orbis' reputation

As we all know Orbis has been accumulating CER shares without peer.

The first record of this was on 6 March 2008 when Orbis was announced as a substantial holder with 5.14% ownership of the company.

Since then they have continued buying shares, reaching 15.06% ownership on 7 November 2008.

While I am not in the fund management business I wonder what this investment in CER will do to their reputation.

It seems to be a speculative play of gigantic proportion!

On 7 November Orbis had purchased a total of 344,246,051 shares.

291,312,083 of these shares (or 85% of their holding) have been purchased for a total of $77,020,636.

This gives an average price of $0.2644 per share (there is no record of the price paid for the remaining 15% of their portfolio as the annoucement made on 6 March is incomplete and it's likely these were purchased for a price higher than the $0.2644 average).

At the current miserable price (as I write) of $0.06 per share...Orbis' 291,312,083 shares are now worth $17,478,725.

That is a loss of 77% or $59,541,911.

I understand that they are long-term value investors but even if this trade turns a profit it seems like an extremely speculative play.

dc1