Mercantile Ports & Logis... Share Discussion Threads

[diku] 19/6/2017 22:31

When is the suspension?...if Pavan is the expert then he should know it!!...anybody care to ask him?..

[marvelman] 19/6/2017 16:46

MT...you are indeed a class act...many thanks for your enlightening posts relevent for current and non current investors alike. I do believe this has to be the worst flotation I have ever witnessed in my many years of trading and cannot believe the rhino skinned pretence the company is still keeping up. Your posts have no doubt saved countless potential investors many thousands of pounds and much heartache. Regards.

[pj 1] 19/6/2017 16:41

If all the accusations about the Company are correct then we are dealing with fraudsters, con men, thieves and liars.

Our arguements should be with them not one another. I was twice (or x3) long of this stock and count my blessing that I got lucky, very lucky

[effortless cool] 19/6/2017 16:39

MT,
Sorry if I came across as snide. You are clearly doing good work here - keep it up!

[mount teide] 19/6/2017 16:19

EC, i would only put GBO and MPL in that category, out of more than 50 equity investments made during the last 10 years. I also recall you were invested heavily in GBO before me and singing it's praises before correctly becoming a non believer.

Ref:GBO; in my defence, i at least developed sufficient doubt to take my original investment off the table and 'only' risk the 6 figure 'profit'. Sadly, a number of other very good investors, including one with a long track record of investment success, lost a seven figure GBO investment and a 'profit' many multiples of that.

MPL only became fully apparent once the port build out commenced, - as mentioned in earlier posts, the commercial case for developing a new port terminal at Karanja is sound, and the risk/reward for an investment in MPL at our entry price some 80% below the IPO price was compelling, since it was still sitting on most of the IPO cash. MPL's executive Management however did not follow the script and, after raising a further £49m of bank debt, started burning through cash at a rate that nether i nor two industry friends who also invested, could in any way reconcile with the progress made.

So we elected to dispose of our shareholding last year at a significant 5 figure loss.

We would have ordinarily moved on after selling but, the appalling behaviour of the executive MPL management later in the year, in taking Investors for another £37m, via a Placing and Open Offer Circular, that we correctly forecast would bear no relation to any future reality whatsoever, was beyond the pale.

The passage of time has since shown that what shareholders are going to get at best is a much REDUCED terminal specification that should have generated a material cost saving, not a near 40% increase in cost; which makes the port totally uneconomic.

Such has been the extremely slow rate of construction progress as a result largely of under resourcing the project - a crushing £12m per annum bank loan capital and interest payment started running in Feb 2017. Although, that will not concern management too much, since they and the company will not be around in two years time.

[effortless cool] 19/6/2017 14:09

Well done to him, then, in that case.

[lefrene] 19/6/2017 13:45

I believe he was and talked it up no end probably luring in other investors. Then he was quiet for some time, as no doubt he saw the error of his infatuation and dumped his stock, or perhaps went short? A bit too late for many he began sharing his fresh insights into this apparent huge scam. The only real 'expert' here it seems is Pavan!

[tyranosaurus] 19/6/2017 13:29

Is he invested in these ?

[effortless cool] 19/6/2017 11:20

Mount Teide,
You seem to have an amazing nose for finding frauds to invest in.

[diku] 18/6/2017 21:07

Has Nikhil Gandhi really acquired those shares & paid for it or is it all lost in translation?...


months later - still no announcement, and some vague comment in the prelims that 'Nikhil Gandhi had agreed to acquire additional shares of £3 million of MPL, and this was transferred to the bank accounts of Karanja Terminal & Logistics Pvt. Ltd., in January 2017.'

Who confirmed that it WAS transferred? Has this been independently verified? And, why has the regulatory approval not been confirmed enabling the transfer of funds to the Company's principal bank account in Guernsey?

[mount teide] 18/6/2017 14:18

James Stocks Sutcliffe - NED

Interesting to note that although James Sutcliffe describes himself as someone who can offer professional experience from 'concept through to operation of green field Port sites and, the development of existing facilities including all aspects of negotiation with governments and port organisations, planning, site interrogation, construction, finance, equipment and management/IT systems and associated financial, legal and insurance support', he holds:

No shipping or ports industry professional qualifications, which is a little surprising since he is also Chairman and owner of John Sutcliffe & Son, which is a small family run shipping and port stevedoring company. Most successful family run shipping companies almost without exception, would send their offspring to sea to gain first hand experience of the industry and to gain professional shipping qualifications, before bringing them ashore into the office to learn the Port Terminal side of the business.

The only qualifications James Sutcliffe appears to hold is an HND in Business, obtained in 1970, after leaving Stowe Independent School(current fees £33,000 per annum).

So when it comes to helping the clueless MPL CEO put together a 2 year Revenue and Profit Projection and Cash Forecast for Karanja - perhaps James Sutcliffe is not best qualified to assist in giving shareholders a Projection and Cash Forecast that would necessarily carry some hands-on industry professional 'weight'.

Since there is no one else within the Board with any senior level shipping or port industry management experience and, who holds any senior level professional qualifications of either industry, if i were an Institutional shareholder i would be looking to do three things after the disastrous Prelims and Latest 'Progress' Photographs:


Insist on:

1 - Audit of all Project Invoicing/cash 'spend' to date to be carried out by an Independent Accounting Professional.

2 - Audit of cash burn to date against asset valuation of work completed and, a cost estimate to completion - to be carried out by an independent Marine Civil Engineering Professional

3 - 2 year Revenue and Profit Projection and Cash Forecast - to be carried out in conjunction with management by an independent Port Industry Professional with at least a decade of experience at senior management level, and who holds preferably both Shipping and Port Industry Professional qualifications.


AIOHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 17/6/2017 14:05

Interesting to note JNPT recently secured extremely competitive external commercial borrowing to finance the US$400m expansion of the road network on the Uran Peninsula servicing the Port, to that required to comfortably handle the doubling of its existing terminal throughout container capacity to 9.85 Million TEUs.

This 'low cost' finance has been possible since JNPT has US Dollar denominated foreign currency earnings which, with Government approval, it has leveraged for low cost foreign currency borrowing.

The rate of JNPT's ECB loan? Try, 2.025% plus Libor ( approx 3.15%). MPL is currently paying four Indian banks an average interest rate of circa 13.5% for £49m, hypothecated by the assets.

If as we suggested and, in common with JNPT and most other professional Port Operators, MPL had built the port terminal in phases to commercial demand. It too could have potentially funded its further expansion largely through low cost external commercial borrowing from using its foreign currency earnings - most shipping companies negotiate rates with port operators to handle their ships and cargo in US Dollars

Shareholders should draw their own conclusions as to the MANAGEMENT'S(read Executive Chairman) true motives for electing to go the high shareholder risk, high cost route of raising funding for the construction of the full planning consent capacity before, a single dollar of turnover has been earned, particularly when it involves raising £49m of bank loans with an interest rate of an average of 13.5%, that incredibly Management started drawing down(£9.3m)over three years ago, before any on-site construction activity had even began.

Relax, don't worry say 'management', everything is in hand, as confirmed by our in-house calculated £94.93m carrying value for the 90acres of reclaimed foreshore and inter-tidal zone and 160 shallow water jetty piles!

"Forget your in-house 'calculated' £94.93m carrying value" cried shareholders, "we want to see a 3 Year Revenue and Profit Projection for the port now, as a result of breathtaking management incompetence, its cost has ballooned to £148m for a heavily scaled back specification, and which has a circa £12m debt capital and interest annual payment now running, while MPL management pre announce their third monsoon season in a row, where all land reclamation ceases for at least 6 months."

MPL - where the lunatics are running the asylum!



Shortly after the bank debt funding was announced in 2014, i spoke at length to Pavan. One comment he made that stuck in my mind was, 'once we have something on the ground to show shareholders, it will allow us to raise further funds for other projects by either bringing in a port operator partner at Karanja or by using the existing 'assets' as collateral to raise further funds.

I foolishly dismissed it as the extremely naive comments of someone with no industry experience, who would subsequently be shown the error or his 'thinking' in no uncertain terms by the NEDS.

A savvy port operator would of course have said, that once MPL has got the initial phase of construction complete, the terminal part operational and generating revenue and cashflow, then would be the time to evaluate options. Which potentially could include looking for a partner to share the cost and risk through to the completion of the full development of the port terminal - since at that stage of development, it would likely generate more interest from the port industry and potentially enable a much higher price to be achieved for the assets.

That the company elected to go the route of attempting to complete the full terminal development to a heavily scaled back, low cost specification, by raising fraudulently, in the opinion of many, another £30m from II's, sadly, says as much about the breathtaking naivety of the II's as it does the executive management.

AIOHO/DYOR

[orinocor] 16/6/2017 15:08

thanks pj 1

[mount teide] 15/6/2017 11:34

orin - thanks for your comments.

Pava's email addresses ?

Since he never answers messages sent to the SPL/MPL address, suggest you try the email addresses of his other two Mumbai Businesses:

ASKAR CAPITAL ADVISORY PRIVATE LIMITED

A company he was supposed to have left 7 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. He is a founder Director with two other Mumbai based financial sector executives.



AIOHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 15/6/2017 09:49

phowdo - indeed !


'Delays all foreseeable?' NONSENSE! - carrying out NO land reclamation work during the last three monsoon seasons was planned - how is it ITD managed to reclaim 225 acres in waters up to 20m deep AT JNPT, in just 21 months, which included two monsoon seasons?

It is the clearest case of FRAUD i've ever come across, to claim in the Shareholders Circular to raise £37m, that work had been progressing uninterrupted since October 2015, and to tell the Market to expect a further 65 acres of Land Reclamation by Jan 2017, WHEN THE COMPANY WAS NOT CARRYING OUT AND HAD PLANNED TO NOT CARRY OUT ANY LAND RECLAMATION WORK WHATSOEVER DURING THE ENTIRE 6 MONTH PERIOD - JUNE 2016 TO DEC 2016.

'Unlucky with the weather?' NONSENSE! - the monsoon seasons have been of average intensity since the project began. The last dry season Nov 2016- May 2017, was the longest in living memory in the region, reducing the Uran Peninsula to a dust bowl after 7 months without any rain. Both the JNPT and ADANI Port development projects are being carried out in parallel with Karanja by ITD. They have either completed ahead of time and budget (Adani), or is on schedule to go into operation on time and in budget (JNPT). Karanja, is massively over budget for a much reduced specification, and years behind schedule.

EG Berth Piling - Piling Gantry Equipment
Karanja - 1 unit on site - completed an est 10 piles in H2/2016
JNPT - 16 units on site - completed an est 440 piles in H2/2016

From what we are able to establish, other than some minor land development work, MPL shut down nearly all work at Karanja during H2/2016, despite telling the market they expected to achieve progress targets that were multiples of the rate previously achieved when they were actually CARRYING OUT LAND RECLAMATION AND BERTH PILING!

'Costs increased out of their control?' NONSENSE! Ask an independent Marine Civil Engineering Consultant to give a valuation on the hilarious £94m carrying cost for the work carried out on site to 31 December 2016! Prepare to be astonished by the independent valuation.
The revised spec should have actually seen a material reduction in cost, not a 40% inflation.

'that the on-time on-budget development at JNPT by the same contractor should be treated as an aberration not a fair comparison' - NONSENSE! As mentioned above both JNPT and Adani, which are considerably more challenging in terms of engineering specification, came in on time and largely to budget BECAUSE THEY WERE RESOURCED CORRECTLY TO ACHIEVE COMPLETION BY THE TARGET DATES.

AIOHO/DYOR

[phowdo] 15/6/2017 08:56

If we make one assumption here; that it's all a fraud, then that can explain everything that has happened.

Alternatively we can assume:
that the delays were all unforeseeable,
that they've been unlucky with the weather,
that costs have increased considerably outside of their control,
that the on-time on-budget development at JNPT by the same contractor should be treated as an aberration not a fair comparison,
and so on and so on.


Occam's Razor tells us that "Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected".

[pj 1] 15/6/2017 08:48

Flights actions then just continue and condone exactly what has gone before.

[cannonbeach] 15/6/2017 08:41

I also wrote to Flight in mid-March, chasing him about when he personally told me there would be quarterly mgmt reports and more information for small investors on the website, but heard nothing back.

[pj 1] 15/6/2017 08:18

I tried Flight through his house of commons site. I didn't even get an email acknowledgement never mind any response

[pj 1] 15/6/2017 08:17

orinocor-you have mail.

I assume Pav's hasn't changed from the SPL address

[orinocor] 14/6/2017 23:11

Does anyone have email addresses for Pavan and James Sutcliffe

What about Lord Flight while we're at it?

[orinocor] 14/6/2017 23:07

MT Even though I'm not a holder I for one greatly appreciate all your posts on this scandal. Please keep us updated with your questions to the nomad. I'm especially interested in what has happened to Gandhi's promised share subscription.

[pj 1] 14/6/2017 22:01

I think a point being made is that the NOMAD, PR advisor and NEDS are content to ignore the concerns raised on this BB and by MT (and others), whilst, in a round about way, being guilty of allegedly ripping of shareholders, as it is those shareholders who are footing the Bills at the end of the day.

Surely the NEDS would have raised concerns amongst themselves at least, or are tthey just content to get remunerated for.......doing nothing.

Am I correct in assuming that not only is there no FD (or directly employed CFO), that none of the NEDS have financial qualifications?

Unbelievable