"Today’s CEO is Rob Shand of Blue Sky Alternative Investments, the company that’s been under siege from the US short selling outfit called Glaucus Research, the one that sent Quintis broke last year and has now turned its attention to Blue Sky, and a week and a half ago published a sixty seven page report on Blue Sky which tore strips off it and says, primarily, that its assets under management are a fraction of what the company says they are, that it gauges investors with extortionate fees, overvalues assets, and is general overpriced and worth only a fraction of what it was. In fact, the share price has now fallen by a bit less than half to about $5.70 down from over $11.
Obviously a lot of people have decided to sell and ask questions later, and that’s fair enough – that’s what happens. I’ve been a supporter of Blue Sky over the years going back quite a long way. I thought it was a great vehicle for small investors to gain exposure to alternative assets that are usually the domain of large super funds. One of the points that Glaucus makes is that half of what Blue Sky invests in is property, and property is just that – not alternative at all. Anyway, Rob Shand is under the pump at the moment as CEO – he’s a young man, this is his first big crisis, and he is having to deal with it. He’s going around the country talking to investors. Seems to be holding the line at this point. They’ve put out a statement saying Glaucus’ effort is all completely wrong, but in our interview admits that they could do better with transparency and disclosure and they’re going to do better in the future. So that’s something. He thinks, to that extent at least, Glaucus has a point in that regard and they are going to disclose more. But as for the rest of it, it’s all wrong. "
BLA Price at posting:
$5.61 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
