agm.....another view, page-17

Thanks for replying Sven.

As a continuous holder of PEN shares for well over three years, I obviously want the company to do well. I want you and fellow shareholders to do well and I want myself to 'do well'. But without occasional query....without asking questions when unsure, how do we further our knowledge?

The possible takeover/buyout by 'us' of a company that was showing an annual profit of a whopping 160 million dollars, well, to me, that is big news. Even if turned out to not eventuate.

If Gus didn't inform the meeting how much it would have cost to purchase the company in question, I had hoped that you or another knowledgeable poster might come forward with a guestimate of what it would cost. I am by no means a business man, and have never inferred that I am, but my first layman thought was 'how could we afford to buy them'?

If any of us owned a company making $160M per annum, wouldn't we be looking for many times more than our last years $160M profit before we'd even mildly consider selling? It sounded fanciful that we could afford to buy them out, even with the PALA $100M set aside for use.

I am in no way suggesting Gus was saying anything other than the truth, but doesn't it strike you even just a little bit unusual that we could find the money to buy a company that was making such a large profit? Where were we going to get several hundreds of millions of dollars from, because surely that's what would have been required to seal any sale.

In reference to your comments about why would management bother to offer anything more than legally required announcements in the face of unrelenting personal abuse, I had to read that part a few times before I fully comprehended/believed what you were saying.

So what if some people on HC have hurled abuse at management. Surely that should have absolutely no bearing on what the company releases or when they release it.

The people who have written negatives on HC about our company would be in the significant minority - firstly with regard to holders who actually read and write on this site, but more specifically, with all due deference to Hot Copper's owners, to the participants of the Australian Stock Market. I daresay the overall number of people interested in the share market might dwarf the membership of our beloved HC.

If indeed the many thousands of current loyal shareholders and the millions of potential shareholders are to be given as little information as possible/legally required by management, simply because of a few dissenters on a stock market chat forum, well, surely that says more about management than it does about anyone else.

I appreciate that was your view and not necessarily the view of management, but given our company was until recently one of the most pro-active disseminators of information on the ASX, perhaps there is reason to think your view is also shared by HQ. I hope it isn't, as it would to my mind be extremely disappointing if it was.

Anyway, getting back to the primary reason for my post. If you or anyone with a business background reading this post has any educated guess as to how much it would likely cost to buy a company with a last year profit of $160m, I'd appreciate being able to read your views.

Regards
RM