Mercantile Ports & Logis... Share Discussion Threads

[beeks of arabia] 10/8/2017 23:14

He seriously needs to get laid.

[keith95] 10/8/2017 23:12

"despite repeated complaints from shareholders over many years, that the Nomad was failing to conduct effective due diligence"


@SKIL Ports and Logistics, which is developing a modern port and logistics facility in Navi Mumbai, India, is pleased to announce that all resolutions put to Shareholders in connection with the proposed placing, open offer and subscriptions to raise up to GBP37.6 million, as announced by the Company on 31 October 2016, were duly passed.@


The above is the problem - shareholders voted for the placing - to include institutions - people complain all the time - as you are doing now - so if shareholders were grumbling - why keep hold of the shares, and why invest in the placing - over many years.

Doesn't make sense.


Try to keep things brief. I don't have time to wander through your copy and pasting of biblical proportions .... it tends to lose rather than gain and seems highly anal.

[mount teide] 10/8/2017 22:34

For Keith95 - The EU - Europe's largest self serving tax haven? You be the judge!

As the European people well know the Michelin star restaurant fattened con artists in Brussels love spending other people's money and hate paying for anything out of their own pockets.

And one thing they apparently dislike (for public consumption only) more than anything else is Tax Haven's - which is a bit rich considering they have set up and operate a tax haven, which they all personally benefit from that would bring a blush to the cheeks of a New York Crime Boss!

The hypocrisy of Brussels apparatchiks knows no bounds.

Hugely arrogant and self serving Commissioners 'earn' (most would use that word in its loosest possible sense) £50,000 more than the British Prime Minister, pay tax at a negligible rate and rule over a Brussels army of civil servants that pay half the UK tax rate on a staggering average salary of £78,500. Incredibly, at least 1,000 EU officials earn more than our PM and 5 times more than the PM's of 20 EU Nations!

It is hypocrisy of the highest order to attack the morality of those who use tax havens but fail to recognise that they personally benefit from an effective tax haven in Brussels – set up especially for them and their unelected, unaccountable and hugely overpaid and over-pensioned colleagues, to live lifestyles that 99.9999% of the Europeans that are forced to pay for it, can only dream about.

No wonder none of them ever willingly give up their jobs! And the huge tax free benefits don't stop there. How about NO VAT on a new luxury car or household goods - yes the Eurocrats all benefit from these 'small' perks of office, along with a fantastic free family health care package ( think 5 star BUPA encrusted with diamonds and rubies!).

And for the King of the EU tax dodgers look no further than hip flask Junker. He turned Luxembourg into the EU version of Mossack Fonsecka on steroids. Juncker's scandalous and unconscionable financial scams explain why the ratio of foreign investment to GDP in Luxembourg is the highest in the world at a stratospheric 4,700 % (compared to the UK, at a paltry 50%). Cameron was like a chicken with no head trying to prevent Junker's 'election' to his current post which like most of Cameron's EU crusades ended in abject failure.

What's worse is that a majority of individuals working in the private sector in Belgium pay an income tax of 45-50%, while the Brussel's Eurocrat Mafia leadership and foot soldiers working for the European institutes within the EU capital pay a tiny fraction of the amount.

Eurocrats decided they should not have to pay any council tax - neither in Brussels, where they stay, nor abroad, where they have their domicile - absolutely nowhere do Eurocrats pay for the infrastructure and services they use.

On top of this, they pay a tiny pittance in tax for the hugely expensive private European Schools their children attend free of charge. Eurocrats based in Strasbourg do not even pay at all for the local European Private School. Even when retired, Eurocrats keep on enjoying their ultra-low income tax, no matter where they live in the EU or Switzerland.

The whole miserable experiment is a corrupt, high cost, undemocratic failure - for all but the hugely well remunerated, unelected tax haven specialists and their armies of extremely well heeled administrative staff.

Moral of the story - if you're a Brussels Bureaucrat, move heaven and earth to keep the gold plated gravy train rolling and your nose firmly ensconced in the tax haven trough - EU personal tax haven specialists, err sorry EU bureaucrats - don't you just love them!

Scandalously, the shameless liberal left establishment still want to 'protect' the UK's membership of this high cost protection racket, that makes Sepp Blatter's FIFA Mafia Crime Family look a paragon of virtue by comparison. Thankfully the ever savvy British people decided otherwise last June, once they were given the opportunity(thanks Nigel) for the first time in 44 long years to have a say in the matter - the rest as they say is history.

The arrogant hugely embittered European left knew they were increasingly incapable of winning elections across Europe, so decades ago pushed the unconscionable development of the EU as a federalist organisation run by unelected commissioners, in order to maintain their grip on power at the expense of mere Nation state democracy. It was achieved without the consultation of over 500 million European people, most of whom are now politically helpless and impotent following this odious and shameless coup d'etat!

[mount teide] 10/8/2017 21:50

keith95 - its always wise never to make assumptions on the basis of partial or incomplete research.

I put to the Nomad immediately following the publication of the Placing document, that many of the highly price sensitive claims and expectations within it, were complete fiction - totally impossible to achieve, and said it would be surprising if Mercantile actually achieved a rate of construction progress one fifth of what they were claiming the Market should expect to see achieved - it turns out i was wrong, they in fact achieved just 10% of that figure - which they subsequently had the gall to describe nine months later as "work is progressing apace!".

Are you really suggesting the Nomad has no responsibility, when its representatives travelled to India prior to the publication of the Placing and Open Offer Documentation and failed to check that NO land reclamation had been taking place whatsoever for four months prior to publication of the Placing document and, would not begin again for at least two months afterwards, despite the Placing documentation fraudulently claiming that work had progressed on-site without material interruption since Oct 2015, and telling the market to expect ludicrously optimistic construction progress targets that were physically impossible to achieve, since the Company had no intention of carrying out any land reclamation work whatsoever throughout the entire period - how can Mercantile claim to have a target of a further 65 acres of land reclamation by Jan 2017, when they know very well they will achieve ZERO acres because, the Company is not carrying out any land reclamation work.

If you carried out even some basic research, you should in common with many shareholders who are not ports or shipping sector professionals, still be able to quickly establish that the market has an enormous volume of evidence with which to strongly make the case that the Nomad has routinely failed to conduct adequate due diligence on many Mercantile RNS Statements, Results Statements and the Placing and Open Offer, with regard to the accuracy of many highly material and price sensitive comments contained therein - despite repeated complaints from shareholders over many years, that the Nomad was failing to conduct effective due diligence.

In the opinion of a good friend who we first met at a School of Martime Studies over 40 years ago, and is now a highly distinguished Shipping & Marine Lawyer; after reviewing our Mercantile file of evidence, like us, he considers a number of Mercantile's highly material and price sensitive statements comfortably meet/pass the test for Fraud by False Representation.

AIOHO/DYOR

The UK voted to leave the EU - which Donald Tusk the President of the European Council beautifully explained for those who are not sure what they means - it means leaving the Single Market and Customs Union. There is no soft brexit, hard brexit or medium rare Brexit - a Nation is either in the EU, single market and customs union or outside it, like the USA, Canada and Japan who still all do enormous volumes of trade with the EU - the UK voted out, which means leaving the World's highest cost protection racket and Customs Union!

[keith95] 10/8/2017 20:27

escapetohome

"I can see now investors want their money back and one way would be to sue the nomad."

I dunno how you can sue the Nomad - Cenkos had conditions attached:





The Placing Agreement contains certain warranties and indemnities from the Company in favour of Cenkos Securities and is conditional, inter alia, upon:

(a) the passing of the Resolutions at the General Meeting;


Cenkos Securities may terminate the Placing Agreement if, inter alia: the Company is in material breach of any of its obligations under the Placing Agreement; or there has occurred, in the opinion of Cenkos Securities, acting in good faith, a material adverse change in the business of the Group or in the financial or trading position or prospects of the Group.

Seems to me that shareholders voted for this placing .....

see



SKIL Ports and Logistics, which is developing a modern port and logistics facility in Navi Mumbai, India, is pleased to announce that all resolutions put to Shareholders in connection with the proposed placing, open offer and subscriptions to raise up to GBP37.6 million, as announced by the Company on 31 October 2016, were duly passed.


Always wise to read the small print .... this is what shareholders voted for .. time to get over it.

I'm sure Brexitears are familiar with this line.

[phowdo] 10/8/2017 10:52

There's a lot of folk in the city hoping MPL will just quietly disappear.
(After they've earnt their fees of course...)

[pj 1] 10/8/2017 10:44

Embarassing

Perhaps mitigated somewhat if Cenkos have already resigned (or given notice to resign) and MPL are siting on the RNS, and they argue its a list of current clients.

Nothing more than thoughts.....

[mount teide] 10/8/2017 10:30

Latest correspondence to Cenkos's Compliance Executive, copied to the New MD, a former Bank of England economist appointed last week.


Dear Amber,

As a shareholder of Cenkos Securities stock, according to the Cenkos website - Cenkos did three placings in November 2016

£6m - Filta
£4m - Inspiration Healthcare
£16m - GCP Asset Backed Income Fund

How does a Company so adept at self promotion, completely forget to tell the World about Cenkos’s largest November 2016 Placing, the £36m they raised for Mercantile Ports & Logistics - a sum greater than all the other three placings combined!

A friend recalls the Mercantile Placing being included in an earlier listing but, it since has mysteriously disappeared.

If this is the case perhaps Cenkos can explain why?

If it is not the case, can Cenkos explain why such a material Placing for the company is not on the Website List of Transactions, considering its importance in terms of fee value earned by Cenkos.


Kind regards

[mount teide] 07/8/2017 13:28

A tale of two Indian Ports both having terminal capacity built for them since 2013 by ITD Cementation.

Adani Ports new 800m deep sea container terminal extension was recently completed on schedule inside two years and to budget(£152m).

Karanja Ports coaster and barge terminal is in year five and counting of construction and, the land reclamation is still not yet half complete and already £95m has implausibly been 'spent' for throwing reclamation material over 90 acres of foreshore and laying 160 shallow water jetty piles! Estimated final cost £148m!

Some £89m more than the winning fixed price tender contract to complete the marine civil engineering works for the complete 200 acre Karanja IPO specification; which the extra £37m was raised for according to the Nomad, to ensure the entire 200 acres is built in one phase, as per the requirement of the IPO Listing documentation - how's that progressing Mr Stephen Keys?


Adani Ports took a market listing in early 2013 - it is interesting to see how each company has fared in valuation since:

Early 2013 - to date

+380% - Adani Ports & Logistics
-97% - Mercantile (and this was on top of a 44% fall between IPO and early 2013!)

Who said management don't make a difference!

AIOHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 07/8/2017 11:30

For the record - with the exception of the RNS updating the status of Nikhil Gandhi's subscription share farce, and changing the fraudulent Mercantile website description of the berth specification from an all weather 1,000m fixed quay equipped with ship to shore cranes TO, a 400m lightweight open jetty with an average 1.8km round trip running distance ship to storage park, and restricted use during the 4-6 month monsoon season, we have yet to receive any reply to any of the other serious complaints we have forwarded to the Nomad.

Perhaps an email to the new MD filling him in on the background, may elicit a more productive response!

Shareholders will do well to appraise themselves of the latest update of Major Shareholders on the Mercantile Website - it makes very interesting reading!

It looks like some of Mercantile's long term II's have become very shy and retiring recently - i wonder why?

[saikat] 06/8/2017 21:16

Mrx - excellent post long before it was all obvious.

The funny bit is that everybody knows that the company is a scam. Pawan and Nikhil knows it; they know that you know it; and you know that they know that you know it; and they know that you know that they know that you know it - and so on - all common knowledge.

If London cannot pack them away behind bars for a few decades with all the information that is now known, London is remarkably corrupt - they know that they are corrupt - but they probably think stupid London will pave their way in gold.

[mrx9000] 05/8/2017 18:22

Blimey, forgot about these! I remember putting together a bear case a few years back, but not many people listened...

[mount teide] 05/8/2017 11:57

Paul Scott's view of the £37m Placing and Open Offer at 10p, a 96% discount to the IPO price.

'Lessons learned - yet another AIM overseas disaster. Suspending my usual blanket rule of avoiding all of them, ended up being a mistake here. Plenty of people warned me, but I (wrongly) thought I knew best. Although in mitigation, I did stick to my 50% trailing stop loss, and chucked them out once that level had been reached.

Optimists might say that SPL (which is changing its name to Mercantile Ports & Logistics Ltd) is now funded to complete the project, and that the difficult work has been paid for by the original shareholders. The key thing now would be to find out what sort of revenues & profits the completed project will be able to achieve?'

Paul, shareholders have waited in vain 7 years for the Board to give some projections. We have specifically requested that information on numerous occasions without any success. We are of the view the management haven't a clue - hence the ludicrous and clueless comment they are looking to outsource the operation of the port terminal to a third party terminal operator(who naturally will want their management fee!).

We have run the numbers following the wholly implausible uplift in construction cost from £110m to £148m, and the material increase in operating cost from the change to a single end access, lightweight, open cargo jetty. Using the tariff handling and storage rates currently enjoyed by shipping lines operating to Mumbai port terminals, together with industry assumptions for labour and operating costs etc - the results are totally horrific and hopelessly uncommercial, as we told the management they would be if the build cost of the terminal were to materially increase.

Who other than a bunch of totally incompetent fools or those operating a massive financial scam tells the market they may need to raise substantial further funds MONTHS BEFORE they actually attempt to raise the money!

AIOHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 04/8/2017 12:19

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 Insider lending at Mercantile Shareholder's expense?

SKIL/Mercantile 2012 Accounts - buried away in the accounts is a Loan at a highly preferential rate to an insider. Not just any insider but to a company controlled by our 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 held with relatively secure, regulated, institutions.


AIOHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 04/8/2017 08:18

Cenkos Securities - oh dear!

To lose a founding CEO is unfortunate although not altogether unexpected after reporting a massive drop in profits for 2016.

To lose a CEO and the CFO within 2 months of each other is almost unprecedented, even by the dodgy standards of the City.


In May 2017, in a complete surprise to the City, Cenkos founder and CEO Jim Durkin announced he is to step down in September 2017, after reporting a four-fifths fall in full-year profits for 2016.

Posters may recall, in 2015 he was forced to suspend his head of life sciences research, Navid Malik, over allegations that the analyst had an improper relationship with the Neil Woodford-backed drug developer Northwest Biotherapeutics.

And then in 2016 Cenkos was hit by a £535,500 fine over its sponsorship of Quindell. The Financial Conduct Authority, which issued the penalty, criticised Cenkos for INSUFFICIENT RESEARCH(well, well - you don't say!) of Quindell’s eligibility for a premium exchange listing, after a hugely embarrassing failed attempt to move Quindell from the junior Aim market to a main market listing.

Stunning the City again this morning, Cenkos announces that the CFO will also be stepping down.

Would be fascinating to know how Jim would describe Cenkos's relationship with Mercantile? And in particular their Mercantile account representative's relationship and, the 'quality' of his 'research' for Mercantile's RNS Statements and Shareholders Circulars for Placing and Open Offers, considering what the market now knows?


AIOHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 01/8/2017 13:40

Sufficient additional funds(£37m) were raised (DECEITFULLY IN OUR OPINION), from clueless II's in October 2016 for Mercantile to probably continue with their present 'MO' until Feb 2019.

To achieve this, we predict, contrary to the explicit assertions of the NOMAD, Mercantile will likely elect to thumb their nose at a key requirement of the IPO Documentation - namely, the requirement to reclaim all 200 acres in a single development phase.

This highly predictable and near certain reckless move, will once again put Mercantile in breach of the Operating Concession - although, we doubt this will cause Mercantile to lose any sleep, since they already have appalling 'form' in this connection, with a number of previous Concession breaches, which astonishingly, are still yet to be addressed after nearly a year, despite the clear risk of Revocation of the Concession for failing to do so! We have pointed this out to the Nomad on numerous occasions during the last 9 months, via telephone and written communication with absolutely no response from either them or the Company!

By ignoring the IPO requirement, much of the ludicrous £48m of further 'development cost' (on top of the scandalous circa £95m 'spent' to date, for 90 acres of foreshore reclamation and 160 shallow water piles), will not need to be 'spent' for this purpose, leaving it available for 'spending' elsewhere, similar to where the previous £95m went!

So as previously forecast, shareholders should expect the day of reckoning to be drawn out as much as possible by Mercantile failing to do what the NOMAD representative said was the express purpose of the £37m cash raise - "to ensure sufficient funds are ALWAYS available to fully develop the 200 acres of land reclamation and 600m of berths as specified IN THE IPO DOCUMENTATION IN ONE GO. MERCANTILE HAD TO RAISE MORE CASH AS SOON AS THEY FOUND THEY DID NOT HAVE SUFFICIENT FUNDS TO BUILD THE PORT TO THE IPO SPECIFICATION" - REMEMBER THAT COMMENT Mr Stephen Keys? - WE PREDICT IT IS HIGHLY LIKELY TO COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU AND THE NOMAD!

This will not in any way change the certain fate of Mercantile - the Banks taking over the assets - just modestly delay it by another 6 to 12 months - so sadly, nothing heartening here for II shareholders who used their clients retirement funds to average down at a 96% discount to the IPO price at which many first took some initial exposure.

If some 8 years following IPO, shareholders see the start up of very limited operations next spring/summer and, the so called 'Directors Preferred Specification' has generated no more than the following Port Development - 360m lightweight open jetty for limited SEASONAL AND TIDAL USE, 100 acres of hardstanding and, a two mile entrance road which is nothing more than a monsoon affected heavily potholed dirt track, then shareholders can be as certain as night following day the next phase of the 'scam' is well underway and delivering results.

What should II shareholders do ?

Remove the CEO, and replace him with an industry professional, tasked with bringing in:

A firm of forensic fraud accountants to;
Go through the books and in particular all ITD Cementation invoicing with a fine tooth comb. (Don't forget the ever scheming, insider trading white collar criminal Executive Chairman is currently the subject of a high court case for issuing a signed blank cheque to the main contractor for the Pipavav port development and incredibly, along with his family the recipient of writs and a Special Fraud Office Investigation for allegedly siphoning tens of £millions out of a previous company he had executive responsibility for!).


A marine engineering consultant to:
Go through the Port build Contract, payment structure, invoicing, main terms etc Produce a 'second opinion' cost estimate for the construction work at Karanja completed to date and, that budgeted through to completion.

Sadly for PI's the chances of this happening are about as likely as Dianne Abbott passing the examinations to become a Chartered Accountant. The II's simply would rather let this die a quiet death than to open a can of worms that has the near certain potential in our opinion, of hugely embarrassing their companies and making them as individuals, look like complete mugs.


AIOHO/DYOR

[my retirement fund] 01/8/2017 09:55

Are they bust yet?

[mount teide] 28/7/2017 11:48

Latest correspondence with Compliance Executive at Nomad.

Good afternoon Amber, its that time of the week again!


IPO Documentation - Deed of Lease

With the exciting news that Karanja Terminal is just months away from commencing operations according to the latest RNS Statements, rather worryingly, conspicuous by its absence is any confirmation as to how the Acquisition of the Land for the road linking the new Port Terminal to the nearest major highway some two miles away, is progressing.

Like some extremely concerned shareholders, you may be aware, the current access for construction vehicles to the site, is by way of a heavily potholed, single lane dirt track, much of which is underwater during the 5 month Monsoon season preventing access for aggregate trucks.

I would refer you to the IPO Documentation:

'Acquisition of land for the road linking the Multi-purpose Terminal to the nearest major access road'

'The Deed of Lease requires the Company to develop and build the approach road to the Multi-purpose Terminal from the nearest major access road. The Group will be reliant on the co-operation of the Public Works Department of the State of Government of Maharashtra for the approval of the construction of the road and possibly to share the costs of the construction and adoption of the road. Any failure by the Group to acquire the relevant land and build the relevant infrastructure on it may result in the termination of the Deed of Lease, which will have a material adverse effect on the Group’s business, financial condition and results of operations.'


Mercantile has failed to update the Market during the last 7 years as to:

How the acquisition of the Land is progressing?
What co-operation Mercantile is receiving from the Public Works Dept(PWD)?
How the Approval Process for the Construction of the new road is progressing?
When the Market can expect to see Plans and a timetable for construction of the road?
How much of the Cost of the Road Mercantile has been able to get the PWD to agree to pay?
How discussions with the PWD are progressing, with regard to the Adoption of the new road?

Just months away from the commencement of limited operations at Karanja, how comfortable is the Maharashtra Maritime Board(MMB) with the situation that after 7 years, the company is apparently yet to secure the approvals for the new access road, never mind commence construction - because many shareholders are anything but comfortable!


How can the company expect to commence vessel operations by year end, if the required new road to provide a safe, reliable, all weather access for Heavy Goods Vehicles is yet to obtain the necessary approvals, never mind advise when construction is to begin?

In the IPO Document, the Company & Nomad kindly highlighted that a failure to execute this requirement to the satisfaction of the MMB MAY RESULT IN THE TERMINATION OF THE DEED OF LEASE AND THE LOSS OF ALL SHAREHOLDER VALUE. Since we are yet to find any evidence in Company Statements that any progress has been made in this connection, perhaps you could kindly help calm the very reasonable fears of concerned shareholders by, arranging for the Company/Nomad to advise by way of Company RNS the current situation and, what the NOMAD and NED's have been doing during the last 7 years to protect shareholders investment interests with regard to compliance with this issue?

Kind regards,

[waterloo01] 28/7/2017 08:35

MT, the fund manager has probably realised that the cash is as good as gone and they are unlikely to be able to recover much of anything, so better cover their backsides and keep their jobs, rather than continue to admit, they didn't do sufficient DD nor understand the nature of the business and the reputation (!) of it's BOD.

The gravy train goes on. Wouldn't be surprised to see a holding RNS at some point where they have transferred (at book value?) to another fund (India or infrastructure) where it can be buried and eventually written off as a total loss.

If the regulators will do nowt, maybe the FT (Neil Hume) would be the next stop before MP's return and a written question can be laid down?

[mount teide] 27/7/2017 21:31

SPL/MPL - another example of why it's important for investors to NEVER again trust a management once their credibility has been seriously called into question, never mind their honesty.


Back in JAN 2013 - after SPL's share price had fallen over 60% some 2.5 years post IPO, and well past the date white collar criminal Executive CHAIRMAN Nikhil Gandhi told shareholders to expect first revenues from the Port Facility, the management were finally forced to COME CLEAN and admit the COMPANY WAS STILL YET TO SECURE THE VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL CONSENTS TO ENABLE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PORT TO BEGIN - an SPL shareholder who shall remain nameless made the following post(my comments with the benefit of some further hindsight are in brackets):



Ten reasons to invest in SKIL Ports & Logistics?

1. Approx 140p a share cash (80% rupee/20% sterling). Share price is 106p. Low burn rate at the moment (FAMOUS LAST WORDS!)

2. Minutes confirming final approval to commence construction expected very soon. Days not weeks? (IT WOULD BE ANOTHER TWO YEARS BEFORE THE FIRST AGGREGATE TRUCK WAS DRIVEN ONTO THE SITE TO COMMENCE LAND RECLAMATION WORK)

3. Board including two brits with shipping pedigree (ABP Ports CEO is one!) - (AND WHAT A MARVELLOUS JOB OF OVERSIGHT THEY HAVE DONE FOR £300K AND COUNTING OF SHAREHOLDERS FUNDS EACH!)

4. SKIL have done this before, which gives them an edge. Pipavav is listed on the Indian stockmarket. Nikhil Gandhi is very well connected. The new port project looks much less complicated - thus the quick construction. (HALL & OATES SAID - SOME THINGS ARE BETTER LEFT UNSAID - HOW RIGHT THEY WERE!)

5. Working 24/7, construction should be finished by end of 2013 and generating income by the end of the summer. Live streaming of progress likely to be available on their webite by March. (OH DEAR! - SEE POINT 4 - BIZARRELY, SHAREHOLDERS HIRED LIGHT AIRCRAFT FLYING OVER THE SITE FAILED TO PICK ANY OF THIS UP)

6. The nearest port (JNPT) is at 110% capacity so demand is clearly there locally.Ports up and down the West Coast are full of ships awaiting entry into Mumbai. (JNPT RESPONDED BY DOUBLING THE CAPACITY OF THE CONTAINER PORT BEFORE THE LITTLE BARGE AND COASTER TERMINAL AT KARANJA IS EVEN HALF BUILT!)

7. When launched at 250p in 2010, Cenkos gave a price target of 750p - has this investment case changed at all? ( UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE DECADE! - AT 4P THE CURRENT MARKET CAP IS £16M - CENKOS'S 'PRESCIENT' PRICE TARGET WOULD BE EQUIVALENT TODAY TO A MARKET CAP OF £3bn, or £270m pre dilution - BOTH ARE UTTERLY RIDICULOUS),

8. India has only 8% of India's port capacity but both economies still growing so long term demand for port capacity looks obvious. (READS LIKE ANOTHER SLICK, CAREFULLY CRAFTED MPL RNS!)


9. Indian government plan to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure from 2012-2017. No sign of this yet but in the first few weeks of 2013,we have seen a commitment - both nationally and locally to get things moving. (VERY LITTLE SIGN OF IT 5 YEARS LATER - MOST INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT HAS BEEN FUNDED BY THE PRIVATE SECTOR)


10. A small free float so any good news and there is a chance of a very sharp rally as investors wake up to the distressed valuation and market makers are caught short of stock. (FUNNILY ENOUGH IN THE 7 YEARS SINCE IPO, THE LAST THING MM'S HAVE HAD TO WORRY ABOUT IS FINDING THEMSELVES SHORT OF STOCK!)


NOW WE GET TO THE INTERESTING BIT - IF ONLY THIS INVESTOR HAD ACTED ON HIS OWN JUDGEMENT/OBSERVATIONS/COMMENTS:

To counter this bull case, debt will be required (£40m?) to finish the job. (£48M IN FACT - OF WHICH £17M PLUS £24M OF SHAREHOLDERS CASH DISAPPEARED INTO THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT ETHER BEFORE A SINGLE AGGREGATE TRUCK HAD SET A WHEEL ON THE SITE TO BE
DEVELOPED!)

I don't see a problem here but it does add to uncertainty and makes the investment speculative. (A VISIT TO SUPERSAVERS MAY BE IN ORDER BECAUSE TO MOST INVESTORS AND THE FRAUD SQUAD A £17M/LOAN + £24M IN CASH DISAPPEARING BEFORE ANY WORK ON SITE BEGAN IS THE LAST THING PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS IN THE PORTS SECTOR WOULD EXPECT TO SEE FROM PROFESSIONAL PORT MANAGEMENT.


Currency risk also a factor although I have seen predictions of a 10% rally in the rupee in 2013 so it might work in our favour. (CURRENCY RISK PROVED TO BE THE LEAST OF SHAREHOLDERS WORRIES AT THE RATE THIS LOT WERE BURNING THROUGH IT!)

The crebility of management has also been damaged by the long delays - can they really still build the port so quickly and to budget? Will they keep investors better informed going forward? (WHY OH WHY DID YOU NOT ACT ON YOUR EXCELLENT OBSERVATIONS, AFTER IT BECAME OBVIOUS WITHIN 6 MONTHS OF POSTING THESE COMMENTS THAT NOTHING HAD CHANGED!)

For readers information, following this post, it was almost two years to the day and after circa £44m of cash 'burn' and a pack of lies masquerading as RNS statements THROUGHOUT 2014, before a truck finally dumped the first AGGREGATE load on the foreshore at Karanja! AND THEN THE REAL PROBLEMS STARTED FOR SHAREHOLDERS!

The rest as they say is HISTORY - yet after all this, it simply beggared belief that the clueless, due diligence and common sense averse II's WOULD STUN PORT AND SHIPPING INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS, BY THROWING ANOTHER £30m OF THEIR INVESTORS RETIREMENT FUNDS ONTO THE RAGING, COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL KARANJA BONFIRE.


AIMHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 27/7/2017 17:37

According to an industry friend, fellow ex SPL shareholder and investor with one of Mercantile's largest Institutional shareholders, the fund management team is now routing all client calls:

REF: Mercantile & Logistic; through their Director of Strategic Communications, whose role apparently, is to: 'work out what the business should be saying to the world about what we do for investors.....to make all communications with end investors - our customers - the best they can be, reflecting our social purpose and our values.'

Do these people not understand that with patronising nonsense like that, they come across as taking their clients for idiots?

Anyhow, the present role holder apparently does a perfect impression of Mercantile NED, James Stocks Sutcliffe!

I am unable to speak about that
I am unable to talk about that
We are unable to discuss individual fund investments

Really? That's strange my friend said, because up until a few months ago the fund manager was singing like a canary about Mercantile and what he thought of the 'hopeless' CEO and white collar criminal masquerading as the Executive Chairman ('yes, his background does not read well' - you don't say!)

What could have possibly changed to cause such a complete radio silence since then?

Answers on postcard to the Mercantile's defence counsel err sorry NOMAD representative, and AIM Regulation.