today is a sad day

exactly one year ago ARU hit an all-time-high at 2.28$ / 1.50 Euro and look where we stand today. In Australia we're off almost exactly 66% and in Germany it's 72%.

Of course the 2.28$ were sort of exaggeration and the market sentiment has turned since then but in my view the turning point was the PFS in Octobre 2007 and the following placement at 1$. Many investors were scared away and/or angry about management and only the already convinced shareholders stayed with ARU. More and more people getting doubts (incl. myself) about management's ability to handle the capital-market issues properly. Management held a lot of presentations but not one decent institutional investor was attracted, not one broker has a coverage on ARU and as a consequence he shareprice only goes down with no bottom in sight.

With every day it's getting more difficult to restore confidence and with rumors of another placement, with option holders cashing in for their options and with Oceanic selling ARU potential buyers will wait for lower prices because DFS very far away and probably subject to more delays. If management will conduct another discounted placement it will be difficult to explain to shareholders. Management should better looking for financing alternatives and it will be fairly interesting if directors convert their options in August.

This is why today is a sad day and I'm more convinced then ever that ARU will need professional support in their financing and investor relations strategy. A company like ARU can only be succesful if ALL functions of the company are perfectly set up.

Lenni