Dear ASSes, One of ARL's more astute shareholders recently asked...

Dear ASSes,
One of ARL's more astute shareholders recently asked me the following questions. I thought I should post her questions and my answers.
Fred Woollard
P.S. I apologise for not responding promptly to other questions, but I visit HotCopper very infrequently.
Hi Fred,
I refer to the latest financials for ARL.
https://www.nsx.com.au/ftp/news/021732590.PDF   see page 4
''...As at the date of this report, the interests of the directors, either directly or indirectly, in the shares of Asset Resolution Limited were:
Interest in ordinary post-consolidated shares
Opening interest at 1 July 2016
Net changes during the period
Issued in lieu of directors fees
Closing interest at date of this report
Giles Craig 329,129 - - 329,129
John Sergeant 22,150 - - 22,150
Frederick Woollard 1,214,273 - - 1,214,273
Total (i) 1,525,969 - - 1,525,969 ...'''
Can you please clarify that total, as I think that adds up to 1,565,552  (a difference of 39,583)
Can you also clarify to me why the directors shareholding at the time of the November 2016 meeting is different to the above figures?
http://n.b5z.net/i/u/10179838/f/2016_10_25_NOM_for_2016_ARL_AGM_SIGNED_18Oct16_with_proxy.pdf
"...Totals: Shares on issue at the date of this Notice 4,905,441
Totals: Directors’ shareholding 1,256,421
Totals: Non-director shareholding 3,649,020
Totals: Director Shareholders % of Shares on issue 25.61%
Totals: Non-director Shareholders % of Shares on issue 74.39%
Furthermore, I refer to your comments regarding the lack of new investments here:
https://www.nsx.com.au/ftp/news/021732282.PDF
Has there been any further developments in this area?
If not, and given that the expenses of operating the fund impact the earnings of the fund"s cash deposit at the bank, can you clarify why this is in shareholders interests?
Regards, XYZ
Hi XYZ,
The answers to your questions are as follow:
1)   I agree that the director holdings should add to 1,565,552 and do not understand why the lower total is shown. I have made enquiries as to why this happened and we believe it to be a typing error.
2)   The difference between the total of 1,565,552 shares owned by directors as per the December half-yearly and the 1,256,421 shown in the Notice of Meeting is 309,131. That difference relates to the Hamilton shareholding which was shown twice in the half-yearly list because Hamilton is an associate of both Giles Craig and me, as we are both directors of ARL and Hamilton.
3)   There is nothing new to say about ARL’s investments. When there is, we will make an NSX announcement. The directors share your frustration at the lack of new investments, not least because we are all large shareholders. The directors of ARL have long and successful track records as investors, and have learnt that if you can’t find anything good to buy, then don’t buy anything. We remain optimistic that we will find something good to buy, but I wish I could tell you when.
A further reason not to wind up ARL is that the Octaviar assets are likely to be hard to sell, but could be worth something sometime in the future.
We do recognise that many shareholders wish to get rid of ARL, which is why we did the unmarketable parcel buy back, and why we are buying back more shares on NSX. Reducing our shareholder numbers helps us to keep costs low, which is another key goal of ARL’s board.
I thank you for spotting the error in our half-year accounts, and look forward to seeing you at our next annual meeting. I hope you will have some more well-researched questions for us!
Regards,
Fred Woollard
Director
Asset Resolution Ltd