your comments after my delve into SLA's tax situation stirred many emotions- blushed at the praise, then bit of 'fight or flight' adrenaline when you were concerned about my motives.
i'm not a multinick, posting under different names (i post on other forums under same name, look them up also if you want). i chose this nick as i'm a fan of the planet of the apes movies. you put up my posting history, i am not a prolific poster but when i do (as evidenced here) i sure go at it. not sure if you meant 'professional' poster as a compliment or 'professional poster' as a shyster ("treason", easy tiger)- my own take is i am neither. i am an accounting student (not too far in) and a market research data analyst by trade. i have only been a member of HC for a few months, i sat out the sharemarket till april this year as i considered it too overpriced. i won't TOU you (and anybody else reading this pls don't either), i'm not going to say 'play the ball not the man' as i see a messenger's motivations as intrinsic to their message. game on.
i really could not give a rats if folks buy SLA now, before now or later. i am invested in SLA substantially (substantially for me, i don't have leo khoury's sized pot to gamble), and while we all say DYOR as a disclaimer we know that what we say on HC can influence people's holdings. i bought in at 60c and 30c. if it gets to 10c i might buy more (as they are not debt laden so won't go belly up), but otherwise i am in what i believe is called an overweight position, now just to wait a year or three and start banking dividends (i don't trade shares, i want to buy and then get dividend income, hence i won't be buying any more SLA, will go back to shares currently paying divs).
in the trader v investor motivations, a trader watches charts and moves money into and out of shares to make money off the market (and yes, can use forums like HC to move things in their favour). my dilemma as an investor is, if my shares go up but no dividend and i sell i get cash, but then what am i gonna do with it then? the reason i put it in the market in the first place was it was surplus to current requirements but i want to see it grow so that there is more of it for me in the future. if i sell a share then i gotta go researching more ruddy companies to put that money into, i'd rather find a company paying divi's (or in the case of SLA close to) and just leave it there. i got a day job and (a bit of a) life outside too (wife at work now, and i am avoiding doing housework right now), sharemarkets are very far from my thoughts most of the time.
i first heard about SLA on HC, read lots on HC and other forums, read things coming out of the company, could not see any broker research (but then, they are usually more biased than a punter posting on HC). I was concerned about the 'solascam' accusations, that the factory in siberia was fictitious and that 'pine needles curing everything up to the common cold' was too good to be true. the bit that tilted me in favour was the director-buying.
I don't have 25% of my portfolio in SLA, i don't feel comfortable with any one share having that much (buffet says that to diversify for the sake of it shows you don't know what you are doing, i'm happy to give myself that description). and 25% into a speccy like SLA is too much stones for a pinhead like me (though since you backgrounded me you saw i also bought into the IRC story- between IRC and SLA there is 25%). IRC has alot in common with SLA, things brewing for a few years and looking about to go great, but then delays.
i'm long SLA as russia has huge problems with male life expectancy due to the alcoholism. it is a bit suspicious that coincidentally the cure for livers could also come from russian research (but then alcoholism has been a problem there for hundreds of years, ruskies have long had motivation to find something short of putting down the bottle to stop their men killing themselves like this).
i posted the tax thing as it was not something that anyone anywhere had said anything about until it was mentioned by posters as vagif or someone else at the shareholder info evening mentioned, and well, it cuts a nasty hole in profitability projections. i started digging in order to put my own mind at rest, thought it might help others here if this issue pieved them like me. when directors talk about 'international business structures to mitigate tax impact' i think cayman islands holding companies and well, the world is onto that now and nowhere near as accomodating of transfer pricing as it was. it looks to me that there are fully legitimate ways that solagran can bring a 55% corporte income tax rate down (perhaps not to the 30% we are used to here) and with some franking to shareholder divs to boot
i've been meaning to do a DCF or income projection based on several scenarios, i'll post it then. read it and let me know holes in it (i really want to know). or if someone else could do this if i can't get to it for a while
SLA Price at posting:
29.8¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held