The Evil Diaries: “A druggy writes”

I had slightly decided not to say anything about Plethora (PLE) and the bid since the chairman owns 29% of PLE and is the controlling luminary at Regent Pacific, whose number on the HKSE is 575. This modesty was partly occasioned by my ignorance but principally because the chairman also controls this site.

However, I can restrain myself no further. On Day 1 of the possible bid, Wednesday, I paid 7p for PLE since, ostensibly, the offer was worth 12.5p. However, the offer is only in RP paper whose value I could not then check since HK was closed. I therefore resigned myself to a sharp sell-off of RP when HK reopened yesterday morning (c. 1.30 a.m. London time). You may therefore imagine my surprise when I checked the HK closing price yesterday morning. It was unchanged from Tuesday night and volume was about 35m shares. Given that the offer is 15.7 RP shares for each PLE share, that is the equivalent of 12.5p, I therefore decided that the RP price is real and not a fake.

So I checked RP’s HK price at the close first thing this morning and it still stands at 0.097 or put another way the equivalent of c. 12.5p. Volume in HK last night was only 6m but even so it smells real enough to me. So I again bought PLE this morning – this time at 5p.

Realistically, we have seen this discount before. Some may remember London-quoted issues going east a few years back and the discount was colossal – of the order of 40%. The wise guys said “You’ll learn”. Fortunately I did not learn since I went on to sell the former London counters in HK at the full price.

So what was and is going on? I’m afraid to say that UK retail investors are just being silly and selling out in London whereas it is perfectly possible to sell London-acquired PLE as HK-quoted RP. All that is required is a little patience and persistence.

And the chairman? He has been as far as I am concerned on this subject as quiet as a mouse. But I know he hopes that RP will emerge as a serious “drug firm”. Make of that what you will. He is certainly serious.

*****

I lobbed out some Pantheon (PANR) this morning. But I regret doing so. For this is beginning to smell like a multi- multi-bagger. If one thinks about it, we have not had any such excitement in the resource sector for years. So it’s long overdue. The fact is that investors have come to rule out the possibility. That’s one’s cue.

*****

Finally, I had steered clear of gold for the last $50 down on the grounds, already alluded to in this column, that the Commitment of Traders data was very bearish. But there is a limit and I have now paid $1,110 for gold. I might regret this since I can’t see any extenuating factor.