RE:RE:RE:RE:AAB what is wrong with this company?Two things regarding your assessment Jim that you may want to consider.
OG&A expenses for the six months ended July 2016 show a total of appx. $1.9 million, however of that is a one-time severance of $430,000. If you were to back that out, first 6 months would be around $1.5 million, so going forward you could utilize a TTM OG&A estimate of around $3 million - so there are carrying through with their stated promise of lowering operating costs/overhead. Subsequent to the quarter ending, one of the loans outstanding ($1.2 million) was also paid back, combined with the near-term cash LIX offers, I don't think they'll have any problems paying expenses for the foreseeable future.
Completing the NCIB in a day, no less, was an excellent vote of confidence from management. The buyback really aligns with what has, IMHO, more shareholder-friendly moves that began in 2015. What you may be missing, and I why I don't think spending $1.2 million on the buyback will make a difference, is that management has stated it's intent to take ATP public by year-end. If they follow through, that will provide a lot of liquidity, not to mention an appreciable increase in shareholder value. The last presentation indicates a NPV of AAB's stake to be worth appx. $40 million. That is markedly more than the appx. $15 million it's booked at now.
If ATP and PLASA perform well in the next 3-12 months, they could provide the necessary recurring income to offset OG&A. Ultimately, I would think this is what management is attempting to acheive, so they can concentrate on growing shareholder value, not managing day-to-day cashflow.
Full disclosure, I'm a long-term shareholder of AAB, and I think the company has made tremendous strides in the last 2 years. IMHO, AAB and F&M are unfairly criticized at times, especially when it comes to AAB. One can look no further than PNP, one of their peers that had the same business model of AAB initially. If you held an equal weighting in both going into the crisis, you were way better off owning AAB. Management correctly, IMO, recognized the changing environment, completely re-invented their busines model, made an incredible deal with LIX/PLASA, and placed the company in a very enviable position going forward - in addition to winning a costly and ill-timed proxy battle. If management keeps it up, I think (inevitably), it will yield excellent shareholder value in the months/years ahead. Again, just my humble opinion, please do your own DD.