calm before the storm, page-15

Den888,

You and Mik are going to love this little article. Its all about the RAB special situations fund in the UK which also happens to hold 75 Million RCH shares.


RAB Chief Philip Richards Steps Down as Fund Stumbles

By Tom Cahill

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- RAB Capital Plc said Chief Executive Officer Philip Richards will step down after almost seven years to ``focus exclusively'' on running RAB Special Situations, the hedge fund that has lost 38 percent of its value this year.

Richards, 48, who co-founded RAB in 1999, will be replaced by Stephen Couttie, 50, who has been chief operating officer of the London-based hedge-fund manager since July 2005, RAB said in a statement today.

Special Situations, the largest of RAB's funds with about $1.5 billion under management, has been hurt this year after it invested in Northern Rock Plc, a mortgage lender nationalized by the U.K. government, and small natural-resources companies. Richards will continue to run RAB's Global Mining and Resources Fund, which he started at the end of 2007.

``This is a sensible, and arguably overdue, clarification of roles at RAB and should be welcomed,'' Rae Maile, an analyst with JPMorgan Cazenove Ltd. in London, wrote in a note to clients. ``It obviously cannot address the concerns of the poor recent performance. The recent weakness of commodities doesn't inspire much confidence in an imminent revival.''

RAB, which declined 5 pence, or 1.3 percent, to 37 in London trading, has dropped 68 percent since its high of 125 pence on July 20, 2007. The stock is still 50 percent higher than its initial-public-offering price of 25 pence a share in March 2004.

Investors Pull Funds

RAB's fund investors have been pulling money as Special Situations has stumbled. Assets under management at the end of June fell 12 percent to $5.9 billion from a year earlier, with Special Situations shrinking by $626 million, the biggest nominal drop of any fund managed by the company.