Mercantile Ports & Logis... Share Discussion Threads

[escapetohome] 09/2/2018 09:32

DOWN !!!

And OUT most likely.

[pj 1] 09/2/2018 09:30

Service Service Service

Shame it wasn't Build Build Build !!

I noted the benefits of the Port were all aimed at India. No mention of shareholders, or any mention the Port will be profitable

[waterloo01] 09/2/2018 09:25

No photos one will notice and some claims made in the video that are plainly not accurate. No ships have yet to dock, no as yet has paid anything and the next cash call will be soon and it will be a monster again

[phowdo] 09/2/2018 07:39

They haven't even finished what they said would be done a year ago.
When is the next fundraise to pay off the bank debt?


By the end of the first quarter of 2017 the Company expects to have:
· reclaimed 90 per cent. of the land;
· constructed four berths, three of which will be capable of receiving vessels;
· entered into commercial agreements with end users.

[my retirement fund] 07/2/2018 12:19

Perhaps criticism needs to be aimed alsi directly at the guilty dund managers and institutional managers who put the money up both at the fraudulent IPO/further fundraising MT ?Can you name and shame them ?Perhaps we could all then use that information to avoid these uncaring and unprofessional folk when we come across their other products and services they offer.

[mount teide] 07/2/2018 11:54

Port of Kalundborg to Start Big Expansion Project - Dredging Today


The Port of Kalundborg is working to establish a new port area of 330,000 square meters called the New West Port.

According to the port, the new area will have a 500 meter long quay with the water depth of 15 meters.

The Port of Kalundborg will thereby be the only port at Zealand to offer deep water at the quay immediately next to the T route, which is the deep water route connecting the Baltic Sea and the North Sea.

Out of the 330,000 sqm (82.5 acres), 50,000 will initially be used for Kalundborg Container Terminal, but with the possibility of later expansions, and another 68,500 sqm will be used for a quay road, internal roads, parking.

In total, 211,500 sqm (52.75 acres) can be rented out to companies that wish to establish a production site or for instance need more space for storage, reported the port.

The construction work is expected to start this autumn and the whole port area will be ready for use by 1 February 2019 - total cost 26 million Euro's (£20m).


Why oh why did't MPL management use European consultant engineers to design and oversee construction? They did? But then mysteriously decided to get rid of them and replace them with lord knows who because, the management are still yet to tell the market who redesigned the port layout AFTER Royal Haskoning the consulting engineers who carried out the site surveys and designed the all weather port terminal - a copy of which was kindly provided to the Market by Arden Partners in their late 2013 Note.

Thoughts for the day:

Amazing that cash equivalent to more than twice the budgeted cost to build a large new port area and deep sea container terminal in Kalundborg, Demark, mysteriously disappeared from the MPL's bank accounts BEFORE access to the proposed development site at Karanja was even accessible to COMMENCE land reclamation despite management lying to the market repeatedly in RNS's that up to 500 ITD personal had been on site since early in the previous year carrying out land reclamation - described as progressing in line with the principal contractors and managements expectations.

Amazing that Karanja's current carrying cost is at least FIVE TIMES the budgeted cost to plan and build the 82.5 acres Port of Kalundborg new West Port.

If only the largest shareholders had taken our advice in October 2016 to not support the fraudulent £37m cash raise and hire Marine Consulting Engineers to carry out an immediate cost estimation of the work carried out to date against the carrying cost and, an estimate of the cost through to completion! As pointed out at the time it would cost them collectively a pittance circa £5k-£10k max but, would save them and their UK pension saving clients a large fortune!

Like a horse sometimes you can lead an II to water but you can't make them drink!


All complaints should be forwarded to AIM Regulation and the Serious Fraud Office.

[mount teide] 28/1/2018 12:00

If in the IPO documentation, the market were told investors would get a 360m lightweight open jetty accessed via an approach road at the eastern end and, serviced via a 3.5m deep approach channel capable of handling vessels of a maximum of 4,000 dwt, together with 100 acres of hardstanding, for an estimated total build cost of £108m, they would have been laughed at by the Ports Industry. And told shareholders were certain to lose everything, if it was to be part funded by £49m of debt at 13.5% interest where the banks had hypothecation over the assets in the event of failure to meet the repayment terms of the loan.

Since then the Company has raised the staggering total of £159m in debt and equity (£73m IPO, £49m Debt and £37m Placing & Open Offer) to fund the project which even in its now hugely scaled back form (the Directors preferred option to support raising another £37m!) is still less than half constructed after some 8 years.

If the Directors or Nomad is reading this(we know they do read Advfn), perhaps they can explain to shareholders how the revised port development plan(Directors preferred finish) necessitated the raising of another £37m of funds compared with the original, much higher specification which until last year was cheerfully marketed on the MPL website until, following a series of complaints to the NOMAD, management were forced to remove it, due to the extreme risk of false advertising lawsuits from investors and non compliance with AIM Regulations. When by any objective evaluation it should have resulted in a material reduction in build cost of circa £15m to £25m.

ITD were selected as principal contractor apparently by competitive tender - we are yet to find any evidence this Port Development Project went out to competitive Tender. The £57m contract was described as for Marine Facilities at Karanja, when news of it appeared in the Port Industry Press and on ITD's website under 'new contract' news - since then, nothing.

ITD's 'marine division' contracts on their website describe in considerable detail the scope of the various contracts they have under construction e.g. The Adani Port Container Terminal - 700m quay with 80 acres of hardstanding. The high value Karanja Port is conspicuous by its absence.

If someone were to ask a ports industry professional what 'Marine Facilities' meant, they would say there is insufficient information to even hazard a guess. The range of potential possibilities could vary from say £25m to £1bn in build cost, dependent on dredged depth of the approach channel, berth length, type, load capabilities and water depth, hardstanding area and load requirement etc.

Since 'Marine Facilities' is totally meaningless, it is worth referring back to the Principal Engineer, Royal Haskoning's original design specification for the Port, kindly provided to shareholders by Arden Partners in a 2013 Note, which would have been forwarded together with various other site survey reports to ITD and any others invited to tender for the contract.

What we can say, is the facility being built at Karanja bears no resemblance whatsoever to it. So it begs the question, who prepared the detailed engineering design plans ITD are now using for the revised port specification and open jetty? Surely not the principal contractor ITD?

What we do know, whoever it is, produced the plans well BEFORE 2016, because piling for the jetty commenced on site in January 2016, some 9 months BEFORE the Placing and Open Offer, which contained no mention that the 1000m all weather quay would in fact now be a lightweight 360m open piled jetty, that along with other changes to the port design, would require £37m of additional funds, rather than the reporting back to shareholders of a circa £25m cost saving, that management had prudently used to reduce the bank debt from £49m to £24m.

AIOHO/DYOR

[waterloo01] 01/1/2018 13:48

Tick tock



The new insolvency law "will give a good message that if you do not meet your financial commitments you will not be able to retain your assets,” Mehta said.

[diku] 31/12/2017 18:10

Is the fishy port for fisherman ready to go?....

[escapetohome] 31/12/2017 17:16

A prime candidate for a short then? A total fantasy land from what i have just read.

If you took out a short at 8p and then the company was suspended at 8p,and then delisted - would the short actually make any money? Or would you actually loose your short stake money?

Not sure on that , as i have never shorted a share.

[escapetohome] 31/12/2017 16:51

In third world countries much kudos is placed on zeal, contacts, ability to negotiate officials and ‘ having a go’ rather than qualifications and experience.

That very much seems to be the case here ,and from what i hear to the extent of fraudulent misrepresentation.

I would steer clear of any indian investment, and that is from someone who was raised in india, and who likes the people and the country.

[mount teide] 31/12/2017 16:27

Shareholders should bear in mind that the last two British non execs together with the entire executive Board, who delivered a 97.5% post IPO share-price fall, followed by a shamelessly disingenuous emergency placing using documentation containing construction progress expectation claims that were totally fraudulent in a desperate attempt to raise a further £37m from clueless II's, do not hold ANY shipping or ports industry professional qualifications whatsoever!

Whereas, my two industry friends and i speak from a position of holding the highest professional qualifications both industries currently examine for and can back it up with a combined 70 years senior management experience across both sectors.

[mount teide] 31/12/2017 16:08

fft - 'The animation on the front page www.mercpl.com/ is enough to hold them bang to rights. Cranes, 2 entrances/exits, logistics, containers, 25m to storage etc etc. Looks incredibly like the original plans. No cheap Charlie 2 sided jetty to be seen !'

Incredibly, the management do not share your view - when i put it to them along with the fact that the website description for the project(a legal requirement) also detailed that the Karanja Port development would comprise a 200 acre terminal with a fixed 1000m all weather quay equipped with ship to shore cranes and had done for the previous seven years - the clueless, current CEO and COO laughably stated that "shareholders should not take as fact that what appears on our website or in promotional videos for the port will be exactly what shareholders will get!"

Following a letter of complaint to the Nomad, very shortly afterwards the Project description on the website was removed and replaced with the 400m lightweight, open jetty description.

[tiltonboy] 31/12/2017 08:29

Reminds me of another company many years ago, who had pictures on their website of properties they were purporting to be agents on for sale.

They probably thought they could get away with it, but one of them was a large hotel which they listed as being in another part of the world to where it actually was. I admit it was unlucky on their part, because who on earth would recognise that the hotel was in Costa do Sauipe in Brazil....unless you had been there!

I cannot believe the advisors continue to support such behaviour from the bod.

[fft] 31/12/2017 05:02

PJ1,

The animation on the front page www.mercpl.com/ is enough to hold them bang to rights. Cranes, 2 entrances/exits, logistics, containers, 25m to storage etc etc. Looks incredibly like the original plans. No cheap Charlie 2 sided jetty to be seen !

[mount teide] 29/12/2017 12:37

My heartiest thanks to the utterly mendacious management of MPL.

In 2016, after establishing beyond all reasonable doubt the management had repeatedly lied via verbal and written statements i, along with two industry colleagues elected to take a hefty loss and placed the proceeds into a quoted company operating in the mobile advertising sector, which has since been named AIM Company of the year in its sector for 2017.

Delighted to report the returns have been spectacular, with Taptica's share-price finishing 2017 at an all-time high in a sector with a huge flood tide behind it - the mobile ad sector has quadrupled in size over the last 10 years and is forecast to continue growing in excess of 20% per annum through to 2022.

In MPL's share-price terms the Taptica investment is now equivalent to £1.33, with some analysts forecasting MPL's IPO share-price of £2.50 for 2018.

Sadly, those taken in by your lies now need a 19 bagger here just to match our Taptica investment performance to date!

So certain are we of MPL being a commercial failure because of the appalling behaviour of the management, we are seriously considering breaking a habit of a lifetime and going short MPL in 2018 but, would prefer to see a few more token management buys before we do - to push the share price up so we can maximise our returns.

[mount teide] 22/12/2017 15:43

PJ1 - The Port video had the following opening statement with respect to the design of Karanja Port:

"The port WILL be an ALL WEATHER PORT"

That is as blatant an example of misleading investors as its possible to get. The lightweight open jetty with a single access point at the eastern end is NO such thing and will restrict most if not all dry bulk shipping to just the 7 month dry season.

It is simply impossible to handle this type of shipping during the monsoon season without putting the entire ship's cargo at risk to water damage once the hatch covers come off the vessel cargo holds to commence cargo operations.

If a Port professional were asked to design a port terminal in a region with a monsoon climate and restricted draft access like Karanja Creek on the Uran peninsula, so as to offer the best prospect of achieving commercial success - the design would mirror the all weather terminal design with the fixed quay put together by Royal Haskoning, as detailed in the Arden Partners 2013 Note.

On the other hand if the request was to design a port terminal costing no more than £50m(equal to the bank debt), then what you would end up with is what shareholders are getting at Karanja - a lightweight, low tech weather affected open jetty, serviced with small mobile cranes and grabs, with an average cargo running distance to the open storage compound of 750m.

Never mind the port, where is the 100 acre logistics park that Gandhi told shareholders to expect first revenues from by the end of 2014 in an RNS in early 2014? Some 4 years later in late 2017, work to commence the reclaimation of the land to build the logistics park is still yet to begin! The most blatant example of Fraud by False Representation i've seen outside some of Aim's greatest ever frauds like the Globo Plc scam, which saw £100m of shareholders funds disappear like morning mist from the company's bank accounts.

Answers on postcard to Aim Regulation and the SFO.

AIMHO/DYOR

[lefrene] 22/12/2017 12:06

I agree, stay away from dodgy India, I certainly got burnt on this one. As MT says the Banks will foreclose when the paucity of business fails to support that 13.5% interest rate. Then a 'rescue' consortium will come along and pick the whole thing up for the price of the Bank debt. I strongly suspect the 'rescue' crew will be very well known to Mr Ghandhi. No point in going insolvent until the thing has been completed, so about 18 months then?

I suppose the 1000 claimed metres is both sides of the jetty plus the sheltered quayside. This is effectively a barge port, probably max 5000 tonnes? Perhaps the master plan is to rinse and repeat until Mr Ghandhi has a chain of coastal barge ports?

[pj 1] 22/12/2017 11:19

I have had a quick look at it seems the (pump) proposed Port simulation video has been removed from the web site.

[escapetohome] 22/12/2017 10:12

Stay away from indian investments.

A mountain of hype.

Very little substance.

You dont need all that analysis of trade.

Just stay away.

[mount teide] 22/12/2017 09:51

dvi - its very easy to get bums on seats if you target low value cargo which attracts very low port handling and storage rates - since few terminals want to handle it!

The type of traffic being contracted to Karanja to date most professional port operators would not have entertained, or considered only when all attempts at attracting much higher revenue generating cargo have been exhausted.

Its extremely low value dry bulk cargo, and so can only generate a very low level of handling and storage revenue per tonne handled - compared to handling very high value cargo in deep sea containers at JNPT.

Additionally, much of the dry bulk cargo is going to be seasonal - since the revised much lower spec terminal has no berth weather protection to allow handling of this tyre of cargo during the monsoon season, plus there is now a 750 m run to the storage compound compared to a 25m run for a terminal with a fixed all weather quay as in the original design.

[escapetohome] 22/12/2017 09:26

INDIAH , GO there to learn business ethics!!

[mount teide] 22/12/2017 09:25

OP - 'HE MADE HIS MONEY BY RENTING LAND TO PEOPLE FOR SHORT LEASES AND AT THE END OF THE LEASE KEPT THE BUILDING !!'

You seem to have overlooked one very important point - in this case, the asset Karanja Port reverts back to the MMB the Marine Authority, at the end of the operating lease!

If the Karanja port operator is unable to make the terminal a commercial success(a nailed on 100% guarantee), not only will the banks take the asset back but, the 'value' of the operating lease on the terminal when they market it for a trade sale will be extremely low.