Mercantile Ports & Logis... Share Discussion Threads

[mount teide] 23/6/2017 20:05

FWIW - I would expect the asset the banks take back to have a build cost around the £45m of bank debt remaining at that time and a market value of £30m to £35m.

orinocur - three times the proceeds of the Brinks Matt job could prove to be a very accurate estimate when the dust finally settles on MPL.


AIMHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 23/6/2017 19:45

orinocur - MPL had £61m of cash and debt drawdown remaining as of 31/12/2016.

With loan capital and interest payments of circa £12m falling due in Feb 2018, i do not expect MPL to be around to make the second circa £12m payment in Feb 2019.

To make the heavily scaled back port specification operational in 2018, as a minimum requires the following work to be completed and equipment purchased:

Further land development to lay 90 acres of block paving
Berth piling completed and jetty platform constructed,
Jetty fendering system installed,
Construction of reinforced service road between jetty and storage compound,
Site and jetty services installed(water and power),
Back-up Emergency Generator installed,
Engineering workshop built and equipped,
Berth and storage compound lighting towers installed,
2km of perimeter security fencing erected,
In/out gate reception facilities built,
Office accommodation built,
Jetty cranes, and fleet of lift trucks and low build cargo transport trailers bought Warehousing and transhipment facilities built,
Customs inspection facilities built,
Reinforced block paving parking area at terminal entrance built


The bank interest forecast suggests most of the remaining £25m will be drawn down in early 2017 - therefore lets be generous and say a similar cash spend in H1/2017 as H2/2016 of circa £25m

This would leave around £36m (£61m - £25m) by end of June 2017. With £12m of debt and loan capital falling due in Feb 2018, this would suggest they have a max of £24m to do all the above by Feb 2018 and, to retain some cash for working capital purposes, once limited operations begin.

This suggests to me MPL will most likely run out of cash and get the asset taken over by the banks probably sometime in Q3/Q4 2018 - what is absolutely certain is that if by some stroke of good fortune MPL is still alive by Feb 2019, then the £12m of bank capital and interest payment which falls due that month will be the Coup de Gras.


AIMHO/DYOR

[orinocor] 23/6/2017 19:10

hxxp://www.shareprophets.com/views/29910/for-the-record-no-2-nomad-cenkos-again-put-on-record-abouur-rns-lies-by-client-mercantile-ports-logistics

When AIM listed Mercantile Ports & Logistics (MPL) disappears up in smoke having sent tens of millions of UK Investor cash to money heaven, the stink will force Nomad Cenkos to show that it acted in a way that did not bring the Casino into disrepute, as it did when it allowed Quindell to commit wholesale fraud. Thus one shareholder, a veteran of the ports and logistics industry, is putting Cenkos on record now so that it can have no excuse at the death. letter one HERE raised clear questions of fraud. Now the shareholder has followed up with a second letter to the head of corporate governance at Lagos Securities, Amber Wood, cc'ing in Redleaf, the PR to Mercantile as well as Quindell at the height of that fraud. ETC ETC

[orinocor] 23/6/2017 18:24

Sorry waterloo1 I'm trying not to laugh. From the information available it's possible £75 million is unaccounted for. For those responsible, not being allowed to do business in the UK again is not going to be a problem!

[mount teide] 23/6/2017 12:42

For anyone considering an investment in Mercantile Ports and Logistics(share price currently down 98% post IPO for the development of a fully funded real estate asset), or possibly any AIM company - listed below is a summary of my experience of 'communicating' with those, with Corporate Governance or Regulatory responsibilities to fulfil with respect to shareholders, other stakeholders and the General Public.


Emailed/Written to MPL 3 times - no reply or acknowledgement
Emailed/Written to Main Contractor 3 times - no reply or acknowledgement
Emailed/Written to an Executive Director 2 times - no reply or acknowledgement
Emailed/Written to the MMB(Mumbai Port Authority) - no reply or acknowledgement
Emailed/Written to Nomad 3 times - no reply or acknowledgement

Written to Aim Regulator - acknowledgement only

Emailed/Written to Redleaf Comms on numerous occasions - always received an immediate reply or acknowledgement. Why Redleaf is continuing to put at risk their generally good City reputation(they are doing a fine job for CTR which we also hold), by helping a failed management(at shareholders expense), try and put a rich deep gloss on the total investment disaster that is MPL is a complete mystery, only perhaps plausible if Redleaf is being rewarded at MPL shareholders expense with a contract generous beyond the realms of avarice.


No investment advice intended, offered or inferred.

AIOHO/DYOR

[my retirement fund] 22/6/2017 14:23

Yes Naibu a AIM fraud dating back to 2015 company listed all its assets seem to have been fictitious and the ceo stole the entire cash put in by the British ipo investors. Again extremely brazen. AIM did nothing nor did the British fraud office and nearly 3 years later they are still struggling for even a gram of justice!

[smicker] 22/6/2017 09:17

Worth reading the end of the Naibu RNS this morning. Board going after those who helped facilitate it.

[mount teide] 22/6/2017 01:32

According to the Mumbai Met Office the monsoon season arrived at Mumbai on 12th June.

With the management now claiming the Port will be operational in a very limited form by early 2018, it was interesting to note, NO mention was made in the Prelims about the means of access to the Port for commercial traffic from the main highway on the Uran peninsula.

Currently, the 2 mile 'road' is a single lane dirt track. With the monsoon season scheduled to run until well into November, is MPL management seriously suggesting they will be opening the new £150m Karanja Port Terminal with a heavily potholed, poorly maintained dirt track as the only means of access for commercial vehicles?

At this stage it is very difficult to see how it can be avoided - reinforcing yet again the absolutely atrocious level of planning carried out by the executive management.


MPL Management's RNS Statements - hopeless optimism or wilful deception? It can't be both - you be the judge!

Here is a little taster from the rich smorgasbord of material provided by the Management/Nomad/Comms Agency during just the last few years:

RNS - December 2014 - Karanja project update
'Following the ceremony on 1 December, 2014 attended by the Honourable Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Nikhil Gandhi reiterated the Company's targeted opening of the port at Karanja by the end of 2015.'
Reality? In June 2017, Gandhi shamelessly informs the Market about the possibility of limited operations actually commencing in early 2018 with 2 small jetty berths.


'With piling expected to progress at a rate of 4-6 piles per week, the Company expects construction of a sufficient part of the jetty to be completed by the end of October 2015, thereby enabling partial opening of the port by the end of the year.'
Reality: berth piling did not even commence until Jan 2016


RNS - April 2015 - Project Update
"Progress has been made and the pace of works earlier this year gives me confidence that the management will deliver a part operating facility by the end of 2015.' N.Gandhi
Reality: Gandhi knew very well this was total nonsense and brazen misrepresentation, since berth piling was yet to get underway and in fact did not even start until 9 months later in early 2016.

'In addition, the Company expects to host a computer generated video of the project on its website (www.skilpl.com) in early January 2015 which should enable shareholders to visualise the project better.'
Reality: what shareholders are going to see for £150m of cash and debt is not anything remotely similar to that computer generated video of a 1,000m fixed quay and 200 acres of hardstanding and warehousing, which still today is on the front page of MPL's website.

'A port and logistics facility at Karanja has been a vision of mine for a number of years and I am staking my reputation of 25 years on ensuring that we have an operational port, that is fully funded, by the end of 2015' N Gandhi
Reality: berth piling still yet to commence by the end of 2015.

RNS after RNS, that does not bear any resemblance to subsequent reality. I could go on and on with many further examples, perhaps topped by one of the AIM markets greatest ever Fiction Publications, the MPL Shareholders Circular to raise another £37m, which the passage of time has shown to be a fiction masterpiece - sadly, the picture is crystal clear for all who have wanted to see.

If the Nomad had carried out its responsibilities and undertaken some basic on-site due diligence to check the proposed contents of the Shareholders Circular for accuracy. They could have asked Management why the principal contractor had carried out NO land reclamation in the 4.5 months before the proposed publication date of the Circular and, would not begin again for a further 2 months afterwards. Thereby revealing all the construction progress targets in the document to be a total fabrication. This one simple check, could have potentially saved investors from almost certainly seeing another £37m of their funds disappear like morning mist into the Indian sub continent ether!

Incredibly, post the cash raise and shocking news that MPL had in fact carried out ZERO land reclamation between June 2016 and Jan 2017, MPL management then rubs salt into investors open wounds by shamelessly announcing an ongoing project cash burn up in the stratosphere - multiples more than could reasonably be expected, including a staggering circa £21m spend during Q4/2016 when there was no onsite land reclamation or berth piling going on whatsoever - and during a 12 months period June 2016 - June 2017 in which MPL delivered less than 10% of that the Market were told to expect in the Shareholders Circular to raise another £37m.

Do you think shareholders that have seen the loss of 97% of their investment since IPO, and 50% since the £37m recent cash raise, might have a case against the Nomad and Comms Agency for aiding and abetting what looks to many industry professionals as a clear example of fraud by misrepresentation - particularly since it involves an MPL Executive Chairman currently making the news in India on multipole fronts for all the wrong reasons, as the subject of insider dealing charges brought by the market regulator, along with Indian High Court criminal proceedings for issuing a signed blank cheque to a major port contractor, and the recipient of writs for allegedly siphoning off tens of £millions out of a quoted company he had previous executive responsibility for.

As one badly burnt ex shareholder said, "If you value your wealth and health, invest in this management at your peril !"

No investment advice intended, offered or inferred.

AIOHO/DYOR

[mount teide] 21/6/2017 15:56

Prelims:

'The Company's discussions with the contractor regarding the optimum configuration of the facility have continued to progress well. '

Yes, ITD must have been delighted. But, spare a thought for the mugs, sorry Institutional shareholders, that have mostly funded this debacle, and who to date have seen a staggering £38m overspend to the £57m fixed price tender contract for the build out of the Port's entire civil engineering works, for something which is not yet even half complete.

And who, after supporting the additional £37m cash raise, are now collectively scratching their heads trying to work out why they are not now, as the management suggested in the Shareholders Circular, the proud owners of a completed 200 acre port with 6 operational berths, instead of just 90 acres of part developed reclaimed land and 160 shallow water berth piles! This is about 15 acres more land and around 80 further piles than the situation in June 2016, for a cash burn of circa £25m in H2/2016 and £TBA in H1/2017 - makes no sense! Particularly since the total cash burn for the year to end of Q2/2017, could be very close to the £57m fixed price tender contract for the whole port - complete nonsense!


'The completed port and logistics facility will consist of approximately 200 acres of reclaimed land, and six berths capable of handling 4000 DWT vessels with a draft of up to 5 meters. An optimised berth configuration will now include approximately 800 meters of quay length (200 meters more than envisaged at the time of Admission) by utilising both sides of a 400 meter jetty. Such a configuration will allow for 600 meters of waterfront (out of a total of 1000 meters) to be available for future expansion.'

This make little sense and has been crafted to create the impression shareholders will end up with around 200 acres of land(AS SUGGESTED PREVIOUSLY WITH THE JETTY CONFIGURATION THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE). The two sided low cost jetty will only have a useable length each side of at most around 360m at the expense of taking a great bite out of the available land, due to the need to provide vessel access to the inner berths, which under the quay wall plan would have been storage hardstanding. And at massively greater operational cost due to the 1.8km round trip average journey to/from the storage compound, which will require the wheeled transfer all all cargo to/from the jetty.

By saying 'such a configuration will allow for 600 meters of waterfront (out of a total of 1000 meters) to be available for future expansion.' This is very revealing for those who know how to interpret it:

What this actually means is this:

Land reclamation will cease for the foreseeable future(probably ever) at 90-100 acres (this is around the current 600m of reclaimed land frontage seen in the photo's at present). Since they only have a consent for 1000m of water front, this means that if they ever were to resume with the full build out of the port (they won't, the banks will take back the assets long before that happens), then using the formulae:

consent frontage divided by existing frontage multiplied by existing acreage will give the total land reclamation potential available for the jetty berth configuration:

1000m/600m multiplied by 100 acres = 165 acres.

The low cost open jetty will effectively reduce the approx 200 acres of land reclamation potentially available, down to somewhere between 165 and 150 acres in order to provide marine access to the inner jetty berths for shipping.



Our experience of this management suggests the following likely scenario over the next 12 months to June 2018, rather than their fraudulent, total fantasy world of a 200 acre port and 6 working berths by June 2017:

No more Land reclamation beyond the current 90-100 acres

Complete around 200m of jetty berths to enable the two outer-side berths to commence operations in Q1/2018.

Implement the minimum low cost landslide infrastructure and services to make the port 'operational' sometime in H1/2018.

Burn through the final £60m of cash in much the same 'way' as the £95m to date, while keeping themselves in the lifestyles they have become accustomed to at shareholders expense.

Expect the money to run out during 2018 and the banks taking over a port asset that could well have in this scenario a market value of at best £35m.

The II's cannot say they were not warned nearly a year ago - and yet still elected collectively to throw another £37m of their investors cash on the out of control raging investment bonfire that is MPL! And still they let them get away with it - with not ONE executive or non exec being forced to step down. Incredible complacency, considering a lot of the cash invested here has been provided by pension funds.



AIOHO/DYOR

[waterloo01] 21/6/2017 09:56

One suspects one of the issues for L&G et al, is that by taking action they will fast forward the companies demise and have to write off their investment as the banks will call in the loan and take control. If they had acted when 1st contacted by MT, they might have been able to salvage some of the recently raised cash before it disappeared. Must be easy making decisions with other peoples money!

O/T if you fancy a gob smacking laugh, have a look at the currently suspended BSD crown (was Emblaze). The company has been 'raped' by just about everyone every involved. Some story that makes MPL look relatively tame!

[mount teide] 21/6/2017 09:45

Well, well - less than a week after putting an official complaint in writing to the Nomad's Compliance Officer, regarding the appalling lack of action after previously reporting numerous (up to 12 currently), what we believe are breaches of AIM Rules and Regs by the Company without action from the Nomad, finally some progress.

As waterloo01 states, it would have been little more 'comforting' for shareholders, if the announcement had been fully 'transparent', with regard to the RNS dated Jan 2017; by confirming the news, that the £3m subscription fee was now in the Guernsey Account.

Particularly since the MPL Executive in question is currently making the News in India for MPL shareholders for all the wrong reasons, as the recent subject of insider dealing charges brought by the market regulator and, current Indian High Court criminal proceedings for issuing a signed blank cheque to a major port contractor, along with receiving writs for allegedly siphoning off tens of £millions out of a quoted company he had previous executive responsibility for.

With the MPL share-price down from 250p to 5p after 7 years of his expert 'stewardship', and this legendary business sector 'entrepreneur'(now only in his own mind), currently making the Indian financial News headlines for all the wrong reasons. PI's must be wondering what it will take for the II's who to date have coughed up over £100m of their investors funds to finance this investment disaster, that 'enough is enough' and start proceedings to remove the entire Executive management from the Board, in an effort to protect what little value may remain here.



AIOHO/DYOR

[tiltonboy] 21/6/2017 08:09

MRF,

Nothing to do with it at all; that is the nominal value of the shares.

[my retirement fund] 21/6/2017 07:33

Surley the clue is in the monetary denomination of the share. Nil par

[waterloo01] 21/6/2017 07:22

Doesn't say if money actually arrived in Guernsey though.

[someuwin] 21/6/2017 07:07

21 June 2017

Mercantile Ports & Logistics Limited

(the "Company")

Subscription Update and Issue of Equity

Further to the Company's announcement on 17 January 2017 (RNS No: 2996U) the Company announces that it has issued the 30,000,000 new ordinary shares of nil par value (the "Subscription Shares") to Mr. Ghandi.

Accordingly an application has been made for the Subscription Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM on 23 June 2017 ("Admission"). Following Admission, the Company's enlarged issued share capital will comprise 414,017,699 Ordinary Shares, with voting rights. The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in treasury. Therefore the total number of Ordinary Shares in the Company with voting rights will be 414,017,699. This figure may be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

[my retirement fund] 20/6/2017 22:31

MT on the other hand the fraud was exposed when they could not raise anymore money and the money ran out.The fund managers would have been approached and they were probably worried that eventually someone would have been daft enough to stump up the cash.After all look how brazen they have been here, returning to the market and taking another 37 million pounds of peoples money which includes various pension funds including a few local authorities.

[mount teide] 20/6/2017 17:11

MRF - Anyone familiar with the Shipping and Ports Industry knows that JNPT is one of the top 20 container ports in the World - and the commercial case for a multi purpose general cargo terminal nearby to JNPT on the Uran Peninsula is extremely sound - since the 30 odd multipurpose terminals at Mumbai's Indira docks currently handling in excess of 60m tonnes of cargo a year, will in time be closed down and redeveloped for residential and light industrial purposes.

Our investment was based on SKIL building a terminal at Karanja capable of attracting cargo currently serviced through the Indira Harbour Terminals, and at an investment entry price 80% below IPO, with most of the cash still intact.

In our opinion, if we had been running SPL/MPL, what shareholders would have seen at Karanja today would have been a 60 acre phase one terminal with a 400m fixed quay, that would have cost probably around £40m, financed entirely from the IPO cash.

The expansion of the terminal to full consent capacity would have been carried out in line with commercial demand and, by now would probably been under way and funded from the cash reserves and a modest external low cost loan.

If the management had proceeded in this way Karanja would most likely now be on its way to being the multipurpose terminal equivalent of the 'gold mine' that is the JNPT Container Terminals, which are all operated by Global Port Groups not Indian Companies.

While it is very sound to consider any foreign based company listed on AIM as high risk, SPL, if they had managed and executed the Karanja port development professionally, had the potential to deliver a highly profitable port terminal operation at Karanja for shareholders.

Sadly, extremely poor/suspect management has seen that opportunity lost, along with circa £110m of shareholders investment funds.


Globo - the most interesting fact for me was that ALL of the hedge funds and II's supposedly 'in the know' with disclosable short positions except Ennismore (short 7%), CLOSED OUT their short positions BEFORE the the shares were suspended and Administrators called in. Thereby missing out on many multiples of the profit they elected to take - suggesting unlike Ennismore, they were still far from convinced it was a fraud and were happy to get in and out with a small profit.


AIMHO/DYOR

[pj 1] 20/6/2017 16:44

Maybe the Globo yacht will be the first to berth at Karanja?

[pj 1] 20/6/2017 16:42

You really won't believe this!

The (ex) CEO was last seen on a Yacht, there were some reports he had actually bought it but I have to admit I did find that a little too far fetched....... :-0, or is it?

I'm unsure if the SFO will be able to serve much justice to Greece in the future.

Maybe they will snare him and Rob Terry having diner together?

[my retirement fund] 20/6/2017 15:58

When MT first appeared here, I thought he was a company stooge employed to push the companies prospects to private investors as he was so knowledgeable about the technicalities of ports and their construction.Its not uncommon on AIM for dubious companies to secretly do that.What happened with the Globo fraud then, did anyone get charged or did they all get away scot free ? I seem to recall they set up false websites and employed several stooges whilst the fraud played out.

[marvelman] 20/6/2017 11:03

MRF

You are absolutely correct in stating you and others warned about this investment. Myself and others did listen (eventually) particularly as it became self evident that this was nothing like it was supposed to pan out....for that I thank you and those that took the trouble to spell it out in detail and not just the usual one line nonsense so familiar on these boards.I hold those people up with the highest respect and as I have previously posted with reference to MT they have saved investors a great deal of grief and financial loss. One never stops learning in this game as your 30 years of experience has shown but it is those that do not accept that who are, and will always be, the biggest losers.Regards

[mount teide] 20/6/2017 10:23

The Serious Fraud Office today charged Barclays, its former chief executive and three other former top executives with conspiracy to commit fraud.

The SFO charged former Barclays chief executive John Varley and three former colleagues – Roger Jenkins, Thomas Kalaris and Richard Boath - with conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation in relation to a fundraising that took place in October 2008.

So, it only took the SFO and financial regulator 9 years to work out that Barclays senior management had used false representation to raise £11.8bn of funds during the height of the 2008 financial crisis.



Fraud by False Representation

Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 makes it an offence to commit fraud by false representation.

The representation must be made dishonestly. The current definition of dishonesty was established in R v Ghosh [1982] Q.B.1053. That judgment sets a two-stage test. The first question is whether a defendant’s behaviour would be regarded as dishonest by the ordinary standards of reasonable and honest people. If answered positively, the second question is whether the defendant was aware that his conduct was dishonest and would be regarded as dishonest by reasonable and honest people.

The person must make the representation with the intention of making a gain or causing loss or risk of loss to another. The gain or loss does not actually have to take place.

A representation is defined as false if it is untrue or misleading and the person making it knows that it is, or might be, untrue or misleading.

A false representation may be express or implied. It can be stated in words or communicated by conduct. There is no limitation on the way in which the representation must be expressed. So it could be written or spoken or posted on a website.



Now consider the following:

A claim in the MPL Shareholders Circular dated 31 October 2016, to raise £37m, that on-site construction work had been progressing uninterrupted since October 2015, and that the Market should expect a further 65 acres of Land Reclamation by end of Jan 2017 and 105 acres by end of Q1/2017; WHEN THE MARKET SUBSEQUENTLY FOUND OUT THE COMPANY WAS NOT CARRYING OUT AND, HAD KNOWINGLY PLANNED NOT TO CARRY OUT ANY LAND RECLAMATION WORK WHATSOEVER, DURING THE ENTIRE 6 MONTH PERIOD - JUNE 2016 TO DEC 2016.


From what the Market has been able to establish from subsequent written and photographic evidence provided by the Company and Google Earth - other than some minor land development work, MPL shut down nearly all construction work at Karanja during H2/2016, despite telling the market in the June 2016 Prelims Update and October 2106 Shareholders Circular, they expected to achieve Land Reclamation and Berth Piling Progress Targets by end of Jan 2017, Q1/2017 and H1/2017, that were multiples of the progress rate previously achieved when they were ACTUALLY CARRYING OUT LAND RECLAMATION AND BERTH PILING!

MPL Website:

'About Us'

MPL's maiden project is the development of a world class multipurpose terminal and logistics facility at Karanja Creek.

The Terminal will be comprised of:

A 1,000m Quay, which will be serviced by a combination of ship to shore and multipurpose cranes. (Since downgraded to a low cost 300m - 400 m open jetty but, still appearing to this day on the website as above !)



ACCORDING TO LEGAL ADVICE - The two stage test for False Representation is:

Q1 - Would MPL's behaviour be regarded as dishonest by the ordinary standards of reasonable and honest people?

If yes,

Q2 - Was MPL aware their conduct was dishonest and would be regarded as dishonest by reasonable and honest people?



Now lets consider the MPL Shareholders Circular dated 31st October 2016 and the Company Website:

Would the Financial Regulator or SFO need 9 years to work out that the Company's executive management, aided and abetted(wittingly or unwittingly) by its Neds, Nomad and Communications agency, may have a case to answer with regarding to it constituting a conspiracy to commit Fraud?



AIOHO/DYOR

[diku] 20/6/2017 08:38

Yes and the shareholders need to do something whilst the company is still alive at least in the public eye...