Mercantile Ports & Logis... Share Price (MPL)

Share Name Share Symbol Market Type Share ISIN Share Description
Mercantile Ports & Logistics Limited LSE:MPL London Ordinary Share GG00B53M7D91 ORD NPV
  Price Change % Change Share Price Shares Traded Last Trade
  0.00 0.0% 1.325 7,629 08:00:00
Bid Price Offer Price High Price Low Price Open Price
1.30 1.35 1.325 1.325 1.325
Industry Sector Turnover (m) Profit (m) EPS - Basic PE Ratio Market Cap (m)
Industrial Transportation -3.28 -0.01 25
Last Trade Time Trade Type Trade Size Trade Price Currency
08:40:44 O 7,629 1.35 GBX
Related Shares
Bba Aviation (BBA), Royal Mail (RMG), Gyg (GYG), Sutton Harbour (SUH)

Mercantile Ports & Logis... (MPL) Latest News

Mercantile Ports & Logis... News

Date Time Source Headline
22/11/201914:19UKREGMercantile Ports & Logistics Ltd Holding(s) in Company
30/9/201913:46ALNCMercantile Buoyed By Karanja Progress Despite Widened Interim Loss
30/9/201907:03ALNCFAlliance News Flash Headline
30/9/201906:01UKREGMercantile Ports & Logistics Ltd Interim Results
09/9/201909:01ALNCMercantile Ports & Logistics Inks GBP5.5 Million Karanja Facility Deal
09/9/201908:31DJNMercantile Ports & Logistics Shares Rise After Tata Contract Win
09/9/201906:01UKREGMercantile Ports & Logistics Ltd Secures £5.5m contract with Daewoo Tata JV
11/7/201916:40UKREGMercantile Ports & Logistics Ltd Result of AGM
17/6/201912:59UKREGMercantile Ports & Logistics Ltd Director/PDMR Shareholding
12/6/201916:27UKREGMercantile Ports & Logistics Ltd Notice of AGM
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22/11/201921:50Mercantile Ports and Logistics 1,545
13/1/200613:40Montpelier Group820
17/2/200511:08Cash rich MONTPELLIER under priced27
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10/12/200408:16Montpellier (MPL) CHEAP. Share price=25.5p,NAV=40-50p,EPS=5-6p,P/E=4-5903

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14/12/2019
08:20		Mercantile Ports & Logis... Daily Update: Mercantile Ports & Logistics Limited is listed in the Industrial Transportation sector of the London Stock Exchange with ticker MPL. The last closing price for Mercantile Ports & Logis... was 1.33p.
Mercantile Ports & Logistics Limited has a 4 week average price of 1.33p and a 12 week average price of 1.33p.
The 1 year high share price is 3.50p while the 1 year low share price is currently 1.33p.
There are currently 1,905,022,123 shares in issue and the average daily traded volume is 191,130 shares. The market capitalisation of Mercantile Ports & Logistics Limited is £25,241,543.13.
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11/11/2019
22:59		mount teide: Well well - When an equity investment manager at L&G, Richard Penny's Fund was a major shareholder in Mercantile Ports from IPO at 250p. It subsequently lost the fund an absolute fortune - when he left L&G to start his own CRUX investment fund last November his L&G Mercantile holding was an eye-watering 99.2% down. Despite explaining to Penny back in 2016 how two industry friends and i knew from long telephone calls with the CEO, that he(and the Chairman) were proven liars and totally untrustworthy, he not only elected to ignore the long list of evidence we provided but also our advice not to double down by supporting what we called at the time 'AIM's Greatest Work of Fiction' or as it was more commonly known in the City - the Mercantile Shareholders Circular for the November 2016 £37m Placing. That additional holding is now 85% down! Imagine our surprise to recently read in a Bank of Scotland interview with Penny about his new Investment Fund, that some of his former investments make an appearance in his new CRUX Fund, most notably a tiny AIM-listed company called Mercantile Ports & Logistics (MPL). ' “It’s not for widows and orphans,” he says, “but this is a Special Situations fund and it is in a portfolio that is diversified.” Mercantile is an India-focused logistics company, which boasts on its website of having “delivered several ground-breaking, mega infrastructure projects”. These include India’s first ever private sector port and logistics facility, the first private sector railway line and the first private expressway. Today, its operations are focused around the Karanja Port near Mumbai, which it says is a key gateway to trade for eight land-locked states in India. Going forward, it looks to identify other suitable locations to bolster its portfolio of ports and logistics facilities. But it’s had a chequered past. It floated back in October 2010 at 250p, and Penny invested in it during its early history. But its share price chart since IPO is scary viewing. Soon after beginning to build the port, the project saw hit regulatory issues, explains Penny. Those delayed the project substantially, and the share price fell dramatically. Two years ago, Mercantile raised £36 million by issuing new shares priced at just 10p. It came back to the market for more cash earlier this month, placing shares at just 2p. This round has been well backed by institutions, with the likes of Legal & General, M&G, Schroders and Miton, who combined own half of the business, continuing to back the firm. Penny says that’s given him confidence, as has the strength of the management team and board of directors. “We take assurance from that, for all that this is a minority sport Indian assets on AIM in the UK – and it’s as contrarian as you’d like,” he continues. Penny has invested 40% of the portfolio in FTSE 100 companies and a third in small caps. The rest is in FTSE 250 names, with around 10% in cash. Currently, he’s underweight mid caps due to valuations in that area.' Considering what they knew of the behaviour and performance of the Executive Board, that most of the major II shareholders from the IPO at 250p were involved in both subsequent £37m and £30m placings at a respective 96.0% and 99.2% discount to the IPO price, simply beggars belief! The Karanja Port Project has a management claimed carrying value of circe £160 million, we believe it should be nearer £30 million. Never has the phrase "A fool and his money are soon parted" been more apt!
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24/7/2019
05:23		escapetohome: This fund manager who you tried to warn and bought all these ‘cheap’ mpl shares must seriously be questioning their sanity. The share price is now lower than when they bought, and the above link is not encouraging. Despite all the warnings they bought mpl shares.
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27/4/2019
08:43		mount teide: Mercantile Ports and Logistics - Good to see that India has an extradition Treaty with the US - preventing the former CEO and now its high paid 'consultant' from doing a runner to avoid joining his fellow accomplices in the dock, charged by US Law Enforcement with carrying out a $200 million securities fraud. However, what is totally unacceptable is that MPL shareholders should be picking up the tab for his 'consultancy' fees while he's in the Dock! Many shareholders will also be interested in how much these consultancy fees are and by how much they differ from what he was PAID(Not Earned) for 9 years while he was masquerading as the self serving CEO responsible for delivering a catastrophic 99% share price fall since IPO. Indeed, as one irate shareholder so eloquently put it - US Law Enforcement might be interested in the former CEO(in name only) obnoxious boast's to him about "earning £millions" from his other 'jobs' around the time the alleged $200 million securities fraud was carried out. It is great to know the shyster i talked to on the phone for over an hour on a number of occasions during 2016, following which i along with my two friends sold 99% of our holdings - was subsequently arrested and charged by US Law Enforcement for allegedly carrying out a $200 million securities fraud. What a management Mercantile has: Executive Chairman arrested, charged and convicted of industrial scale securities Fraud at three companies but incredibly, manages to cut a deal with Indian Law Enforcement/Stock Market Regulator to just pay a fine to keep himself out of prison - and now fighting a writ alleging the siphoning of tens of $millions of cash from another company he had executive responsibility for into companies owned by him and his family! Former CEO and now Consultant to the company, arrested and charged with carrying out a $200 million securities fraud on US soil. Considering the colourful history of the Mercantile Ports and Logistics management - i am considering putting forward a proposal at the next AGM to rename the company: Mercantile £200 million Never Built Port and Securities Fraudsters Since it is obvious that with the recent company announcement that they have decided to stop any further Land Reclamation - did it ever re-start? other than to complete a further 15 acres in 3 YEARS to facilitate scamming another £70 million from totally clueless Institutional Investors in London - the land reclamation for the 100 acre Logistics Park of the 200 acre port development, as detailed in the AIM Admission Document nearly 10 years ago and for which the NOMAD representative said the November 2016 £37 million cash raising was specifically for - in fact, as we predicted at the time, posted here and told him directly via a long and heated telephone discussion which ended in a shouting match, would prove to be nothing more than a crudely crafted fraud. How right we were! AIOHO/DYOR
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26/2/2019
11:47		mount teide: One poster on the LSE site described the MPL Shareholder list as 'impressive' He seems to have completely overlooked that most are 99% down post their £73m IPO 'investment' and 80% down on their £37m placing top up 'investment' from Nov 2016 - and again heavily supported the recent further £30m fund raising at a 99% discount to the IPO price for what is a straightforward commercial property development. MPL Share Information at 31 December 2018 HUNCH VENTURES……………………….……………..21.75% M&G INVESTMENTS MANAGEMENT LTD……………..18.21% LEGAL & GENERAL INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT….12.31% SCHRODER INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT……………….9.94% MITON ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD………………………….9.67% CANACCORD GENIUTY WEALTH MANAGEMENT…....…..7.59% SKIL GLOBAL PORTS & LOGISTICS LIMITED………………5.16% BRITISH STEEL PENSION FUND………………..……………3.81% _______ 88.44% hTTps://www.mercpl.com/article/shareholder-information/7
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20/11/2018
14:43		mount teide: For the record have received an email today from the disgruntled former employee who has seen Oliwin's first Advfn post - in it he strongly speculates as to who the writer is - the name given will come as no surprise to many here or us. Indeed, from the perspective of a professional challenge, it's a little disappointing on conducting a forensic analysis of the post, that Oliwin failed to employ even a little sophistication by attempting to hide behind some 'new investor' nonsense. By revealing a very detailed understanding of over 3 years of our posts and research - its obvious that the poster is far from the 'new investor' they claim to be. Additionally, readers will note the writer has made no attempt whatsoever to explain the management's 100% success rate over the last 9 years of failing to deliver against a single financial or operational target used to support the raising of £135 million to date or, more importantly produce any plausible explanation for how most of that cash has been spent. 'You keep mentioning your group's collective experience- Why is that relevant? Reading between the lines, were you angling for a job with MPL and they turned you down?' You and many readers are clearly not aware that i was approached some 2.5 years ago by a group of PI's/II's with large shareholdings in the company to replace the CEO, who understandably, they had lost all confidence in as a result of being found to be a proven liar, never mind someone with no professional experience whatsoever of the industry. I immediately turned them down on the grounds i was happily retired but promised to help in any other way i could. Post that meeting, virtually all of the PI's in attendance with large holdings have since sold, all at a considerable loss. AIOHO/DYOR ps in his podcast yesterday - the Sheriff of AIM, like the Taj Mahal white gloved butler considers this latest Placing and Open Offer as a last throw of the dice desperation measure to keep the lights on and the 9 year and counting management gravy train running a little longer. The fool Oliwin asked where our knowledge of management's near £3m of expenses to date since IPO came from - Oliwin, TRY A WILD GUESS LIKE MPL's OWN PUBLISHED ACCOUNTS! That is, up until 2 years ago when, after many shareholders pointed out the scandalous expenditure, management elected to stop separating out it's reporting in the accounts! Oliwin - if you carried out any research worthy of the name you would find that while the previous two NEDS may have previously held positions in the Industry, they personally held NO shipping or ports industry professional qualifications whatsoever - having to rely on others for that professional expertise or in the case of James Sutcliffe - pay for it. Consequently, with the Mumbai Mamba and them at the help aided and abetted by the chuckle brothers 'management' team it was no surprise that they collectively presided over a 99.2% destruction of the share-price since IPO for what is a simple real estate project. Also you might like to explain how after 'spending' £135m to reclaim 90 acres and part complete 50 acres of that for open storage, how the management has the gall to claim that if the market gives them just another £27m they will have enough to complete the entire 200 acre site! They said the exact same thing in October 2016 when attempting to raise another £37m! With regard to the latest shareholders circular, I suggest you speak to the management of the JNPT Container Terminal because the last time we spoke to them, unlike the clueless MPL management, they see no prospect whatsoever of their port providing Karanja with spillover container business; as since the opening of their new 225 acre container terminal earlier this year (built in just 2.25 years), the huge additional storage capacity has eliminated all the previous congestion issues.
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16/11/2018
21:04		mount teide: A £30m placing at a 99.2% discount to the IPO price for a real estate development ! What a dilution since IPO - The shysters have turned 40 million shares into nearly 2 BILLION! A total of £140m raised at an average share price of 7p. So at 2p the market cap will now be £40m Would estimate the value of the work completed to date at £30m with £30m of loan drawn. Can't wait to see if L&G and M&G have again participated - must phone them next week! This is beyond surreal - anyone reading the last placing document and comparing it's contents with what has happened since (all predicted here), would shake their heads in complete disbelief at today's announcement and the complete idiots who have supported it.
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23/10/2018
22:43		mount teide: The Mumbai Mamba - Nikhil Gandhi Ignore him at your investment peril - his involvement is potentially lethal to any investment! New or prospective shareholders may be unaware that highly respected Sunny Varkey, the billionaire education entrepreneur and philanthropist, and Unesco Goodwill Ambassador served writs on former Everonn Education directors Nikhil Gandhi and P Kishore(MD) in connection with allegedly carrying out fraudulent transactions and siphoning off huge sums of funds from Everonn, of as much as £12m. And that the matter is now under investigation by the Serious Crime Branch of India's Special Fraud Office following a formal complaint from a livid Sunny, who reports suggest is still incandescent with rage at the subsequent collapse of Everonn, after his accountants found the company's books to be a work of fiction and the accounts manipulated. A Times of India journalist back in 2008 wrote: 'There are plenty of question marks around Nikhil Gandhi. Why are investors willing to back him when he’s got precious little to show in terms of revenues or assets on the ground? Why has he taken over three fledgling companies that have little by way of operations, but whose stock prices have soared in a bear market? How can these companies with no fundamentals worth writing about shoot through the roof in a bearish market?' Despite no revenue, Horizon Infrastructure's share-price soared nearly 30 fold in a matter of months, from Rs68 to Rs1,951 between January 25, 2008 and May 5, 2008. The National Stock Exchange did't like what it had seen, and following a short investigation, suspended trading in the company for almost 8 years. Then in September 2009, Sebi, the Market regulator, charged officials of a second of these companies KLG Capital Services with insider trading shortly after the share-price has risen 8 fold in a few months and, barred it from the stock market. JL Capital, the third company went up a highly suspicious 11 fold in a similar timeframe. Skil Group - the company that these three companies were merged into, saw its share-price rocket from Rs75 to Rs2000 in a matter of months in 2008 during a global market crash, but like MPL, it has since completely collapsed by more than 98%. At first sight, Mercantile's extraordinary, £25k a month travelling and hotel expenses for the last 8 years seem totally implausible, surely there must be some mistake? However, as David Bellamy the ex head of stockbroker Brewin Dolphin’s Leicester office found out when he visited Mumbai to discuss his BD Fund and personal shareholding in Mercantile, Nikhil Gandhi certainly likes the finer things in life, particularly, when someone else is paying. I understand Nikhil arranged for them to meet at his exclusive Private Room at the magnificent Taj Mahal, Mumbai's top Luxury Hotel, for a full, white glove, butler service, breakfast business meeting(a private room with butler costs up to £1,000 a day).
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24/6/2018
21:17		mount teide: sophia1982 - How is it possible? Sadly because the II's invested here like the executive management have no experience of the highly specialised Ports and Shipping Industry - or hold any professional qualifications for these industries. The II's were led up the garden path by the two UK NED's (neither of whom held any Ports or shipping industry professional qualifications) before departing recently with nearly £400k each safely tucked away in their offshore bank accounts for doing sweet FA for shareholders for 7 years! The level of misrepresentation by the MPL executive management is truly breathtaking for a London Stock Exchange quoted company, and incredibly continues to plumb new depths despite a catalogue of complaints to the Nomad. Until our complaint alleging Fraud by Misrepresentation forced the Nomad to get it removed, the MPL website had for 7 years, the following introduction describing the activities of the company for prospective investors, : Mercantile Ports & Logistics was established to develop, own and operate port & logistics facilities. Its maiden project is the development of a multipurpose terminal and logistics facility at Karanja. The Terminal will be comprised of: * A 1,000 metre quay which will be serviced by a combination of ship to shore and multipurpose cranes * 200 acre back-up area for cargo storage. Of course, this is what shareholders were also told they were going to get when they paid 250p a share back in October 2010, to enable the company to raise £73m to fund the project. Ah, the benefit of hindsight! In 2013, in Arden Partners 2013 Note investors were again given the same terminal specification, supported by detailed plans drawn up by Royal Haskoning the principle engineers appointed to design the all weather terminal. Then, some 7 years post IPO, after endlessly telling shareholders the company were not in anyway cash strapped, the company asked the market to put their hand in their pockets for another £37m at an eye-watering 96% discount to the IPO share-price, in order to implement modifications/enhancements(the Directors preferred design) to the basic specification all completed by Q3/2017. Incredibly, some 6 months later what shareholders foolish enough to support the additional fundraising find out they are actually going to get is: No 1,000m All weather Quay No ship to shore cranes because the all weather quay has been replaced by a light weight jetty No 4.5m dredged access channel No 200 acres of storage No new 2 mile port access road to replace the current heavily potholed dirt track Instead, shareholders for £150m are to get: A 360m lightweight Jetty - mostly unusable during the monsoon season Small mobile jetty cranes A 3.5m dredged ship access channel Around 90 acres of land reclamation for storage. What shareholders will not is anything resembling the port image that was displayed on the front page of the MPL website, or in the video made of the proposed port development, or in the Arden Partners Note, or the IPO documentation. Shareholder dissatisfaction/Formal Complaints should be forwarded to the FCA and London stock Exchange AIM Regulator. In any reputable company, the executive management would not have lasted 12 months in the job, never mind 8 years! They must be delighted to have such a wonderful group of mugs as II shareholders! AIOHO/DYOR
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20/6/2018
14:51		mount teide: As a ITD Cementation shareholder i wrote to ITD on three occasions in late 2016 and during 2017 requesting information as to the current status of the £57m MPL Karanja Contract. Particularly since ITD is now a shareholder in MPL and a beneficiary of huge additional revenue from the project over and above the original contract specification. Still yet to receive an acknowledgement never mind a reply! It is interesting to note that on the ITD website under 'Marine Structures' there is very detailed information of all the existing Major contracts currently under construction or recently completed, many with photographs. Karanja Port - despite being of greater contact value than a considerable number of the Major Projects detailed on the website, is conspicuous by its absence! One ITD Project that may be of interest to MPL shareholders is the CONTAINER TERMINAL AT MUNDRA FOR ADANI PORT. It has a fixed quay wall and terminal infrastructure very similar to what MPL shareholders were expecting at see at Karanja, albeit with an engineering specification an order of magnitude greater. Since it is the only port on the Indian West coast capable of handling the latest generation of containerships, which have deadweights in excess of 160,000 tonnes. (A cargo capacity some 40 times larger than the largest vessel now expected to be handled at Karanja). hTTp://www.itdcem.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/06-1.jpg The Adani Port Container Terminal has a super-heavyweight specification quay of length 713m, with a width of 30m and minimum draft of 17.5m for handling ultra large container ships, with lengths in excess of 400m and beam of 60m. Ships so large even the JNPT terminals are unable to handle them due to draft restrictions in the approach channel that would need an estimated £700m of dredging to deepen the channel by a further 2m to handle these ships. To put the size of these vessels and the engineering specification of the quay and port facilities to handle them in some perspective: the largest ships capable of directly using the Karanja facility are 4,000 deadweight tonne dry bulk coasters - Adani Port's target containerships are so large they would be able to carry on board up to eight of these little coasters as deck cargo in addition to some 15,000 TEU of containers! Adani Port has 80 acres of reclaimed hardstanding, heavily re-inforced to enable 5 high stacking of heavyweight deep sea containers and handling within the storage compound using twelve 41 tonne high capacity container gantry cranes. The port's annual container throughput capacity is more than twice that of Karanja at 1.4m TEU's. It was completed in early 2017 some 3 months ahead of schedule by ITD - a remarkable achievement since it started construction some considerable time after Karanja. Total cost? - try £152m MPL's management's latest estimated cost of Karanja Terminal to provide a 360m lightweight open jetty for small coasters serviced by a yet be be verified -3.5m below CD access channel and, around 90 acres of reclaimed land, strengthened to a specification a small fraction of that at Adani - £148m. A good example of why the MPL share-price has fallen from 250p to 2.2p for a project that has £12.5m per annum bank debt capital and interest payments now running; with no revenue and less than half the land reclamation work completed. AIOHO/DYOR
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23/4/2017
15:54		mount teide: Firstly, apologies for the long post. Interestingly, James Sutcliffe currently markets himself as a Business Transformation Non Executive Director in the Ports Sector. 'As a natural leader he is happy to represent major business and handle media and difficult situations diplomatically. As a Board Director he is particularly focused on improving Corporate Governance, effective financial reporting and achieving business strategies within the companies he works for.' How's that working out for SPL/MPL shareholders? With the share-price having lost 97% of its value since James Sutcliffe joined the board pre IPO, and the company massively diluting shareholders in November 2016 by raising another £37m of funds at an eye-watering 96% discount to the IPO price to 'finance'(and some would use that word in its loosest possible sense), the completion of the construction of a small, shallow water Port Terminal asset, to the Boards 'preferred' specification, James Sutcliffe's industry experience and expertise is clearly proving of huge value to shareholders in looking after their investment interests. Shareholders were told the reason for the additional £37 million of funds was to complete the build out of the Port Terminal to the 'preferred' specification of the Directors. Consequently, it would have been ENTIRELY REASONABLE for shareholders to assume that a request for further massive additional funds totalling around 55% of that raised at IPO together with the £49m of bank debt also raised for the project, would have resulted in the Directors 'preferred' specification delivering a higher specification to that contained in the IPO documentation and extremely detailed 2013 Arden Partners BUY Note and, what went out in the Tender Documentation to secure bids from the contractor/s they selected to approach to build the Port Terminal. In easy to understand non sector specialist terms, what shareholders originally were sold at IPO was a 'BMW 5 series' specification small port. The Directors then said in October 2016 Shareholders Placing and Open Offer documents, that we are not in any way cash strapped but by providing us with another £37m, we would be able to complete the construction to our 'preferred' specification - so shareholders were in effect being asked to now fund a BMW M5 standard Port terminal, the Directors preferred specification. The reality of the shameless revised port terminal specification drawn out under questioning by those in attendance at last weeks meeting(i understand some II's may have been made aware of this news some weeks ago, without necessarily understanding its full implications on their investment imho), is that shareholders were clearly misled in the October 2016 additional fund raise. Since they will not now be getting a shiny new BMW M5 Port Terminal, nor even a BMW 5 Series model, but if they are lucky a bog standard 1 Series Bread Van model with a price tag of TWO BMW M5's after taking in the impact of the bank debt. I have spoken at length to James Sutcliffe twice in the last three years by telephone, and on each occasion, i was telling him facts about the build out at Karanja(or lack of it!), he should have known about but was completely unaware of. Also, i suggested he speaks to the NOMAD because SPL/MPL has issued RNS statements( i provided examples), that evidence gathered by shareholders often at some considerable financial cost(hiring light aircraft to take photos over the site) have proved, and i'll be generous, to be wildly inaccurate at best, although the less charitable might consider 'wilful deception' to be a more accurate description. The situation with regard to the accuracy of the Official Market Statements has clearly not improved because if the NOMAD had travelled to India(which i understand they did late last year) to work with management to prepare the Documentation for the Shareholders Circular for the 31 October 2016 Placing and Open Offer, then at the very least, they should have checked that what management were claiming and went in that documentation(that the build out has continued without material interruption since October 2015) was in fact true. The NOMAD clearly failed to do this simple check, because if they had carried out some basic due diligence, they would have discovered that NO Land reclamation work had been carried out during the four months since the mid June 2016 update, when the Market was given news that 75 acres were now reclaimed. As a consequence, the expected build out progress targets that went into the Shareholders Circular were not only many multiples of the pace of progress previously achieved, but in fact were a work of complete fiction because NO reclamation work was actually going on, and by the Company's own written and photographic updates would not commence again until Jan 2017. June 2016 - company state 75 acres of land reclaimed Oct 2016 - company say work has continued without material interruption since Oct 2015. And as a consequence state the following expected progress targets in the documentation to raise £37m of additional funds: OUTLOOK - 'the Directors believe that the Company has sufficient resources to finance the continued construction of the Facility, WITHOUT DELAY, through to the end of the first quarter of 2017' By the end of January 2017 the Company expects to have: • completed the dredging requirement; • reclaimed 70 per cent. of the land(140 acres); and • constructed two berths, one of which will be capable of receiving vessels. 'By the end of the first quarter of 2017 the Company expects to have: • reclaimed 90 per cent. of the land; (180 acres) • constructed four berths, three of which will be capable of receiving vessels; and • entered into commercial agreements with end users.' Indeed, such was the Directors confidence that the build out was on track they stated in the Shareholders Fund Raising Circular (just two months from year end)that: '...the Directors expect that the Facility will be capable of receiving vessels by the end of this year(2016)....' Using information subsequently provided by the Company/Nomad, a comparison of the statements made above with reality, make sobering reading: Land Reclamation: June 2016 - 75 acres of land reclaimed Jan 2017 - expects to have reclaimed 140 acres - actual result 75 acres(ZERO progress for 6 months because NO land reclamation had been carried out since June 2016 - an easily verifiable fact that the Nomad could have checked in October 2016 when preparing the fund raising circular) Mar 2017 - expected to have reclaimed 180 acres - actual result 79 acres( 4 acres in 9 months!) Piling/Berths June 2016 - 58 piles(65m) via written update Sept 2016 - 100 piles (100m) via written update Jan 2017 - 68 piles (80m) via website photo update (clearly they overstated Sept position) Around 10 jetty piles were driven between June and Sept 2016, and then work stopped until Jan 2017, against the target of the completion of the construction of two berths! Land reclaimed March 2017 - 79 acres (against target of 180 acres) Apparently, despite claiming to have worked continuously without material interruption, during the last 9 months they achieved the grand total of just 5% of the progress expected in the circular to raise an additional £37m of funds! Can't wait to see the end of 2016 cash position and bank debt left to draw down - we should see that no later than the Prelims - it should make fascinating reading, since hardly any work on site occurred in H2/2016. A Google Earth image update for the end of Feb 2017, reveals just 104 jetty piles laid/ around 100m of progress, against a target of four berths complete by the end of Mar 2017. We calculate, if the progress achieved since Jan 2017 is maintained it would suggest the heavily scaled back 400m of jetty will still not see piling completed before H2/2018 at the earliest and, this assumes work through the next two monsoon seasons is maintained at the same rate of progress as during the current dry season, something that has not remotely been the case since construction eventually got started some three years ago, after four years of delays securing the necessary approvals. Some further thoughts: Contrary to what the Board was claiming, I posted on the SPL thread immediately after reading and discussing with industry colleagues, the 31 October 2016 Shareholders Circular to raise an additional £37m of funds: 'It would not suprise me, that for around £150m, all shareholders will see before the money again runs out, is around 300m-400m of berths with 4.5m of water availability, and around 75-100 acres of reclaimed land - something that could probably be built today to a very high spec for £40-50m.' The passage of time and news of the revised terminal specification suggests, this is likely to prove very close to what shareholders may see at best - along with its dire shareholder investment implications. MPL shareholders may be aware that Singapore has one of the three largest deep sea container ports in the world(currently three times the size of all the JNPT terminals combined). The port of Singapore has been enlarging its Port land area for decades and their current land reclamation costs are around US$25/sqm - US$100,000/acre. If Singapore can reclaim 200 acres of coastal land for around £25m today(including buying in the sand land fill material) - how come SPL need £150m to: Reclaim what will now be much less than 200 acres, and Construct a 400m shallow water piled jetty to handle barges and small coasters, and Provide basic port infrastructure facilities and cargo handling equipment. This strongly suggests(not for the first time) the MPL executive management are at best breathtakingly incompetent and totally out of their depth to a level that simply beggars belief. It also brings into question what due diligence the Nomad routinely carry's out to check the accuracy of the content of the statements issued to the market; in particular the Oct 2016 Fund Raising Documentation. As i understand it, the person responsible at the Nomad for the MPL account has no shipping/ports sector professional qualifications or operational experience and, only very limited industry knowledge, if my judgement of the numerous telephone discussions i've had with him are a reliable guide. Also, he seemed to find it highly amusing(before quickly correcting himself), that one PI i know, who lost £3m in the Globo AIM fraud, as a result of relying on Grant Thornton(MPL's auditors), allegedly checking and being satisfied that Globo had £100m of cash in the bank, only for the market to find out a short while afterwards, that the figure was in fact barely £100 not £100m, as a result of criminal activity on an industrial scale by the CEO, who turned out to be nothing more than a first class villain! Financially, as previously stated, the cash burn for this port development project was making very little sense. Following the £37m fund raise and shocking news of the considerably scaled down terminal specification for the project, it now makes absolutely NO SENSE whatsoever. AIOHO/DYOR
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