Back to Business?It seems the Dream Team headed by the Randy Man is back dealing with ISM business. They have made no mention of the humiliating defeat in their UMJ fiasco, nor the damaging independent evaluation of their methods by a Superior Court Judge - "reprehensible conduct".
So now the Dream Team is back doing what they deem as being in the best interest of the Corporation and its stakeholders - they're doing another normal course issue bid! I'm wondering if they just like the sound of "normal course issuer bid" - maybe think it makes them look like Directors of a real, meaningful, Public Company. Or do they just believe that the Law of Averages will eventually save them and one of their strategies will finally benefit the Corporation and its stakeholders?
The Randy Man and his past cohorts on the Board of Directors have been down this road before.
On October 27, 2008 they said they believed "....that the current market price of the Corporation's common shares does not properly reflect the underlying value of the Corporation..." The shares were 80 cents at the time, the Board's belief was so far out of touch with the market that ISM was able to buy 986,000 shares at 60 cents during the course of this program, which ended October 28, 2009 when the market believed the the underlying value was 50 cents.
On March 12, 2010 they said they believed "....that the current market price of the Corporation's common shares does not properly reflect the underlying value of the Corporation..." The shares were 32 cents at the time, ISM was able to buy 3,019,500 shares at 29 cents during the course of this program, which ended March 14, 2011 when the market believed the the underlying value was 31 cents - a price it has never reached since that time.
If an investor had followed the Board's belief on the day these strategies were announced, he'd be down a whopping 64% today. Of course ISM was able to time their buys based on their inside information as to company events - if an investor had achieved ISM's timing he'd only be down 45% today.
So what makes today's announcement different? Is the Board better informed? They should be, the cash remuneration has increased, and now there's three of the Dream Team being paid in cash - it used to be just the Randy Man. The Board may be a bit sharper now - some of them now want cash, instead of options in a company with shares that have a steady down trend - last week hitting a six year low.
There's a few warning signs a potential investor should consider before getting excited about this share buyback strategy.
1. Look at the track record - the Board's belief has been badly out of tune with what the market believes
2. Previous announcements they said they believed the current price did not reflect the underlying value. This time they've watered this down to "...the common shares may be undervalued..." Doesn't this sound a tad less convincing?
3. During the whole time these share buybacks have been in effect the prime prospect for the company has been the Langmuir property and the dream that it is a world class nickel deposit. A NI43-101 economic assessment was promised in 2008 - it has not been delivered. This Board of Directors that say the common shares may be undervalued, developed a $4.45 million dollar 2010 exploration program for their flagship property - but spent only $1 million. That doesn't show much faith in the flagship property - if Langmuir doesn't warrant "underlying value", what does?
There are a lot more reasons for questioning the Board's statement that the share price may be undervalued. One thing not to be concerned about is that the Press Release contains an obvious dating error stating the shares outstanding July 5, 2010. This error is not an out of character blunder that might signal hysteria on the Board. This is a recurring standard of behaviour - ISM has trouble getting things right on first try. Sometimes they correct it voluntarily, sometimes the OSC steps in and helps them correct it. One must realize that Gale Capital is spread thin trying to relate to investors when the price has just hit a six year low. And the Randy Man has also been spread thin telling real, profitable, producing, mining companies that they don't know what they're doing.
By the way, anyone having trouble getting through for information on Inspiration might try phoning Nitinat Minerals - it seems they have the same office....and landlord.....Investor Relations firm.... and a few other things.