Previously Crown Corp, CCO. Institutional interest now and the Co has changed it's name for a fresh beginning. Still very speculative, but what isn't? but just a case of investing the huge amount of Cash sitting in a Brazilian bank a/c. There's no real difference here to an emerging markets investment fund apart from the obvious and very attractive discount to NAV of approx 75% !!!!!

iturama,
that is what i was trying to get at.......he has reduced by about 2% i think, at a time that they have been doing the rounds and getting some institutions on board etcetc..........so he's either been asked to pass over part of his parcel, or simply had to reduce in order to get them the price they wanted (or something to that effect)........On the other hand he may have simply been reducing his stake (but at such a low price ???)

and perhaps out of it all (the City rounds) came the notion that they should get their assets independantly valued.......

although it is always possible that the negative perception of these events can also be true........

i imagine that the "pending independent verification of certain of the assets of
the Company." part has to do with verifying that they can in fact get their hands on their Brazilian money........

The Rybek sales are a concern and may have triggered the suspension. Why would he sell at a third of the claimed NAV value? If it was due to institutional pressure, he could have done a private sale to those institutions.
I suspect SP is a bit concerned about the second tranche of cash (the $370M). I can't see any justification for the BOB holding that back, unless the original US$ had been converted into local currency, then applied in the money markets. This could well be the case and it is entirely feasible to have doubled the money, in US$ terms, in the period. The Brazilian Real has appreciated around 50% in the last two years against the US$ and internal interest rates have been very high.
The BOB would have no problem repatriating the original $ amount, plus interest. This amounts to $294M or 168M. This gives a bottom line NAV of over 1 per share.
The second tranche could have restrictions but SP appears to have resolved that, at least with the BOB. Lets hope so.

after being on the sidelines here my view is that this does NOT bode well. i think the valuation will come in far far lower than expected or even close to zero.

i am not scaring people here but in a mispricing situation that everyone has banged on about there is always a bit of smoke and fire and in this case if all was legit then these would trade at a small discount as opposed to the huge disc currently.

i wish holders luck but i think this valuation is at the request of regulators, the LSE or some other body. what the hell does it mean otherwise: "independent verification of certain of the assets of
the Company." - when is that good news?????????????????

nm

nm

nm

paulmasterson1

With respect I do not know Proptrade but have benefitted from information given by him, and believe him to be honest. If you don`t agree with him,which I don`t on this occasion fine.

But it is important for all views to be heard and not be slatted. You never know what information you might learn from.

regards

nm

Paul,

As long as negative comment is posted in a non personal way this is a free speech forum - people are entitled to be negative about any share they see fit, just as you are more than entitled to be positive about it.

I have had to step in on the SEO thread today, I am now stepping in here as well - stick to the subject not your fellow posters.

I will not step in again as far as any poster on these 2 threads is concerned - I will simply take action.

I sincerely hope I have made myself clear enough to everyone and is a last warning before we remove access to a few posters including yourself.

Ian

Hi, I do not understand why the suspension is got to bad news. They are just suspending trading because I think they want an Indipendent Panel to give a fair value to the Company and stopping all the speculations that have been going for so long where the money comes from etc,etc.....They have deposited a lot of money in a European Bank you know which one and surely with all these EEC regulations the Bank was not going to accept all this money knowing that could be of dubios origins as someone keeps speculating, and even the money left in Brasil must have value and this is simply not showing in the share price so the Directors of the Company none of them fleeing abroad.....being fade up of this ludicrous undervaluation have stopped trading for now. As simple as that. Well at least We all hope so...... I am optmistic, regards Al

From the 30 sept 05 RNS;

" Stuart Pearson, Chief Executive and Acting Chairman, commented:

'The performance of the share price has improved dramatically since we last
reported in June. However it is still substantially below the net asset value of
the business. "

I am still optimistic that a positive situation will arise.........

Ian, cheers for those comments.

My post above may have been a little on the strong side but my reasons for remaining on the sidelines were that often when presented with a gift horse (company at a huge disc to NAV) there is usually a reason why, and the suspension today may disclose that reason. I may be wrong and this stock opens alot higher and I then wish all holders well - and i truely mean that.

I do not in any way feel the need to defend myself but apart from some amusing non-market related comments on the SEY thread I have never lied or mislead an online community I enjoy being a member of.

Some posters feel the need to spin and spin and spin. At times it is amusing but at other times it is just annoying. All I ask as a member of this community is that posts are kept on the side of fact and stated rumour as opposed to lies and spinning yarns.

By the way, Dr Square I thank you for your comment and would like to let you know that I have recieved numerous private emails from fellow posters giving their views (politely!) in this name but also lots of support taking a stand against a certain other poster! cheers.

Rgds
PT

Prop

seems your views are very similar to mine on this one - something just didnt feel right and still doesnt. My personal opinion is that is more likely to be bad news rather than good, though ultimately without being much closer to the deals we will not know until it is fully out in the open. The small placing and the offer to buy RAF with shares both indicated to me that the company still had no access to any of the cash.

just because some people cannot accept any view that differs from their ramps should not detract from sensible posters like you prop

Prop/Fundy - Hear Hear (or is it here here?!)

Scuse me folks....the statement actually says that IT (the company) has requested the suspension of its shares pending an investigation. That was surely said for a very good reason. They were not MADE to do it. It is soooooo obvious from the negativity bouncing around on this BB why this share cannot possibly reach its rightful level at the moment. Nice one SP. This, is, in my view the best news so far for LGB. I'm with Paul on this one........never let me down yet.....

I spoke with Bankside (give them a call) who have confirmed that the company itslef called for the suspension, primarily floowing the sales from Ryback, to qualify the asset poistion to the market from an independant source and thus remove all uncertainty and bogus sp fluctuation.

Timescales are unknown, but probably in weeks.

Pearson is openly against shorters and scaremongers, so this can only help to add to lessening their impact.

At the end of the day. Those that are in this share will have to wait for the announcement, and can do nothing to change any fact. Those that are outside of the share can say whatever and will not have any effect on the outcome. I am in this share and freely admit it is a complete gamble we will see.

I did have a look at some of the share magazines last night. While they where reporting the moneys being released from Brazil and the companys recent investments. They did not seem to carry any real enthusiasm for the company. As pointed out above no one will take this company seriously until the fog is blowen away. This will take in my opion something major ie what is happening.

If nothing else I will be able to tell my children the story of the great Aim swindle or you can get money for nothing.

regards

Probably enough already said so lets wait and see. However on the Brazil issue, I have a lot of experience with that country and know that inflows of foreign capital of $100,000 or more must be registered with the Central Bank. That money if freely repatriable, plus reasonable interest. Dividends and capital gains are also repatriable subject to any applicable federal and state taxes, plus a (possible)withholding tax of 15%.
I therefore have no qualms about the money already released to AMRO. It has to have been registered capital returned to the registered owner of the money. I suspect the remainder is capital gains but that is pure guesswork.

The Guardian

Langbar International, a little-known investment company listed on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) and formerly known as Crown Corporation, asked for trading in its shares to be suspended yesterday while it attempts to secure evidence that it does have more than 350m deposited in overseas bank accounts.
The shares were suspended at 50p, less than a quarter of the 205p net asset value per share of the company, after some investors voiced concerns about recent stock sales.
On Tuesday it emerged that Mariusz Rybak, the company's co-founder and former executive chairman, had been steadily reducing his stake in the business. His holding was in excess of 30% in the summer but Mr Rybak has been forced to disclose that his stake has fallen below 20% after a series of disposals.
A number of investors were concerned about his lack of support for the stock and contacted Langbar and its advisers on Tuesday.

The company subsequently decided to appoint independent accountants to scrutinise the company's assets. In so doing they are likely to check on cash deposits held in three principal bank accounts - one each in Brazil and Holland, and a third in Leeds.

Stuart Pearson, who took over as Langbar's chief executive in June, received written confirmation in July from the Banco do Brasil that the company had legal and beneficial ownership of deposits worth $660m (377m) held in Brazil at that time.

Subsequently Mr Pearson arranged for $294m to be transferred from Brazil to a bank account in Holland. He is now negotiating a deal to allow the balance of the Brazilian funds to be used to finance property deals on the Iberian peninsula.

The valuations relating to those deals are now being reviewed as a matter of course.

The overseas cash was generated in almost equal measures by the proceeds from a stock market listing and the profit from the sale of construction contracts awarded in Argentina under that country's equivalent of the private finance initiative.

The listing was supported largely by Brazilian, Argentinian and some German investors. Because of the company's South American investor involvement, the funds raised had to be retained, under local banking rules, in that part of the world.

The company was assisted in winning the Argentinian construction contracts in 2003 by Lambert Financial Investments, a Barcelona-based fund manager representing mainly wealthy pensioners living in South America. Lambert is said to enjoy good relations with the Argentinian government.

The contracts, with a value of about $700m, were not carried out by Langbar but sold to Lambert last year, generating a profit of $350m. Despite not having done any of the work outlined in the documents, Langbar has been given assurances that it has no continuing liabilities relating to the contracts.

Lambert is now rumoured to have sold on the contracts again, generating fresh profits on the deal.

Lambert paid the $350m it owed Langbar for the contracts, using a promissory note which was honoured and paid into the Brazilian bank account in June this year. Although the Brazilian bank accounts have been a feature at Langbar since its Aim listing in 2003, they came to prominence only in the summer.

In July Mr Pearson visited Brazil and he reported to the market on his return that not only did the funds exist but that he was also exploring methods to secure access to them.

Langbar's share price, which was 11p when Mr Pearson was appointed, rose close to the 100p mark during the summer. But the trading price has drifted back towards the 50p suspension level as sellers emerged.