what gives?, page-9

around the traps ... with the ferret (FE) Around the Traps ... with THE FERRET
RWE News
8:01:020 30/03/2006
Sydney - Thursday - March 30: (RWE Australian Business News) -
*****************************

Ferret should have known better and checked the TORO (TOE)
prospectus to find out how many shares the company actually has on
issue.
The security details pages of the various sharemarket
information providers (at least the ones that Ferret patronises) show
only the number of shares on issue that can be traded and not the
additional shares held in escrow.
We have complained about this before.
Why can't they do us a favour and list the escrowed shares (and
their release date) under the issued shares?
In Toro's case the difference is huge.
The security details show it with an issued capital of 72
million shares.
In fact, the total number of shares is 145 million when you add
in the escrows, including the 36 million shares owned by OXIANA (OXR)
and the 36 million owned by MINOTAUR (MEP).
As Andrew on the email points out, rather than the $115 million
capitalisation mentioned in this column when Toro was at its record
$1.60, it should have been $232 million.
The shares closed at $1.33 yesterday, down 6.5c, giving it a
market value of $193 million.
Andrew puts this into perspective when he says it's for "an $18
million cashbox with some dirt in Labor-run South Australia".

*****

It's amazing how so many companies have suddenly found a reason
to make an announcement containing the word "uranium".
Some of them are shameless.
REDPORT (RPT), for instance, announced it was preparing for a
drill program targeting an Olympic Dam-style copper-uranium-gold
mineralisation at Herakleion.
Preparing?
It hasn't even started?
And targeting an Olympic Dam ... well, duh, so is every mineral
exploration company in the world.
It worked a treat with punters, though.
Redport rose 6c to 17c before closing at 14.5c.

*****

QUANTUM (QUR) took a different tack ... it didn't tag its
announcement as market sensitive, but fluked a headline on the ASX news
list of "Uranium exploration".
That was a red rag to charging bulls and Quantum soared 6.6c to
9.4c (the biggest percentage gainer of the morning) and closed at 6.8c.
The company, like the preceding Redport, said exploration on its
tenements in Western Australia and in the Northern Territory "will
commence as soon as the tenements are granted".
Quantum says the tenements (which ones, WA or NT?) are
prospective for "unconformity related uranium deposits such as those in
the Athabasca Basin in Canada, which has produced a significant
proportion of total world uranium output".
Eh, Canada?
At least Redport compared its prospects with an Australian site.

*****

But wait, there's more.
METEX (MEE) says it has completed the first stage of an energy
initiative focused on uranium exploration.
And how has it done this? ... "by way of tenement applications
covering prospective geological settings" in Queensland, South Australia
and Western Australia.
An application usually is the first stage (unless it's THINKING
of getting around to making an application, which would be even
first-er).
Not even the uranium-crazed market fell for this and Metex lost
0.3c to 7.5c.
Still, it rose from 6.1c to 7.8c AHEAD of the announcement.

*****

And more ... GOLDEN STATE (GDN) rushed out a statement saying
that it would start field work at the Thompsons uranium project in Utah
next month.
Another two days and it would have BEEN next month.
It's no certainty ... the "permitting process" for a planned
exploratory drilling program is still in progress.
The shares closed up 2c to 23.5c after touching 25.5c.

*****

And more, still ... DEEP YELLOW (DYL) rose 6.5c to 23c before
closing at 19c.
It had risen from 9.3c (on ever-increasing volumes) after
Friday's announcement that it had been cleared to carry out trenching at
Napperby in the NT.

*****

Wayne on the email writes that the HOMELEISURE (HLD)
announcement this week "included a similar phrase to when my dog barks,
ROFE. What the bloody hell do they mean?"
He was referring to a company presentation which included this
bullet point:
* Each business unit has been set a target ROFE.
Return On Funds Employed, perhaps?
We just hope all its other small shareholders understand.
Also, at the bottom of each page of the presentation was the
phrase "Commercial-in-Confidence".
In confidence, on a publicly available ASX news list?

(Comments and complaints to [email protected] - no requests
for advice please.)
ENDS
!END