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NMS - Neptune Marine Services

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There has been talk of a placement coming up. Can anyone confirm anything about this? It makes sense that the share price has fallen to coincide with maybe a $1 placement. Anyone know anything?
 
If this is manipulation, I'd be interested to know what the ACCC would make of it.
If this is manipulation then, it's typical "big end of town", the hell with the little guy behaviour.
Yup....I'm glad I'm also in a reasonable position, I just feel for the lemmings. :(
 
Its a funny old world we live in.
If an SP rises by 25-30%, the old boys network (ASX) jump in, asking all sorts of questions as to why, who's up who and, who hasn't paid???
But....if the SP goes the other way it's, "she'll be right"....its just a shake out of the riff raff, allowing the old boys to rake it in.
Yup....sure is a funny world....;) :D
 
Hello all....

I've held NMS for a while now and was just wondering what everyone's average price of their holding is??

Mine is currently sitting at 78 cents... (Been accumulating over the last 15 months or so..)
 
son of baglimit said:
duck - the reason for my choice of words (in addition to sophies great summary) is that those of us who have been around this stock for a while (minimum 1 year) have seen it all before......a gradual decline in the SP, for no apparent reason, eventually followed by an announcement detailing acquisition and placement at that current price. It might appear that in their endeavours to create a large, successful conglomerate, lange and crowd will entice the right business with a juicy parcel of shares issued at 'the right price', a price sure to grow quickly and enormously, thereby lining the pockets of the previous business owners very nicely. And of course with that placement happening at 'the current price' then it can hardly be seen as a giveaway.

as always its all theory, but it fits, and appears set to fit again.

but who are we to complain, as our pockets get nicely lined too.......lol.
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any of the above seem strangely familiar - eg this week ?

we know what is about to happen.....
we dont know the scale......
we dont know how big......
we dont know who is involved......
we dont know if shareholders will be able to participate......
we do know, with absolute confidence, that it will all be for the good of NMS, and therefore us.....
we know the selling recently has been small holdings - check the trades.....
we therefore know the fund managers aint selling.....
we strongly assume its manipulation......
we strongly assume large investors / funds have been the buyers.....

if i was to guess - it will be within 7 days (most likely)....or....
they have to wait for the holiday season to be over...ie february 08.

ALSO

remember a comment of langes from his recent presentations..........

"in early 06 we went to the O&G businesses and asked them what they wanted, which was a one stop shop for end to end IRM, so we went out and developed a way to create it, with nepsys as the door opener"...or words similar.

dont think for a second that lange stopped consulting with the O&G businesses since then - many overseas trips, including a few since the AGM last month, have no doubt been to refine the details, confirm the requirements, tie up the committments to use NMS once the 'end to end, scale and expertise' are in place.

those companies lange mentioned as the big players in the O&G services industry, who NMS have been in some ways reliant on for work, will be shortly joined by another, with a patented 'trick up their sleeves' to gain plenty of BIG contracts, and make langes dream of being a ''pain in the @rse" come true.

its all too easy..................
 
Yeah Bags.....all too familiar.
I still feel for the lemmings that jump as soon as someone says Boo tho....poor sods.
That said, I don't mind a bit of bottom feeding while they're rotting on the sea bed either. ;)

I'll stand by what I said earlier tho ...........

If an SP rises by 25-30%, the old boys network (ASX) jump in, asking all sorts of questions as to why, who's up who and, who hasn't paid???
But....if the SP goes the other way it's, "she'll be right"....its just a shake out of the riff raff, allowing the old boys to rake it in.
 
Does anyone have any insight as to why the share priice has headed south today, especially this afternoon?:confused:
 
Does anyone have any insight as to why the share priice has headed south today, especially this afternoon?

Just a gut feeling really, as I was watching it all day. Wont go into datail as obviously I can't proove anything & don't want to get in trouble with the mods. but suffice to say I took advantage & topped up twice. Any further drop in SP certainly won't bother me either as this is a bottom drawer job & I look forward to great things from this little gem!
 
Lange announced during October that NMS were acquiring 2 additional companies to add to their stable. One of those companies is Ross Deeptech which is based in Aberdeen Scotland & is expected to settle in January 08.

"Neptune Marine is now undertaking due diligence. Details of the funding for the acquisition of Ross Deeptech, which is likely to involve an equity placement, will be announced as the transaction proceeds."

"Ross Deeptech manufactures specialist subsea and offshore oil and gas equipment. It also provides support services for production, drilling, diving, construction and intervention projects in deepwater areas such as west of Shetland, Norway, Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, Canada, Egypt and Australia. The business has a team of 95 people operating in four locations throughout the UK. Customers include some of the world’s leading blue chip energy corporations and contractors.

The second acquisition is SEA-STRUCT.

"With a team of 37 staff within the 3 offices, SEA-STRUCT ’s Australian entity is based in Fremantle, Western Australia, and has affiliations with SEA-STRUCT International Pte Ltd in Singapore and PT SEA-STRUCT INDONESIA Batam Island, Indonesia. The business also has representatives in Europe, the United States and the Middle East. Customers include major energy producers, EPCM firms and government authorities."

Neptune expects to complete the acquisition of SEA-STRUCT in early Q3, FY 2008.

Obviously Neptune is going to need the funds to complete these acquisitions early in the new year. Reading between the lines I would think that the wheels are already in motion to raise the capital needed. Perhaps there has been some "leakage" resulting in the fall in sp to current levels. My guess is that there will be a placement at $1.

Lange has turned this company around in the short time he has been at the helm. Certainly he is a man with vision & is setting about executing his plans at a rapid rate.

2008 is shaping up to be an exciting year for the company & its shareholders.
 
Plasmapark said:
Yeah Bags.....all too familiar.
I'll stand by what I said earlier tho ...........

If an SP rises by 25-30%, the old boys network (ASX) jump in, asking all sorts of questions as to why, who's up who and, who hasn't paid???
But....if the SP goes the other way it's, "she'll be right"....its just a shake out of the riff raff, allowing the old boys to rake it in.
Click to expand...

I know this might be a little off topic but it seems that the ASX does question a share price heading south and an increase in volume. The example being today's 'price and volume query' response by AIM.
 
sorry if this is a noob question but if the SP is at $1 why would anyone take up a placement offer at $1 when they could just buy at market for that price anyway?
 
chewy said:
sorry if this is a noob question but if the SP is at $1 why would anyone take up a placement offer at $1 when they could just buy at market for that price anyway?
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Chewy - I'm no expert but the reason I think is that for one the placement may well be taken up by instos before mugs like you and I get a look in. Secondly if the sp has been compressed then once the business is done the sp rises and the instos have gained a good position at a good price. See Sir SOB's earlier comments on the sp compression.
And I also think that the fundamentals about this company represent good value at a $1 - if the people that bought at 1.20 - 1.35 (which wasn't that long ago) thought it was worth buying then a placement at $1 would seem to be good buying to these shareholders - would it not?
For those of us who bought at 0.50c or cheaper then the $1 placement represents a psychological barrier.
Further, if the sp is at $1.05 on the day you need to have your placement acceptance for additional shares at $1.00 in which way would you jump?
Who knows there might even be a sweetner of some form which throws further complexity into the equation.
Cheers Sounda:D
 
extract from todays edition.........
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22887283-5001942,00.html

Wise-owl.com equity strategist Simon Guzowski says Australian economic growth and its share-market outlook is still "bullish".

Guzowski says the main issue in the US is "a confidence problem", which should be fixed by interest rate cuts.

"US banks have reported some $36 billion in writedowns so far. However, the US Federal Reserve has estimated that the problem is likely to be in the $200 billion category," he says.

And until the market knows the extent of the problem, things are likely to remain volatile.

"For picks in 2008, I can't look past mining services and engineering stocks," he says.

"They are exposed to the upside of the mining boom, but are not as exposed to commodity price volatility or rises in the cost of production."

In that sector, he likes Neptune Marine and Austin Engineering.
 
chewy said:
sorry if this is a noob question but if the SP is at $1 why would anyone take up a placement offer at $1 when they could just buy at market for that price anyway?
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fairly simple - if you put in a buy order for 200 million NMS shares at $1, how many would you get - very few, probably none.

its to raise $200M (a guess on my part - i think it'll be big), and to help the buyers (funds/sophisticated investros etc) feel good about a good buying opportunity.

you can smell it its that close.
 
cheers that makes sense.

suppose there is a big capital raising announced can you see the SP dropping any further for a while (due to dilution concerns) - or would the placement figure tend to act as a floor for the price?

Thanks again. (I've been interested in NMS for a while and think this may be a good entry opportunity - but may wait and see what is announced and the effects first).
 
generally from a historical perspective, a placement would act as a rough support, although i have seen it drop below placement price before, but not usually.

If i was looking to buy in, and if there is a placement coming (i dont follow this stock), then i would wait for the ann and wait for the price to drift down further. :2twocents
 
prawn - normally that would be the procedure to follow - except - every placement of neppys is accompanied by great news & a great surge.

regretably i doubt the placement will include anything for small holders like us, but if it did it would be jump in feet first time.

the placement will mean expansion into the sleeping giant that is the oil & gas services sector
 
It also depends on the type of placement. If it is only to 'sophisticated' investors then the price may move up, but if it is to the entire registry then according to simple supply and demand the price will fall towards the placement price.
 
son of baglimit said:
fairly simple - if you put in a buy order for 200 million NMS shares at $1, how many would you get - very few, probably none.

its to raise $200M (a guess on my part - i think it'll be big), and to help the buyers (funds/sophisticated investros etc) feel good about a good buying opportunity.

you can smell it its that close.
Click to expand...

I'm with you SOB on the magnitude of the placement - here are a couple of points to consider.

1. Check NMS chart when they did their previous placement (anns 31.05.07 -"Completion of Placement" will provide you with a time-frame). The placement was for $30 million comprising 50 million shares @ 60c. The share price ranged between 70c & 80c during that period.

So the sp did not fall close to the placement price last time hence my thoughts that this will be a much bigger placement & most likely to be @ $1. I think that there has been some "leakage" of information regarding the size of the placement thus the retracement in sp to the current level.

2. NMS Announcement 17.10.07. Strategy for Growth in the North Sea

" As part of its strategy for growth, Neptune is actively pursuing suitable acquisitions to give the Company a substantial presence in the North Sea as well as other major oil and gas fields in which its clients operate."

Note that Lange used the word "acquisitions" whilst referring to the North Sea. It would seem from that sentence that he has a much bigger shopping list, time will tell - only 1 of the 2 companies he has announced that they are acquiring is based in Scotland the other is in WA.

One would think that there will be an announcement shortly regarding a placement as they require the funds to settle on the latest acquisitions starting next month.

Good luck to all holders - 2008 will be very rewarding imo - expect some "cracker" announcements. As always DYOR.
 
http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=53773

Oil Industry Applauds Decision to Extend North Sea Tax Breaks
The Independent - London Friday, December 07, 2007


The Treasury has agreed to extend tax breaks for the decommissioning of oil fields in the North Sea in a move that it hopes will prolong the life of drilling in the area.

The proposed lengthening of the so-called "loss carry-back" rule, which allows oil companies to deduct decommissioning costs from profits in the three-year period before decommissioning, was applauded by the industry. The change, published in a consultation paper yesterday, "should help to extend the life of many fields and facilitate the transfer of assets," said Malcolm Webb, chief executive of industry lobby group Oil and Gas UK.

Major operators such as BP and Royal Dutch Shell have shifted focus away from North Sea drilling as reservoirs decline and the cost of extracting the black stuff rises. The three-year limit had meant that in many cases it made more economic sense for oil companies to leave oil in the ground and decommission early than to continue to operate there.

The Government declined, however, to scrap the petroleum revenue tax, one of the key planks of the industry's effort to change a tax regime that it says makes the UK less competitive. "Government is categorically not attracted to" abolition of the petroleum revenue tax, the Treasury said in the paper. "Government believes that such a proposal would create a large number of winners and losers, damage investor confidence and fail to secure a fair return for the UK taxpayer."

The tax paid by UK oil and gas producers depends on the age of the fields they operate, but the average rate is 55 per cent.

*****************

This is great news for those small oil companies operating in the north sea that are prepared to use new technology, like nepsys, to milk every last drop from these depleted fields. It encourages them to utilise the existing infrastructure, and where necessary, repair it using nepsys, as well as other services NMS provide. Listen to Langes presentations on brr.com.au for these same reasons.
 
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