Had this on the watch list too long and could kick my own ass if it was possible. I think this is just the type of play needed on these markets along with Value shares such as Churchill China that I recommended yesterday.

Heres just a brief background on the company.................

Hedge fund leads rush to float
by Louise Armitstead
RAB Capital is the first to plan a listing in London. Others are bound to follow

IN the spring of 1999 Philip Richards and Michael Alen-Buckley arrived almost empty-handed at their new office — a small room in 1 Adam Street, just off the Strand in central London.
The day — April Fools’ Day — seemed apt at the time. Richards and Alen-Buckley, both highly regarded bankers at Merrill Lynch, were giving up stellar careers to start their own hedge fund, RAB Capital. The only money they had was their own, and their staff consisted of one manager, a compliance officer and a secretary.

Five years on, the little room in 1 Adam Street, still RAB Capital’s main trading floor, albeit straining under a vastly expanded workforce, is again the engine room of an ambitious and pioneering venture.

Last week RAB Capital became the first stand-alone hedge-fund company to announce its intention to float in London.

Richards, 46, and Alen-Buckley, 43, will be at the helm of a company with a market value that could be as high as 100m. Their stakes could be worth 30m each. Advised by KBC Peel Hunt, the firm will release a prospectus tomorrow revealing how much money it intends to raise.

In the past five years, Richards, a former army officer, and Alen-Buckley, who is the son-in-law of the hotelier Lord Forte, have increased their funds under management from 4m to an estimated 1.1 billion. They have 40 staff (16 of them managers), 7 hedge funds and a track record that is the envy of the City.

RAB’s first fund, the European equities fund, which was launched in November 1999, has made returns of 84% despite the tumbling markets.

Floating will for the first time allow small investors to take part in the success of a hedge-fund boutique rather than investing in one fund.

But there is growing concern that they will also be exposed to risks that at the moment are restricted to professional investors.

Watching in the wings are hundreds of other hedge-fund managers, salivating at the thought of following RAB to market and realising the value of their businesses. Investment bankers and advisers are also rubbing their hands at the prospect of a spate of similar deals.

Two funds earmarked for flotation are Thames River Capital and GLG Partners, one of the biggest hedge funds in London, with about $8 billion under management. Experts say plenty of others are looking to float as a way of cashing in.

Richards and Alen-Buckley dismiss the suggestion that this is their motive for floating RAB. “Right from the start we wanted to create a long-term business and we’re here to stay,” said Richards. “Floating is an indication of our permanence. Neither one of us will be taking cash out. We are also doing this for our staff. We have given them options over the years and this will be their chance to realise some cash. Staff loyalty is important to us and to our clients, who like the stability this offers.”

The cash raised from the float will also be used to launch additional hedge funds and bankroll the company’s rapid expansion.

Managers have already been hired for several new funds that will specialise in energy and in Japan. Small investors are likely to be attracted through a joint venture with Saga, which provides services for the over-fifties and has 7m customers.

Richards and Alen-Buckley built impressive reputations in the City working together in the late 1980s at Smith New Court, where they helped to build the stockbroker from a market value of 10m to one of 500m by the time it was sold to Merrill Lynch in 1995.

Both men had been watching the growing hedge-fund industry with interest. Alen-Buckley had numerous contacts, including leading figures such as George Soros. They spent four years at Merrill before quitting to set up RAB.

Alen-Buckley, who is taking the title of executive chairman, is described as the “public face” of the business. Richards, who goes from chief investment officer to chief executive, is more involved in strategy.

Richards runs the Special Situations fund, which is just over a year old but has already generated a return of 1,274%.

Since hedge funds are known for being opaque and secretive, observers are concerned that RAB will struggle to live with the scrutiny that comes with being a public company.

Richards said the company planned to float on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) rather than the main market so that lengthy meetings with institutions could be avoided. “We want to spend our time managing the money, not talking about it,” he said.

“We have a simple philosophy. Our goal is to produce consistent returns in all market conditions. We think that if you work on managing the risks and reducing the downside, the upside tends to look after itself. The float is exciting but it will still be business as usual.”ENDS



Please DYOR, you are responsible for your own buying and selling timing actions.

cheers GF

Uhmm!!! what can we deduce from this??? any ideas apart form the obvious??

Hardman have had several buy recomendations!!!

UK's Falkland Island Holdings explores for oil
Wed 23 June, 2004 10:33


LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - Shares in Falkland Island Holdings Plc FKL.L rose on Wednesday after it said it had formed a new exploration company to look for up to 2.5 billion barrels of oil off the British Falkland Islands near Argentina. The company, whose business interests in the islands span minerals, shipping and retail, said they had raised $4.5 million to fund the next 12 to 18 months of work on their petroleum exploration licenses.

"The creation of a new, fully funded oil exploration company that mirrors our minerals venture is an exciting development," Falkland Island Holdings Chairman David Hudd said in a statement.

Shares in the company rose two percent to 286-1/2 pence by 0930 GMT, valuing the company at 17.9 million pounds.

The firm last year mapped 4,340 kilometres of seismic data, and said the leads it identified then could contain between 200 million and 2.5 billion barrels of oil.

The new oil exploration firm, Falkland Oil and Gas Limited, is jointly owned with RAB Capital RAB.L and Australian oil and gas firm Global Petroleum Limited, and the exploration will be carried out as part of a joint venture with a second Australian oil and gas company, Hardman Resources Ltd.

Good spot xmortal. I had a friend who worked on the British Antarctic Survey and he said that whoever got into the Falklands oil rights would one day make a fortune. let's hope he was right!

Hedge fund results suffer from overcrowding-study
Tue 22 June, 2004 15:21


By Justine Trueman
PARIS, June 22 (Reuters) - An increase in the number of hedge fund managers is starting to hurt performance, researchers from Edhec business school said on Tuesday. Performance figures by Edhec for global hedge funds show that nine out of 13 alternative investment strategies posted negative returns in May.
According to Edhec researcher Mathieu Vaissie, a number of arbitrage strategies suffered because too many managers were targeting the same opportunities.
"It's like a cake, if you have to share it between 15 instead of 10 people the slices are smaller and you will have more losers," he said.
In particular this affected convertible arbitrage strategies which fell 1.31 percent in May, their worst performance since July 2002.
Merger arbitrage suffered a similar fate, with a 0.04 percent return in May, the worst performance in the last 12 months.
The worst performing strategy in May was emerging markets, down 1.87 percent, due to declines in emerging stock and bond markets.
Funds of hedge funds also performed poorly, down 0.86 percent.
Vaissie said some investors were beginning to question the value of actively managed funds of hedge funds given their relatively poor performance and volatility.
Over one year funds of hedge funds have delivered 8.09 percent on average compared with up to 20 percent for some hedge fund styles. But volatility over this period was still 2.75 percent, higher than some styles such as merger arbitrage which had just 1.49 percent.
"This is one of the things we've been looking at, whether it is justified or whether it would be better to have a hedge fund index," said Vaissie.

Sharecaster thanks.....at last some constructive reasoned comment posted.

Thanks, glad you agree with my comment about Falklands, yep Falklands looking good Third Eye.

Still no balls to admit your position - or your syndicate's - in this stock Third Eye???

What you hiding?

All relevant: AFE and CDN

Citizens of Vietnam And China Will Be Rubbing Their Hands With Glee At The Strength In The Gold Price.

At the Minesite Forum earlier this week Joe Baylis, President and CEO of Olympus Pacific with its two gold projects in Vietnam, gave a fascinating insight into the attitude to gold in that country. Housing, he said , is priced in taels of gold which are bars weighing just under an ounce - an interesting thought for Chancellor Brown to ponder as UK property prices continue to soar. The actual purchase may take place in US$s or Vietnamese dongs, but gold is the basis of valuation and there is so much dealing in these tael bars that they tend to be priced at a slight premium to the world gold price. Gold , therefore, plays a vital role in the savings and investments of the Vietnamese people . Further evidence of the respect for gold is demonstrated by the government which cools down the economy by encouraging the import of gold whenever inflation appears to take a hold. In April the import tax was lowered from 3 per cent to 1 per cent on gold bars and from 1 per cent to 0.5 per cent on gold grains.

A day after the Forum it was announced that citizens of Beijing, the capital of Vietnams mighty neighbour China, were now able to buy and sell gold bars through a bank. Remember it was only in October 2002 that the Shanghai Gold Exchange formally opened for business after a gap of 50 years. A month later small sized gold bars were put on sale in Beijing through several department stores and early in 2003 the State Council confirmed further de-regulation of the gold market by altering the rules governing both domestic and international participation in the gold fabrication market within China. The initiative by the China Merchants Bank with repurchasable gold bars provides Chinese citizens with a new investment tool and it will be rolled out through China with Shentzen as the next stop.

China Merchants Bank is a marketing agent for CGS Ltd, a joint venture between China and Hong Kong, which manufactures the 99.99 per cent pure bars in three sizes, 2 ozs, 5 ozs and 10 ozs. The price of the bars is based on the spot price in London and Shanghai and there is additional commission of US$13.13 on a purchase and US$7.47 on a sale. The move was preceded by a test run in Chengdu, which is the capital of Sichuan province, back in November 2003. According to the China Daily the initial demand did not set the world on fire as only 135 ozs of gold in these bars was purchased from 5 branches in the first day. However, as Chairman Mao said, the longest journey starts with a single step.

Clearly the test went well once Chinese investors realised that the gate had been opened even further, but no data is available. Nor has it been disclosed how much gold has been handed over by CGS to CMB to get the new market going. As a guide to its potential it is interesting to note that the Shanghai branch of the Bank of China launched a paper gold business called Gold Treasure last November. Apparently volume growth for this investment instrument has grown by 40 per cent month on month which is rather more than can be said for Gold Bullion Securities which is listed on the London Stock Exchange. And another thought. If China Merchants Bank thinks it can achieve a yield of 5 per cent on a buy-sell transaction on a gold bar once customers catch on, surely UK banks could offer the same service.

Mind you the buying power of the British public is as nothing compare with the potential of China. If 1 in 20 Chinese bought a single 2 oz gold bar over the next five years they would mop up 128.8 million ounces of gold which is equivalent to 4,155 tonnes. This is equivalent to 1.6 times the worlds annual production of the metal. Add to this the growing appetite in Vietnam and other countries in the Far East and it is not hard to see why Germanys announcement that it might sell 17 per cent of its 3,500 tonnes of gold reserves under the Central Banks Gold Agreement, which is being renewed in September, was greeted with a yawn by the market. France is also considering selling 500 tonnes, but again no firm decision has been made. When western politicians see the view taken on gold by China, the industrial power house of the world, opinions may well change. Only the Netherlands has gone firm with a proposed sale of 100 tonnes and that is a drop in the proverbial ocean.

Investors chronicle has some space devoted to hedge funds this week

They suggest one way is a invest in a fund of hedge funds such as the 11 funds of hedge funds..but warn : "but so far the performance has not been dazzling...The average funds assets grew by just 1 per cent in the past year"


Hmmmm we have been discussing the little asset value that RAB have.

RAB, now well undervalued, some interesting statistics to think about on the company.

ROCE = 32 (anything over 20 is considered decent)

OPERATING MARGIN % = 37 (10% or over is considered reasonable for a growth share)

P/E = 9.8

EPS GROWTH %
12-MONTH FORECAST = 29

NAV PER SHARE = unknown at present, future upgrade with results August.



Just goes to show when you actually analyse this company and get away from all the silly hype blurted out by some ignorant posters on the B/Boards that this company on present fundementals is way undervalued. Recent news of its stake in the Falklands oil fields add cream to the top.

cheers GF.

COME ON RAB!!!!

DIRECTOR DEALING BY CALEDON!!!! RAB'S INVESTMENT

This is a good sign Caledon is to produce good results from their drillings. A good pruchase costing around 63,750, it is not amall amount if one thinks that the shares are going nowhere. AND OF COURSE EXTREMELY RELEVANT TO RAB HOLD 23,159,144 SHARES NOW OUT OF THE 213 MILLION SHARERS IN ISSUE. A HEFTY 10.9% STAKE. COME ON RAB!!!!


RNS Number:1528A
Caledon Resources PLC
25 June 2004


Caledon Resources plc ("Caledon" or "the Company")

Director Dealings

The Company announces that Stephen Dattels, the Chairman of Caledon, today
purchased 1,500,000 ordinary shares in the capital of the Company, increasing
his beneficial interest to 17,485,310 ordinary shares or 8.2% of the total
issued share capital. The shares were purchased at a price of 4.25 pence and
will be registered in the name of Willbro Nominees Limited.

The purchase of the above shares increases the total number of shares held by
the concert party to 50,819,913, representing 23.6% of the total issued share
capital of the Company.

For further information please contact:

Stephen R Dattels
sdattels@caledonresources.com

George Salamis
gsalamis@caledonresources.com

Donal Douglas, Investor Relations
ddouglas@caledonresources.com

Caledon Resources Plc
18 Upper Brook Street. London W1K 7PU England
Telephone +44 (0) 20 7318 5780 Facsimile +44 (0) 20 7318 5781


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

Yes g/f we agree there has been some silly hype on this thread, what is the price telling you 1 quick time still or 30p?

According to the bulls earlier in this thread, we are going to 1 quick time on NAV of somewhere between 2.4p-7.2p


So if funds were returned to shareholders on Monday we would have between 2.4p-7.2p for each share distributed to each shareholder plus any profits or minus any losses for the current year less costs....using NAV quoted earlier in the thread by the bulls.

So what does that tell you?

I'll tell you it tells you that an abundance of good performance by RAB is already priced in the share price.

And the latest of AFE on Eagle Eye...... this could be the one maker for AFE. AND OF COURSE FOR RAB. If RAB is choosing the right companies to invest then you will have high net worth investor like u Third Eye(of course after you made a good killing on those obscure ofex companies. LOL!!!)

Why dont u occupied your time on the thread you created, YOUR FOLLOWERS ARE MISSING YOU!!!

Company African Eagle Resources PLC
TIDM AFE
Headline Drilling Report
Released 07:00 24-Jun-04
Number 0829A



DRILLING RESUMES AT EAGLE EYE



African Eagle has resumed drilling and other exploration activities at its Eagle Eye copper-gold project in Zambia. The programme is designed to test the extensive copper-bearing system revealed at Eagle Eye by the Companys 2003 geochemical and geophysical surveys.



Chris Davies, African Eagles Operations Director, commented Four out of a planned 34 drill holes have already been completed since drilling resumed last week. Some of the drill cuttings contain visible copper mineralization and the samples are being shipped for laboratory assay. We will await the results keenly over the coming weeks. In addition to the drilling, our latest geological mapping has revealed copper mineralization in the southern limb of the Mweze fold structure, extending the known strike length of the system from 8 to 10 kilometres.



____________________________________________________





Eagle Eye lies within African Eagles Sasare licence in eastern Zambia. The Companys 2003 exploration programme revealed a copper-bearing system with a strike length greater than 8km and geological investigations showed that this was of the iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) type. An initial 10-hole drill programme in late 2003 confirmed the presence of IOCG mineralization, with the better intersections including 33m at 0.5% and 6m at 5% copper within broad mineralized zones up to 65m wide. IOCG deposits can be very large and include the Olympus Dam and Ernest Henry deposits in Australia which are owned by major mining companies



The current drilling programme commenced on 13 June and will consist of 34 or more holes for a total of at least 5000m. The programme aims to test numerous mineralized targets already identified and will be extended to any new targets discovered by the current geochemical and geological surveys. Four holes have been completed to date and the supervising geologist has recorded copper sulphide mineralization in the cuttings. The grades of the intersections will be known when the results of laboratory assays become available over the coming weeks.



African Eagle also plans extensive surface and airborne surveys over the prospective area during the coming months. Consulting engineers GeoQuest have already commenced geological mapping, geochemical and geophysical surveys and the Company has signed a contract with Fugro for an airborne geophysical survey, to begin in July. Desk studies are also underway including satellite image analysis and terrain analysis using the newly available SRTM 90m digital elevation model.



The surface surveys have already led to the discovery of copper mineralization on the southern limb of the Mweze fold structure, extending the known strike length of the mineralization to 10km and opening up the possibility of doubling the extent of the system.



In addition to the Eagle Eye exploration, the Company plans a short programme of drilling at the old Sasare gold mine, which is about 8km southeast of Eagle Eye. The mine operated between 1906 and 1942. Records are sparse, but at least 12,200 ounces of gold were mined from two veins 8m apart, grading 8 to 9.6 g/t. From the evidence of old workings, the mineralized structure has a strike length of at least 1.6km but there has never been a systematic attempt to evaluate the potential for a modern open pit gold target. Today, only the Sasare West adit is safely accessible and the Company recently conducted channel chip sampling in the crosscut. The main veins and the ground between them are mined out here, but the sampling yielded 0.84g/t gold over 6m in the footwall of the vein system.



John Park
Chairman, African Eagle Resources plc



24 June 2004



LONDON (AFX) - African Eagle Resources PLC said it resumed drilling and
other exploration activities at its Eagle Eye copper-gold project in Zambia.
"Four out of a planned 34 drill holes have already been completed since
drilling resumed last week," said Chris Davies, African Eagle's operations
director.
"Some of the drill cuttings contain visible copper mineralization and the
samples are being shipped for laboratory assay. We will await the results keenly
over the coming weeks," he said.
The company also said its latest geological mapping revealed copper
mineralization in the southern limb of the Mweze fold structure
newsdesk@afxnews.com

1 BY XMAS OR BEFORE. WHAT DO U THINK GF??

I say a Quid quick time XM. Nice to see that POG and other base metals have once again started to go full gallop northwards despite the ignorance of one poster on this thread who said the rally was over and the dollar was on the up LOL.

I repeat again.......................

ROCE = 32 (anything over 20 is considered decent)

OPERATING MARGIN % = 37 (10% or over is considered reasonable for a growth share)

P/E = 9.8

EPS GROWTH %
12-MONTH FORECAST = 29

NAV PER SHARE = unknown at present, future upgrade with results August. (nb, to use an historical NAV with a present share price is illogical, please beware of tricksters who try to use this to influence, it is nothing short of de-ramping)

cheers GF.

Ah quick time, what is quick? It's been 1 quick time from April.

As for historical NAV read my statement again:

According to the bulls earlier in this thread, we are going to 1 quick time on NAV of somewhere between 2.4p-7.2p


So if funds were returned to shareholders on Monday we would have between 2.4p-7.2p for each share distributed to each shareholder plus any profits or minus any losses for the current year less costs....using NAV quoted earlier in the thread by the bulls.

I repeat again.......................

ROCE = 32 (anything over 20 is considered decent)

OPERATING MARGIN % = 37 (10% or over is considered reasonable for a growth share)

P/E = 9.8

EPS GROWTH %
12-MONTH FORECAST = 29

NAV PER SHARE = unknown at present, future upgrade with results August. (nb, to use an historical NAV with a present share price is illogical, please beware of tricksters who try to use this to influence, it is nothing short of de-ramping)

cheers GF.

GF... thanks for you research. im very positive RAB will reach 1 pound.

No tricking re-check the words carefully:
According to the bulls earlier in this thread, we are going to 1 quick time on NAV of somewhere between 2.4p-7.2p


So if funds were returned to shareholders on Monday we would have between 2.4p-7.2p for each share distributed to each shareholder plus any profits or minus any losses for the current year less costs....using NAV quoted earlier in the thread by the bulls.

Thanks XM