Thalassa Share Discussion Threads

[rndm355] 31/10/2018 16:56

Article at Cube Investments: Disturbing, spooky changes make Thalassa uninvestible.

[kooba] 18/10/2018 09:41

Unclear whether Thalassa disc trust votes and if they do who controls.

[kooba] 18/10/2018 09:39

The prefs carry 10 votes the ords 1.I believe stock in treasury stock has no voting rights as they are not shares outstanding so nullified voting.So combination of treasury and pref issue concentrates voting in large holders hands...will be amplified by further buybacks.Be interesting to know what the actual current voting position isOrd holdings on company website.Name of shareholder Percentage shareholdingDuncan Soukup 19.5%Lombard Odier Asset Management (Europe) Limited 17.4%THAL Discretionary Trust 16.8%Mark Costar 4.4%

[gfrae] 10/10/2018 14:44

It would appear so.

[pugugly] 10/10/2018 12:31

Appears to be a t/o or take private by DS without any buyers premium - A BVI company so probably can get away with it but possibly one for the listing authorities -

[gfrae] 10/10/2018 11:34

Yes, I can see that they will know how many shares they have bought back,and the corresponding preference shares which will be cancelled, but what about any other transactions ? very confusing .

[tiswas] 10/10/2018 11:11

My understanding is that they have issued 1 pref for every ord and these are not certificated. So if you buy 100 ord shares to cancel you can also cancel 100 pref shares. They know how many shares are in issue and they know how many they have bought back.

That bit I find easy. It is why the issue of the prefs that I do not understand!


"Each shareholder of the Company has been issued with one Preference Share for each ordinary share held in Thalassa as at the Record Date. The key features of the Preference Shares are that (i) they are unquoted; (ii) they are uncertificated; (iii) they are non-transferable (meaning both that the Preference Share is not transferable or tradeable itself and, in the event a shareholder disposes of any ordinary share, the corresponding Preference Share will be cancelled and will not be transferred to the transferee of such ordinary share); and (iv) they are without any shareholder rights (including as to any return on a winding up or other realization event for the Company) other than so as to provide the shareholder holding such Preference Share with 10 votes per share in addition to his existing one vote per ordinary share."

[gfrae] 10/10/2018 10:41

Today's announcement states that they have bought x number of shares back and that there are now z number of shares held outside treasury. It also states that there are z number of preference shares...........but how do they know how many preference shares there are ? The only way that they could know how many there are are is if they know of every single transaction or transfer of their own shares. Or have I missed something ?
Can anyone explain ?

[alter ego] 09/10/2018 09:15

I've had enough of Duncan's manoeuvrings. Im out. Good luck to anyone still holding.

[mjcrockett] 04/10/2018 13:38

Good point gfrae. You can see these preference shares causing problems in a nominee account. I wonder if some brokers might refuse to hold the preference shares as I doubt that their systems would cope with reducing the preference shares when the ordinary shares are sold.

[gfrae] 04/10/2018 11:03

Strange that this change has been made retrospectively,and with no vote. It would appear that this move makes the company very difficult to be taken over, and therefore affects the value of the ordinary shares.
What would happen if a current shareholder changes broker and his shareholding was moved from nominee account to another,would he retain his preference shares ?

[alter ego] 04/10/2018 09:48

Totally agree. Prefs are worthless to anyone except someone who holds enough to control the company. No prizes for guessing who that is.

[sailing john] 04/10/2018 09:48

I agree Horndean. I haven't held for many years but still follow out of interest. I'm surprised that Directors are able to alter the Articles of Association in this way without a GM and shareholder vote. Of course most PIs often find it difficult to exercise their rights to vote anyway and this will just add another layer of difficulty. So what will he use his new voting power for!?
Watch this space!

[horndean eagle] 04/10/2018 09:17

Looks like a shocking proposal by Duncan to effectively get control for life over THAL. The way I read it is he wants to issue preference shares with 10 times voting power but those preference shares only exist whilst you hold the ords. Once you have sold them they are effectively cancelled. Given Duncan is unlikely to sell any it means he will over time have effective voting control over the company. Can't see how in any form he is going to get this over the line. One of the worst pieces of corporate governance I have ever seen. Its definitely going to kick off soon between the other large shareholders and Duncan.

[varies] 17/9/2018 18:29

Like others I am puzzled by the statement that pref shares will be issued to all shareholders of record at 30 Sep 2018 with no further detail provided. I don't see what the point would be of issuing us with pref shares rather than cash. It may be that we will receive neither.
Mr Soukup seems determined to extract every penny from LSR, no matter how long this takes. It would surely be better to strike a compromise with its management, take a reasonable price and move on. Values of retail properties have sunk over the last few years and this is no fault of the LSR directors.
There is at least some movement towards attracting new capital for the flying nodes.

[ramridge] 17/9/2018 12:45

The Chairman is both didactic and bombastic in his statement. He gives us a tour of the major economic ups and down from the era of JFK to the 1970's and Nixon's impeachment. I think a lot of commentators would disagree with his bird's eye view.
Never mind that. What is interesting is his comment :
"
Do I think we are headed for the same brick wall? No, it will be a different wall but the result will be the same, if not worse this time. Why? Because this time institutional and retail investors are in love with growth companies with no earnings or an infinite p/e ratio. At least the Nifty Fifty had earnings and at the peak their p/e was a meagre 42x earnings!"


So he thinks that another Armageddon is round the corner. Fair enough. You would then think he will advocate failsafe, solid risk averse investments, even a partial return of cash. Not at all! The kind of investments he has in mind range from risky to very risky!

[cockerhoop] 17/9/2018 09:19

It's almost like a 2nd RNS got lost in the post!!

[eezymunny] 17/9/2018 08:47

To mention the prefs and then give no deal whatsoever actually defies belief IMO!

[eentweedrie] 17/9/2018 07:40

interesting comments from the chairman!

[alter ego] 16/8/2018 16:10

interesting changes at the top of ARL.

[tiswas] 16/8/2018 16:00

Bought a few more, still look cheap.

[mr macgregor] 04/8/2018 19:09

I don't see Thalassa being able to commercialise the flying nodes on its own. I remember how enthusiastic Duncan was about FFNs proposed tie up with ARL as they were bringing experience and knowledge. As FFN pulled the plug on that idea, presumably after due diligence, Thalassa are left with an expensive loss making baby with no income to fund it and that puts them in a difficult position which will become more so as the cash pile leaks away. Potential suitors will be well aware of that.
I question the wisdom of the WGP sale without a guaranteed investment in ARL. If they'd kept WGP as we're moving into an oil upturn they'd have had a stronger hand to play imo.

[ntv] 25/7/2018 16:45

finished selling today
lsr was a poor investment
DD was also poor to buy the stake in the first place
luckily pushed up another 6p so out with a small profit
GLH