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% !!!!!

if you read CCO RNSs - you can see Capital Merchant Bank - played a big part - in Lambert and Rybacks - BOB dealings - and funny - not - how it is not a bank - and featured on the Money Laundering News site - ;) - did nobody tell you about them before ?


https://www.nkt.net/CPA/news.html

MONEY LAUNDERING NEWS

01/04/04 BEWARE A NEW BANK SCAM
Capital Merchant Bank is a Brazilian corporation. It sounds and looks like a proper established and respectable bank. It is an established company and not something that has recently been incorporated. The services that it provides appear to include custodianship and wealth management services.

The problem is that it is not a bank!

Be careful dont just be attracted by offers dont be mislead by appearances.

lol!

watch out for insiderinside, he's short on this and a little bit worried, bless him...

Any intelligent thoughts as to why RAF has decided to tank 16.95% this afternoon. Floor has dropped out of the BID price indicating the market makers dont want to be holding, but quite happy to sell all afternoon without putting any upward pressure on the ASK ???

interesting point insiderinside, but the co has said the note has been honoured and the fundsdeposited in Banco Do Brazil which is a Bank. Pearson has claimed the he has verified that personally.

Presuably RAF has tanked because the all share offer fromm LGB no longer holds any charms for the sellers.

Langbar waiting for its $294m
Eric Barkas
City Editor
IF, when you put the cat out tonight, you stumble across $294m, please send it on to Stuart Pearson.
He'd like the money, as would Langbar International, the cash shell company he runs from Leeds which has suspended its shares on the Aim market.
The money is said to have left Brazil and ought to be deposited with the merchant bank ABN Amro's Netherlands office.
But nobody can be sure.
The cash could be in a holding account or a nominee account. It could be in the middle of the Atlantic between South America and Europe.
Maybe ABN has it already but, such is the mega-billion scope of its operations, it wouldn't notice.
It's a paper trail for the missing millions. Langbar has appointed independent auditors to track down the money. The result could be known in days or weeks, depending on how the trail unfolds.
In the meantime, Langbar is off the list and, in more than 10 years of writing about the City, this scribe has never had such an enthusiastic following for his outpourings.
A lot of private punters have put a lot of money into Langbar. So have institutions, including Merrill Lynch, Gartmore and Henderson, who you would think would have nailed down the cash before they invested.
If the small guys get it wrong it's sad, but part of the game. If the big guys get stuffed there will be hell to pay.
Once $294m was found to be wandering the world, Langbar had a problem. That problem was compounded by the decision of its previous chief Mariusz Rybak a Canadian living in Monaco to sell down his holding from 44 per cent to just under 20 per cent.
The shares bombed on fears that Mr Rybak knew something that nobody else knew. Mr Pearson took the decision to roll the problems up, seek suspension, and get in the independents to sort it out.
"I'm taking the moral high ground, I'm not believing anybody," he says. "I can't believe the money has disappeared."
Maybe part of the problem is transferring assets from the struggling economy of Brazil to Europe. Getting out straight cash can be difficult because it could undermine the economy hence the bank-to-bank deal between Brazil and ABN.
A bit of history is required here. Langbar grew from Crown Corporation, an investment company that raised money but found precious little in which to invest.
Thanks largely to dealing in public finance initiative contracts in Argentina and subscriptions from more than 2,000 Jewish settlers in that country it raised lots of cash.
The current cash pile is estimated at some 360m, putting the suspended share price of 50p at a big discount to net asset value.
Sums of this kind drew in investors. The big questions are: is the cash there and, if so, can we get at it?
There seems little doubt that the cash is real. Getting it is the problem.
It's hard enough to do border-to-border deals in the EU. Langbar is a smorgasbord of continents.
The company is registered for tax reasons in Bermuda, has most of its assets in Brazil via Argentina, its former chief is a Canadian resident in Monaco, it holds board meetings in Barcelona, is looking to do property deals in Spain and Portugal and it is run by Mr Pearson from rural Stainburn.
It could be, as Mr Pearson argues, that dealing with developing economies can be a lottery. If so, expect more of the same.
Langbar has another $360m in Brazil that is primed for its southern European property venture. Rather than a cash transfer of the $294m which the company would use to reward shareholders or make acquisitions, the $360m would go towards the Iberian property deal.
Asset swapping between Brazil and its colonisers in Portugal and by virtue of clout - Spain is easier than getting your hands on cash.
This story has a long way to run. And Langbar has agreed a shares deal for the Bradford marketing company Real Affinity. If the shares stay depressed then this deal could be revisited.

eric.barkas@ypn.co.uk
19 October 2005

RAF deal to go ahead but possibly a slight delay due to suspension.

Independant Verification is being done to allay doubts once and for all.

Pearson had had enough of market rumours.

Property Deal is progressing.

No RNS to state who Independant Auditors are.

Suspension may be lifted before RAF deal concludes but is up to Stock Exchange.

Yorkshire Post article and others quoted Pearson 'out of context'.


ALL THIS FROM PEARSON + PADLEY (Bankside) THIS MORNING.

THESE ARE TRUE STATEMENTS FROM THOSE THAT KNOW.

DON'T LISTEN TO BB CHAT AND RUMOUR, PHONE THEM UP YOURSELVES.

ps. RAF up 20% as i speak....

.

Thanks Andyeds. Trying to ignore the cr*p. Quite frankly I am surprised that some of these posts aren't libellous.... Got to be very damaging. The sooner the investigation is concluded better all round.....come what may

andyeds

Thanks for that. Shorters will love to read your post

regards

What kinda timeframe is expected?

First time for me that I've held shares and trading been suspended.

Weeks, a month?

What happens to those that were shorting the share, they're unable to close the position - must be costing them.

Could be any day, could be a month. What Pearson will be wanting is a full report from Qualified Auditors to first confirm the cash is in the account and that there is no claims on the money from the contract sales, i.e. that it is totally clean. This, he has already claimed but the market was still in doubt so this will clear the matter once and for all. If true, the shares will resume at a more realistic discount to assets which should be around the 1.50 - 2 level

robstuff. don't you think pearson should have done this before being involved? i still maintain that there is a screw up somewhere and these won't come back healthy (if at all)

I'm trying to keep optimistic, I don't think Pearson would have got involved in this unless it was bona fide, do you hold the shares?

Any body notice the date of this article........

April Fools Day


you read CCO RNSs - you can see Capital Merchant Bank - played a big part - in Lambert and Rybacks - BOB dealings - and funny - not - how it is not a bank - and featured on the Money Laundering News site - ;) - did nobody tell you about them before ?


https://www.nkt.net/CPA/news.html

MONEY LAUNDERING NEWS

01/04/04 BEWARE A NEW BANK SCAM
Capital Merchant Bank is a Brazilian corporation. It sounds and looks like a proper established and respectable bank. It is an established company and not something that has recently been incorporated. The services that it provides appear to include custodianship and wealth management services.

The problem is that it is not a bank!

Be careful dont just be attracted by offers dont be mislead by appearances.

The future looks bleak , live and learn .

dil,
i suggest you call Pearson or Padley like i said earlier. i wouldn't believe anything you read on a bulletin board. full of rubbish with people that have their own motives.
go on, give him a ring...

Hellooooooooo......Anybody in the house ?
It`s awful quiet in here. Still I`d rather that than the posters condeming all us holders to a watery grave. Anybody spoken to anybody in the know recently ? I have had more than enough time to decide how to spend all the money !!!!! :) Obe

This bb's not a main source of debate for LGB, suggest you look over on iii and ADVFN.