Endeavour Eats Rest of EET
West Africa: EET, EDV, XTGR, PRU, KGN, RBI
LOS ANGELES – Endeavour Financial scoops up West Africa’s Etruscan Resources (TSX: T.EET, Stock Forum) in a bid for ledger respect.
As of next quarter, deeply discounted merchant bank Endeavour’s $176 transaction value for gold miner Etruscan puts it in the accounting arena of an operating company – not a holding company.
Neil Woodyer’s EndeavourFinancial (TSX: T.EDV, Stock Forum) for about two years has been working on several avenues that take it up a broad boulevard of equity analysts and banks. At present, those stock analysts decline to cover holding companies, merchant banks and other fund-like fungi. The Canadian-traded Endeavour’s shares sell at about a 40 percent discount to its holdings in the areas of gold, energy and other resources.
Endeavour is using almost half of a new $100 million credit facility to complete this Etruscan purchase for the 45 percent of the prospector it has yet to control. Endeavour’s offer is part stock and part cash. Now, the Cayman Islands-based Endeavour can point to almost 200,000 ounces of yearly gold output listed on its ledger. The ounces come from two West Africa gold companies (Burkina Faso and Guinea) it owns part or all of: Etruscan and Crew Gold (TSX: T.CRU, Stock Forum).
When one of 20 equity analysts across Canada, Britain, Australia and the USA drop a line on Endeavour and ask how many proven and probables the merchant bank has, the guy at the other end of the phone, most likely Stephen Roberts in Vancouver, Canada, as of next quarter likely will say, Hey, we are a gold operator … not a merchant bank.
Mr. Roberts spent 11 years in London as an equity salesman -- selling hedge funds, banks and other behemoths on the idea of this, that and those. He just stepped into Endeavour’s top spot as business developer.
Stephen Roberts sits on a merchant bank’s chest of paper holdings, some $280 million worth. Endeavour also places a $50 million (Canadian) “goodwill” value on its profitable banking business (debt, equity, converts, mergers, strategies). “We think we quickly will get lumped into the West Africa peer group of operating gold companies,” Mr. Roberts tells me this morning in a telephone call.
Merchant banks that specialize in natural resources are selling these days way below the value of their gold/oil/gas/silver/copper/potash/uranium holdings. We here at Ticker Trax™ are looking into another bank with a large uranium stake, Pine Tree Capital (TSX: T.PNP, Stock Forum) in Toronto. Pine Tree and uranium (a stake in Saskatchewan’s Hathor – (TSX: VHAT, Stock Forum)) might light up our Geiger counter. Stay tuned.
Endeavour Financial and its advisers, including Fiore Capital’s Frank Giustra, have identified several parts of the globe where miners and prospectors enjoy among the highest ounce-in-the-ground valuations from equity analysts. Those areas include Ghana, Guinea, Burkina Faso and other parts of West Africa. Witness in-situ comparables for Perseus Mining (TSX: T.PRU, Stock Forum), Red Back Mining (TSX: T.RBI, Stock Forum), Dan McCoy’s Keegan Resources (TSX: T.KGN, Stock Forum) and (AMEX: KGN, Stock Forum) and others.
The desire for West Africa gold prospectors (please reference Kinross $600 million stake in Red Back) is one reason why Ticker Trax™ (and this researcher personally) are taking a big time and money stake in tiny Xtra-Gold Resources (OTO: XTGR, Stock Forum) of Ghana. Xtra-Gold certainly belongs on a short-list of West Africa gold prospectors whose properties come across the desk of Endeavour Financial’s bankers.
For more on all of the Planetary Prospects, please visit our Ticker Trax Library.
Ticker Trax™ is in place – and thriving – because its fiscal loyalty is to subscribers who are looking for radically-cheap investments. Our service, started in November 2008, researches a select group of Planetary Prospects™ with legitimate shots at rising 1,000 percent or more in the span of two years, maybe less and maybe more.
Planetary Prospects
There are now 12 of them. Please visit www.tickertrax.com and search our landing page for details on the start of coverage for individual Planetary Prospects and the entry price. In addition, Xtra-Gold Resources is a preferred client of Stockhouse, distributor and publisher of this Ticker Trax™ report. We here intend to report good and bad on our Planetary Prospects; we are considering eliminating one of the current 12 and replacing it with something more worthy of our research time.
- Central Fund of Canada (AMEX: CEF, Stock Forum) and (TSX: T.CEF.A, Stock Forum) – Gold and silver repository. Its premiums, being a closed-end fund, are rising. Own this one as a money market proxy for real gold and silver – metal that actually might be delivered to investors if ever they want to cash in their paper stakes. One day, when investors decide they absolutely must own gold and silver, Central Fund shares will see their premium over net asset value double … or more.
- BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: BCRX, Stock Forum) –Influenza and leukemia drugs. Gout, too. Biomedical appears to be back in vogue as an investment. We here at home are holding these shares – 80,000 and counting – as “The Return of H1N1” influenza virus plays at hemispheres, nations and regions near all of us. There is no risk of a dilutive financing. There is a risk of Type A H1N1 remaining the dominant seasonal flu virus for several years. The company has a new 5.5 percent investor: Joseph L. Harrosh. (Please view: Stockhouse exclusive article.)
- Endeavour Silver (AMEX: EXK, Stock Forum) and (TSX: T.EDR, Stock Forum) – Silver (and gold) in Mexico. I expect Endeavour Silver to purchase a publicly-traded silver (or silver-gold open-pit) company this year. Probably in Mexico … but Endeavour’s principals tell me they will not rule out other parts of North America. Most metrics, including costs, cash flow (a net profit for the three months vs. a year-ago loss), silver and gold output, are improved markedly. Brad Cooke and his team realize they have to show their audience its exploration activities are vibrant enough to hurtle the small Guanajuato and Durango company above five million ounces of silver equivalent per year. Mr. Cooke and his team say they are doing exploration drilling at the San Juanico property in Parral, Chihuahua, among other points. Endeavour Silver’s project outline is on its Internet site: Please see the list.
- Endeavour Financial (TSX: T.EDV, Stock Forum) – No relation to Endeavour Silver. This is Neil Woodyer’s profitable Canada-traded merchant bank that is making a big bet on West Africa. … in the form of Crew Gold (TSX: T.CRU, Stock Forum) and Etruscan Resources (TSX: T.EET, Stock Forum). Endeavour Financial logged $213 million of net profit in its most recent quarter. Endeavour Financial does business with natural resources and energy companies. The shares, even with a three-month steady climb, trade at a discount to the value of securities owned by Endeavour Financial. The company’s book value is about twice the current share price.
- Xtra-Gold Resources (OTO: XTGR, Stock Forum) –This West Africa gold prospector might follow in the footsteps of successful Keegan Resources (TSX: T.KGN, Stock Forum) … and Perseus Mining (TSX: T.PRU, Stock Forum) … and Red Back Mining (RBI). Xtra-Gold shares get little attention on the USA over-the-counter bulletin board and deserve a listing on a commodities-comfortable exchange. Let’s hope James Longshore and his team, including new geologist-consultant Robert J. Casaceli and new CEO Paul Zyla, keep moving in the right direction. Fresh drilling will start by July. (Pleasesee the Libraryfor coverage stretching back to autumn 2009.)
- Great Basin Gold (TSX: T.GBG, Stock Forum) – This is Ferdi Dippenaar’s South Africa and Nevada miner. Real gold at Burnstone and Hollister mines … and prospecting at Esmeralda in Nevada. Great Basin says it has “excellent operational performance at Hollister in Nevada and improved efficiencies at the Esmeralda Mill facility in Nevada.” Ditto for South Africa’s Burnstone Mine. I have been to all of the company’s working properties. GBG is on track to become the next $1 billion market cap gold company. Current cap is almost $600 million. (Please see our password-protected libraryfor coverage.)
- Candente Copper (TSX: T.DNT, Stock Forum) – Joanne Freeze’s Candente has copper in Peru at Cañariaco. The almost eight-billion-pound copper project is starting to get the attention of manufacturers and bankers. Yet Candente Copper’s shares sell for a value of only a penny a pound for its in-situ copper. Candente Copper, formerly Candente Resource, is among the cheapest propositions (based on ore in the ground) in this list, along with Avanti Mining. The Candente companies’ properties in Peru also include poly-metallic prospects that might some day package into a third, separately-traded company. (Please see libraryfor coverage.)
- Candente Gold (TSX: T.CDG, Stock Forum) – This separate company’s shares were distributed to predecessor Candente Resource’s shareholders in January 2010. We issued a full report on Candente Gold’s Peru prospects in April. Now, we’re examining El Oro, an entire district and artisanal mine workings in Mexico. I am hoping to see fresh and theoretical calculations on existing and freshly discovered vein targets from Ms. Freeze for EL Oro. The shares have been active in this second half of June. (Please see password-protected libraryfor coverage of El Oro in Mexico.)
- Great Panther Silver (TSX: T.GPR, Stock Forum) – Silver in Mexico. Robert Archer is the CEO. The Panther just extended one of its veins, called Recompensa, at the Topia property in Durango, Mexico. The company is on the prowl for assets so that it can notch 20 percent yearly gains in output. GPR’s rising silver grades and low stock valuation compared with other Mexico silver producers make the company’s shares look like a bargain. Quarterly performance at the Canadian company produced a net profit. Great Panther’s silver-equivalent output at Guanajuato and in Mexico’s Durango state is benefiting from improved efficiencies and richer gold harvests. The company’s metals’ production includes byproducts and runs about half that of Guanajuato neighbor Endeavour Silver.
- Avanti Mining (TSX: V.AVT, Stock Forum) – Cheap and aspiring molybdenum mine at Kitsault in British Columbia. Avanti just hired Bob Jacko of Thompson Creek Metals to manage project development at the mine. When Avanti’s Craig J. Nelsen and A J Ali see this through, Kitsault will be producing about 25 million pounds of the stainless-steel additive each year – for 15 years. That is 215 million metric tons of ore grading 0.085 percent of moly. That works for a world where steel-based moly demand is expected to expand six percent or so this year and next. I just saw in the latest proxy that Mr. Nelsen, the Avanti CEO living in Colorado, owns 10 million shares of the company. Canada’s Bob Cross of B2Gold is an Avanti director and owns more than five million shares. Avanti Mining at a market worth of less than $20 million is the cheapest proposition on this list. Avanti must show it can line up plenty of cash or lending pacts for a project whose total cost probably will run more than $640 million. I have been to Kitsault. Moly is an additive in all types of stainless steel. (Please see the password-protected libraryfor coverage.)
- Colombian Mines Corp. (TSX: V.CMJ, Stock Forum) – CMJ has one of the thickest property books in Colombia for such a tiny company: some 300,000 hectares. Bob and Gloria Carrington and Nate Tewalt’s company has reported drill results from its Yarumalito project in Colombia. The numbers were mediocre. The company recently optioned its Anori gold and copper prospect to Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY, Stock Forum) and (TSX: T.YRI, Stock Forum). CMJ’s Robert Carrington says he and CEO Nate Tewalt of Washington State are considering a joint venture or sale for its Venecia holding in Antioquia. (Please see the password-protected libraryfor coverage.)
- Bellhaven Copper & Gold (TSX: V.BHV, Stock Forum) – Panama and Colombia. We here at home now own 1.4 million shares. Dr. Paul Zweng’s success rate with epithermal gold deposits and with copper prospects such as Peru’s Antares Minerals is among the best I have seen in eight years. Dr. Zweng is interim CEO of Bellhaven. Bellhaven owns Las Minas concession in Antioquia, Colombia. (Please see the Libraryfor coverage.)
In Colombia, our speculative target is Antioquia Gold (TSX: V.AGD, Stock Forum). We here at home own it. We also own (and have researched and visited since 2008) Medoro Resources (MRS). John Hicks’ Medoro Resources is on track to purchase the historic Frontino Mine in Antioquia for as much as $200 million.
We here at Ticker Trax™do not address queries about a company, an investment or a speculative theme that is written as part of Ticker Trax or our Stockhouse reports but is not a Planetary Prospect. We stand firmly behind our Planetary Prospects and back them with our own patient money here at home.
As for reporting on other companies, ideas are there for all to view and consider. Please do not expect Ticker Trax to support these subjects with research, on-site visits and so on. Feel free to contact these companies, be they Nevada prospectors, Canadian miners or Peru, Colombia and South Africa companies … and so on.
For an entire explanation of our strategies, research methods and disclosure procedures regarding all aspects of Ticker Trax and our Stockhouse reports, please visit our readily available Stockhouse articles – especially this one: Core Box Revealed. Companies whose site tours I attend for research purposes pay part or all of my airfare and hotel. Stockhouse and I also pay when necessary.
Ticker Trax™
Please visit Stockhouse for a selection of our Ticker Trax research and our password-secure Library for subscribers.
(All photos by Thom Calandra. Thom and his family own shares of each of the 12 Planetary Prospects. Thom’s personal holdings are available for all to see on Stockhouse, the Canada publishing company. Subscribers are informed well in advance of any shift in research regarding Planetary Prospects and any purchase or sales decisions. Subscribers always come first.)
Ticker Trax™Please see tickertrax.com to learn more about this wealth service and its Planetary Prospects. For an index of free Thom Calandra articles, please click here. For an entire explanation of our strategies, research methods and disclosure procedures regarding all aspects of Ticker Trax and our Stockhouse reports, please visit our readily available Stockhouse articles. Please see this one in particular: Core Box Revealed. For the password-protected Ticker Traxlibrary, please see: www.tickertrax.com/Login.aspx.
HOLDINGS: Thom’s holdings are listed for Stockhouse members at www.Stockhouse.com under the “portfolio setting” for user TCALANDRA. It is public and free to view. He and his family own recently minted gold and silver coins and shares of about 30 public and two private companies. As with each of the Planetary Prospects, Thom Calandra owns Colombian Mines, Xtra-Gold Resources, Great Basin Gold, Endeavour Silver, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Bellhaven Copper & Gold and each of the other Planetary Prospects researched in this and other reports.
THOM CALANDRA of Ticker Trax helps his audience find value in a quagmire of investment choices. Thom co-founded CBS MarketWatch and MarketWatch.com. As the voice of Thom Calandra's StockWatch and The Calandra Report, Thom pegged $300-ounce gold as a long-term hold in 1999 and in 2000. He has been covering life-sciences and natural resources since 1988.
For a Ticker Trax Library starting in November 2008, please see our Stockhouse Password-Secure Archives.
NOTICE: For those who might not be paying Ticker Trax subscribers: Si vous n'êtes pas le destinataire prévu ou un agent responsable de la livraison de ce courriel, tout copie, impression, reproduction ou autre utilisation d'une partie de ce courriel est strictement interdit.(Thom and Stockhouse also produce free reports. Please visit Stockhouse.)
Ticker Trax™ is published by Stockhouse Publishing Ltd. Ticker Trax is an information service for subscribers and neither Stockhouse nor Thom Calandra is a broker or an investment advisor. None of the information contained therein constitutes a recommendation by Mr. Calandra or Stockhouse that any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction, or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person. Ticker Trax does not purport to tell or suggest the investment securities subscribers or readers should buy or sell for themselves. Subscribers and readers of Ticker Trax should conduct their own research and due diligence and obtain professional advice before making any investment decisions. Ticker Trax will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a reader’s reliance on information obtained in the reports. Subscribers and readers are solely responsible for their own investment decisions. Opinions expressed in Ticker Trax are based on sources believed to be reliable and are written in good faith, but no representation or warranty, expressed or implied, is made as to their accuracy or completeness. All information contained in Ticker Trax should be independently verified. The editor and publisher are not responsible for errors or omissions or responsible for keeping information up to date or for correcting any past information. Ticker Trax does not receive compensation of any kind from any companies that may be mentioned in the report. Any opinions expressed are subject to change without notice. Owners, employees and writers may hold positions in the securities that are discussed in Ticker Trax. PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL THOM SEEKING PERSONALIZED INVESTMENT ADVICE, WHICH HE CANNOT PROVIDE. Copyright 2010 all rights reserved.