Looking good

The sudden interests in the market for cobalt is a good thing for NTL, as it seems to be continually selling down its stake in BPL.

At last count NTL held 7.2m BPL shares: http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20160322/pdf/4360n8yhsf4mn9.pdf

The current price of 4.5 per share gives NTL a hearty $324,000+ left in BPL equity.

A quick summary of NTL's potential cash position is:

$411,266 (31 December 2015)
+ $48,924 (BPL SSH 09/02/2016)
+ $116,582 (BPL SSH 14/03/2016)
+ $324,000 (remaining reported equity in BPL at 4.5 cents)
= $900,772 cash and potential cash

In its last cash report NTL said it would put $150,000 into development in the quarter. Given the delay in the traffic management plan (and other delayed associated with New Zealand's wonderfully slow local government and government departments) I doubt that NTL would have spent this entire amount if anything near it.

My view is that something is on the burner. NTL doesn't need to sell BPL to survive in the short term, it had enough cash to keep going in the interim - even if just continuing to exist as a shell it would have enough to last for a considerable period of time. No, my guess is that NTL is liquidating its assets in order to get something going.

A particular activity perhaps? Further cash to supplement an investment by a third party? Newcrest? Chinese investors?