire 200 acre port and logistics park; less than 50% of the land will have been reclaimed and at best 25% of it developed for operational purposes.

The 100 acre logistics park that the Executive Chairman told the market and shareholders to expect first revenues from by the end of 2014 - some five years later has not even seen the work commence on the land reclamation on which to build it!

Following exhaustive investigation, there does not seem to be any truth in the scurrilous rumour sweeping the Mumbai business district that the former Mumbai street spiv Nikhil "It's the way I tell 'em" Gandhi was currently unable to take calls following the release of the Google Earth images as a result of joining the White gloved butler in hospital with similar rib injures.


AIOHO/DYOR

[my retirement fund] 26/2/2019 08:48

So if that true MT, then the fraud is larger than just the shareholders. The Indian banks lending are going to have to take a hit as well ?Tsk tsk tsk. Dreadful really some people have the Morals and ethics of a sewer.