Talked to Jim RiddellI talked to Jim Riddell today.
This board has become so quiet I just had to speak out.
The financials and operational details will be released on March 6. The company is still active in the share buy-back program with approx 1 million shares still eligable for buy-back and cancellation. Bruce Campbell was on MarketCall and he thought that the company would likely be active in the acquisition of distressed assets because of the company's strong balance sheet. That was not confirmed by the company but it was hinted that there may some activity in the form of acquisitions. Management is definately feeling the pain along with the shareholders and it is managements opinion that the nat gas market will likely remain soft for up to 6 months or so - but because the $4 market price is below the cost of production for so many producers right now that there were hardly any rigs drlling new wells and some producing wells were being shut in. That in itself will starve the market of supply and drive the price up. The bad news is that it will take time for the lack of supply to be felt and reacted to.
The company still has a strong balance sheet with virtually no debt and is in a position of strength to pick up some distressed assets. There will likely be some news forthcoming as the oilpatch is littered with wounded ducks just waiting to be picked off.
Paramount is sitting on a mountain of quality assets that are not being given any value by the market and management doesn't understand why either. Eventually the value locked into the shares will be recognized and given a fair value but the market is so focused on earnings right now and just isn't giving any value for assets.
It doesn't take away the pain of looking at my account statements to know that these shares are grossly under-valued and it looks like the road to recovery will be long and hard. It may just be comforting to know that we are not alone. For any new money coming into this stock you are getting alot of quality assets for a bargain price.
OceanRanger