Ann: Chairman's Address to Shareholders , page-31

Algen: You repeatedly say that paper losses aren't actually losses until the holder sells. That's true, but refusing to sell a falling stock most often just means that rather than having some of your money back now you end up getting less (or none) of it back later. I'd certainly rather have $100 today than $10 (or nothing) in a few years, so crystalising a loss is often the best thing you can do.

AEB is not in administration - that means you can still buy or sell it. If it does go into administration, you won't be able to buy or sell it, and in those cases you usually lose the lot, or close to it. If a company is going to go into administration, you want to sell before it does! I'm not saying AEB is certainly heading for administration, but your argument doesn't seem to be a reason to hold or buy.

You and others have many times referred to AEB as 'a long term investment', as though that makes it a good strategic move to buy something knowing it will not improve in value for a long time. Assuming you are correct, surely it would be better to stick your money elsewhere and buy when it becomes a short term investment. Why would you park your money long term in a situation where it will not be appreciating in value? It just sounds like you're trying to put a positive spin on losing money.

No one said AEB was trying to give us the illusion that they were about to be commercialising their supposed technology three years ago, but they did make promises which they have failed to deliver on. Why do you keep making excuses for them not coming good on promises they never made, and expectations no one had of them, while ignoring their actual failings and the genuine, big reasons to be very concerned?

You can put spin on things as much as you like, you can complicate things with silly excuses, but what it comes down to, surely, is that if something is likely to go down in value you should sell, and should not buy until it is likely to be improving in value. You have been touting AEB as a good company to hold all the way down to where it is now, and I expect you'll still be talking about holding in a positive way down to 2c and below, saying it's a "long term investment" and that "It would be silly to say everything should be finalised by now"