noble clyde fleet report - palta, page-16

Hi Wallygog.

Thanks, some useful background info in those links.

I agree that Far Scimitar may be in Singapore doing something else, then again she may be there collecting a stack. I don't know, and we probably never will for sure.

I used to work as an equity analyst for a large investment bank. I covered a highly technical heavy industry which was going through a period of heavy M&A activity. We'd all run the ruler over which companies would fit with which others in anticipation of further deals.

One day I was visiting a company I covered and was passing through a regional European airport. The company I was visiting was a major local employer, and no doubt a major employer in the region. When I was passing through the arrivals hall I noticed a chauffeur waiting for a passenger pick up holding a name board bearing the name of the CEO of one of the other companies I followed. In the corner of his name board was the logo of the company I was visiting. The two companies involved we already considered as compatible M&A candidates. I hung around, hiding behind pillars so not to be seen, and confirmed the passenger was indeed the CEO in question.

Was this just coincidence, or evidence of a deal in negotiation? At that stage I obviously didn't know.

Situations like that - and like the observation that Scimitar is in Singapore - are clearly not things you can INVEST in, but in some circumstances there is fire behind the smoke. Some might like to PUNT on such things but I, personally, wouldn't.

You are correct that the Seychelles and La Bella are the bigger items of interest for WHL, so please forgive me for recounting the above tale whilst we wait and wait and wait for more interesting stuff to happen.

BTW the two companies in question did end up merging.

Cheers,

Frogster