Thanks for the greeting. My family are all well. My daughter moved to America at the end of last year and married her long time penfriend. She is in Philly. She told me about the current fuel price of $8.00 a gallon and the difficulties that COVID has caused with supply lines. Glad we live here!
"I still think the change of CGBs business model contributed greatly to the delays."
I agree with you 100% there. It sure did, and it did create some confusion and extra angst for shareholders.
As I was at the coalface, directly preparing and releasing support announcements to the Prospectus and fielding hundreds of shareholder inquiries, I knew how desperate people were getting. But the stirring up, whether deliberately or in a non-deliberate manner, sure didn't help.
YT, I think, for me, the closest thing that I could relate these SM conversations to, but perhaps in a slightly more narrow field of focus, was the 'Chinese whisper trails' that built during the Lindy Chamberlain trials in the 1980s.
Of course, you will remember those awful events where she was trialled and convicted in the court of public opinion and later to have all charges dropped when the truth finally came out. I will clarify here before I am pinholed (my word) on this reference. I refer to the use of armchair commentary only, which eventually sways public opinion, despite evidence to the contrary being out there if communications are restricted for publication. I am also comparing the similarities in media reporting between the two examples where the methodology of permissible media releases, as restricted by authorities and the courts, can contribute to the altering of perceived truth.
The ASX, as I am aware, is very strict on what they allow to go out to market, suspension or no suspension, for all ASX companies. No emotive, or 'everyday' language, which could potentially sway current or future market price movements, is allowed to be printed. Some, it seems, do get away with it at times. This is my understanding of how releases are meant to go. These restrictions, and the voluminous Prospectuses, from my personal experience in fielding all those calls, greatly contributed to the angst, and may I say, observed paranoia which played out across SM. The only way to update shareholders, at the time, was through Supplementary Prospectuses. The company was permitted, abiding by ASX rules, to speak to Investor Relations during the suspension.
Sholom and Pnina both clearly instructed me to help every shareholder who called no matter how angry or distressed they were, give them as much time as was needed, and do my best to explain the delays. My load during that time was off the chart if you can imagine, and not helped by a few posters that just kept recycling the same questions over and over. Now the truth is out there from the company, I hope these things can finally be settled and all the non-sensical or misinformative posts are stopped as more Q & A's are asked and responded to.
