RANGE RESOURCES, famed for its Somalian oil exploration...

RANGE RESOURCES, famed for its Somalian oil exploration activities, appears to have found a representative stockbroker in London who is almost as colourful as itself.

Old Park Lane Capital, which placed 40 million Range shares at 5¢ each to its clients in March, has ''initiated coverage'' of Range with a glowing report arguing the stock is worth three times its current market price.

Old Park Lane is understood to be keen to get in on Range's next capital raising, because its clients are up about 50 per cent on their investments in March.

The broker's principal is Michael Parnes, 30, who started the firm with a couple of friends in late 2007 after decamping from Blue Oar Securities.

It styles itself as a specialist for ultra-high net worth individuals, and listings for companies on London's secondary exchange, the Alternative Investment Market where Range has a listing.

Mr Parnes's father Tony, nicknamed ''The Animal'' by competitors in the cutthroat world of London broking, was one of four men convicted in the Guinness share trading scandal in the late 1980s - and years later given a fair rollicking by entrepreneur Gerald Ronson when he wrote his memoirs of time inside and his claims of how Mr Parnes had lured him into the Guinness deal.

Michael Parnes's mother, Denise, is the sister of the jeweller Gerald Ratner, who demolished his career in the early 1990s, and almost his chain of stores, when he described the goods they sold as ''crap'' - causing the share price to plummet.

Aside from his jail time, Tony Parnes clearly made some life-long friends. Rolf Schild, who with his wife Daphne and daughter Annabel were kidnapped in the 1970s in Sardinia by a criminal gang, remained close even while he was in jail. It is believed that was partly because Mr Schild felt Mr Parnes had, like himself, had a hard time at the hands of media that accused him of faking the kidnapping to siphon money out of Britain.
Annabel Schild, who was only 15 when kidnapped, was released after a public plea by the Pope in St Peter's Square. She and her mother Daphne are the two largest shareholders in Old Park Lane Capital, after Michael Parnes, suggesting the family ties remain strong.

Old Park Lane Capital based its valuation of Range at about 22¢, compared with the current market price of 7.4¢, based on a small oil discovery made in Texas last year and the estimated worth of its Puntland leases.

The area in Texas seems out of step with Range's preferences, which lean towards under-explored areas which often feature armed conflict.

There have been claims, which the company strongly denies, that the money it paid for the leases it has in Somalia's breakaway Puntland province went towards funding pirates who frequent the Gulf of Aden.

Old Park Lane has relied on a Canadian geologist's work that put a ''best estimate'' on one of those Puntland leases containing 4.3 billion barrels of oil, with the hope that will be reinforced by an exploration well late this year.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/range-resources-and-its-cast-of-flashy-characters-20100606-xn7a.html#ixzz29JiJfNHv


Old Park Lane who is it that shares/ed the same office address ? Old Park End ?

Sound familiar to anyone ?