Wabest,Thanks for your comments.I like so many shareholders in...

Wabest,
Thanks for your comments.

I like so many shareholders in APZ or the unit holders of the unlisted aspen fund units share your anger and frustration at the almost 90% loss in value of our holdings.
The music stopped, new capital inflows disappeared, credit availability froze, LVR's soared, leading to the banks stepping in and the feeding frenzy of directors became more painful to watch as the share price plummeted.
All factors contributed to the situation we are in. Aspen was not alone in the way things were done including how directors benefited(Now perhaps thats being a bit too generous!)

You're right! The writing was on the wall, should have seen it, responded and moved out; not only APZ but the entire REIT sector.

There are still so many negatives.
-overly generous underwriting fees to compliant brokers.
-The multiple layers of directors' benefits are still there.
-The valuations for the sector may not have bottomed.
-The yields on some/all their rental properties may still drop.
- some of the business units(particularly the diversified property fund) may go under tarnishing their management skill reputation.
- the overhang of issued shares might cause the share price to fall further or continue to linger at the issue price.
-Some of the mangement fees for their funds might disappear or the deferred management fees might not be recoverable.
-Some of their investments in their business units may have to be written off.

Now we are only mere retail investors, We never have a complete or accurate picture(certainly not till after the main event). just look at the Aspen site. The glowing Lonsec Independent research report for the Aspen Parks fund
is easily found. The rather lukewarm report on the diversified fund is made only available to diversified fund investors(why?) but you can see it here.

http://www.aspengroup.com.au/adpf/adpfentitlementoffer.html


Yet the Institutional offers, not only to APZ but similiar REIT's such as CHC were not only fully taken up but oversubscribed. They knew all the negatives! Perhaps they just know a few more positives as well!

"The intellegent Investor" has a report "Property moguls swoop on juniors-30 Jun 09 | Issue 275" (get a free trial to read it)

As angry and frustrated as I am about the directors acquiring preferential benefits including loans under whatever undisclosed terms; at least now they do have (just like us), tangible assets at risk. The sooner directors interests by way of shareholdings are aligned with shareholders the better!

We may still be far from the bottom of this cycle but unfortunately I didn't panic early enough, so in my opinion now is not the time to dump my position.
Gabrielr