Around the Traps ... with THE FERRET 08:05, Friday, 1 April 2005
Sydney - Friday - April 1: (RWE Australian Business News) - **************************
PROMINA (PMN) must have let the designers loose on its annual report.
It's so full of ... LOVE!
Still, with the shares up from $3.70 a year ago to $4.94 yesterday, up 10c on the day, after touching a record $5.72 on February 7, shareholders already love the stock to bits.
However, we were interested by the question in big type on page three which said, "Do you love it enough to ensure it?"
Maybe Promina is planning to offer "ensurance".
And another thing ... what's the idea of putting the left and right hand page numbers on the right hand page only ... such as 14/15?
A "designer" innovation?
And another thing ... Ferret can remember when pregnant women were termed to be in "confinement", and were swathed in maternity clothing, which in hindsight was ridiculous, but do we need to see a double-page, full-colour spread of a naked full-term pregnant woman's stomach with a fully inverted belly-button in an insurer's (sorry, ensurer's) annual report?
What can we expect next year ... the actual birth?
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While we're on the subject of annual reports, Ian on the email has a few legitimate complaints.
He asks what's the use of an ASX announcement which cannot be read.
"I tried to read the annual report of Consolidated Rutile Ltd (CRT)," he writes.
"Like most compamies they must send it online to ASX in PDF format.
"Some companies insist on preparing these announcements on paper which is not PDF friendly, such that when the ASX announces it to the market, it is not legible over the internet.
"I could not read half of the report.
"There have been plenty of other examples.
"For example, there are plenty of analyst briefings' where I could not read any of the announcement.
"The ASX should insist that companies supply announcements in a PDF legible format, so that all the market is informed fairly."
*****
Ferret could not agree more with this sentiment.
All companies should try calling up their own announcements sometimes.
Many of them are unnecessarily complicated (designers again?) and therefore excruciatingly slow.
Investors only want the words, they don't give a stuff about the cute graphics and logos.
At RWE it takes ages to download some announcements with cable internet.
It must be all but impossible on dial-up internet.
Companies should remember KEEP IT SIMPLE and that it is in their interests to make their announcements as investor-friendly as possible.
*****
The "spectacular" word reappeared on the mining boards yesterday, courtesy of a BALLARAT GOLDFIELDS (BGF) headline on drilling results at Ballarat East.
However, in the actual report it was downgraded to an intersection of "significant" mineralisation.
A diamond drillhole has returned a true width, weighted average assay grade of 30 metres at 24 g/t gold, from a depth of 562 metres down-hole.
The intersection is interpreted to be the continuation of an ore shoot, already intersected 100m further north, which included previously reported gold intersections of 5.1 metres at 11.3 g/t, 6 metres at 9.0 g/t and 1.55 metres at 42.4 g/t.
Managing director Richard Laufmann said, "The most pleasing and important outcome is that our ongoing drilling success continues to demonstrate the robustness of BGF's geological model, which has already delivered over 1 million ounces of Inferred Resource at a very low discovery cost."
Ballarat shares rose 2c to 20.5c.
*****
MACQUARIE COUNTRYWIDE (MCW), which recently conducted a not-exactly-rushed issue to unitholders at $1.85 a unit on a 6-for-11 basis, is slowly recovering from the ordeal.
The price fell as low as $1.79.
However, it was up 1c to $1.83 yesterday and the rise can be partly attributed to Merrill Lynch forecasting the stock will be one of the top returns in the property trusts sector this year.
The price may rise to $2, the broker says.
The units were $2.05 six weeks ago before the unpopular issue.
*****
There were so many announcements from PAN AUSTRALIA (PNA) last year we grew tired of tracking it and it seems the last time the stock made the column was January 13.
That was when, after the latest announcement the day before, we figured that back-of-the-envelope maths suggested Pan shareholders could look forward to $110 million EBIT from copper and gold mining in Laos in a couple of years time, compared with a then market capitalisation for the company of about $98 million.
Well, we should have kept an eye on the price.
It was 18c that day but in a three-day burst of heavy trading the shares rose from 22c on January 22 to 29.5c on Januray 25.
There was a similar burst of hectic trading on March 27 when the stock was 27c, climbing to 34.5c three days later.
The price backtracked to as low as 25.5c on Wednesday, but was 27.5c, up 1c, yesterday.
The pressure could be building up again.
(Comments and complaints to [email protected] - no requests for advice please.)
