Aquiline Holdings Ltd

[Snapper]

Does anyone know anything about this company. From reading their annual report they seem to have had fairly spectacular growth in assets and earnings.

They're currently offering 80 million convertible preference shares @ $1.00 and 10 million redeemable pref shares.

In the details they say that the capital raising is "to satisfy any liquidity requirement arising from existing shareholders wishing to sell down at the then agreed share price." They are also looking at further acquisitions.

From what I can gather they set a share price and then all sales of shares are to be put through at that price.
Share price has had a spectacular rise...

7/01 1.75
1/02 1.75
7/02 2.95
1/03 4.80
7/03 13.68
1/04 17.78

...keep in mind, however, that these prices are set by the directors. They run a capital register which means that people who want to buy in can only do so at a set price.

I'd be really interested to hear from anyone who has had any dealings with this company.
http://www.aquiline.co.nz/index.htm

[whatsup]

Aquiline Holdings IMHO is run by Jim Scott ex Air NZ I think, for a lot of wealthy Eastern North Island shareholders(including himself)who buy certain types of exporters/importers companies who largely have no synergy in the $5 mil + bracket. the co sets its own share price and you buy/sell on that basis, a somewhat(in my humble opinion) un business like way to establish value ,kindof (IMHO) like a pass the price on to the next holder, its something that is in practise by Indranet but may have run its cource with them.

[Lawso]

March issue of NZ Investor Monthly, published by Equity, a Dorchester subsidiary, has a useful article about Aquiline. NZIM is on sale in magazine shops etc. Lists the 14 companies that Aq has invested in.
I'm not in a position to judge, though the words Mickey Mouse come to mind.

[whatsup]

See www.aquiline.co.nz

[Lawso]

Yes, Scott is a former CEO of Air NZ. I'm pretty sure he was there when the disastrous Ansett purchase was made. But of course that was a Board decision, led at the time by Sir Seldom Blushing.

[whatsup]

One of Hawhes Bay's finest!!!!

[Snapper]

So anyone know how they set the share price... dartboard?? ouija board??

[whatsup]

IMHO Pick a number between 1-10 then multiply by a factor of......????

[Lawso]

Mickey Mouse? or Goofy? The Securities Commission has been investigating Aquiline because it has offered shares to the public without issuing a prospectus. Directors says shareholders will be offered a refund if the share allotments were illegal and that they will ensure all future offers comply with the law. The whole thing sounds MM to me.

[whatsup]

What a BS co (imho) this is ,re The NZ Herald of today ,what a scam this co should be not be taken seriously , buys companies at a pe of 4-5 then restructors/revalues them as a asset at a pe of 14-18 money for jam ,good if you can get some poor sucker to buy your shares ,we should run a listing of BS conpanies such as this!!! any thaughts/listings/additions?

[biker]

quote:Originally posted by Lawso

Yes, Scott is a former CEO of Air NZ. I'm pretty sure he was there when the disastrous Ansett purchase was made. But of course that was a Board decision, led at the time by Sir Seldom Blushing.


Jim Scott was long gone by the time Ansett was purchased.He was tossed out by BIL and replaced by the other Jim,who became a Brierley pawn

[Lawso]

Right. Jim McCrea, an engineer by background if I remember correctly. He's now in cahoots with the other Jim, Scott, in Aquiline, otherwise known as the Mickey Mouse Corporation.

[MeNoBatty]

P/E arbitrage is not a new concept. However it is generally done by an unlisted investment co (generally with a couple of big, private backers) buying up undervalued companies, becoming a conglomerate of sorts and then listing on a recognised exchange when it is big enough to get analyst's attention and therefor PEs well in excess of 10.

This is complete BS (as noted by other posters) Lets hope the NZ punter is not sucked in.

[Nimble]

This article appeared in the Herald this morning. I emailed them yesterday for an investment statement. However there are apparently none printed yet, it and the prospectus can only be downloaded from their website.

Tim Prestons comments from ASB Securities make it quite clear what he thinks!! "the Aquiline offer looked like "the bigger fool theory" in action, a reference to the notion of profiting by finding a bigger fool to buy."

Awkward questions at Aquiline launch
15.04.2004
By PAUL PANCKHURST
It is a mystery why private equity company Aquiline invited sharebroker Tim Preston to the launch yesterday in Auckland of its $90 million public share offer. The scene at the Stamford Plaza hotel was a little like a dinner party gone bad, where a miffed guest bops the host on the nose and no one knows which way to look. In other words, reasonably entertaining.
The host, Aquiline founder and executive chairman Jim Scott, rolled with the punches but, late in a series of exchanges with Preston, said "Ahhhhh. I give up." The sharebroker was never to be convinced of the merit of a capital raising by a company with a board which uses an undisclosed formula to set an ever-rising share price.
Aquiline is a swiftly-growing Napier company that owns 14 small and medium-sized importing and distribution firms. It wants money to buy many more, and provide liquidity for Aquiline's existing shareholders. "I believe you should list this vehicle and let the market value it," said Preston, the managing director of sharebroking firm ASB Securities.
Scott, a former Air New Zealand chief executive, alluded to the views of United States "value investor" Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway is cited as a point of comparison for Aquiline. Preston retorted: "But he's listed, he's not scared of the markets."
Bluntly, the sharebroker said the Aquiline offer looked like "the bigger fool theory" in action, a reference to the notion of profiting by finding a bigger fool to buy.
Another sceptical voice belonged to financial analyst and commentator Brian Gaynor, who said raising money from the public required the previously private company to accept a new set of obligations. "You've moved into a different league with this."
When he asked why a full prospectus was not provided at the launch, he was directed to the company's website. Quizzed over pre-prospectus publicity, Scott said the company had temporarily pulled news articles from its website because of Securities Commission concerns over unauthorised soliciting of money.
Aquiline wants to issue up to $65 million of converting preference shares and up to $25 million of redeemable preference shares.
The converting preferences offer a fixed return, and turn within the next two years into an unknown number of ordinary shares. The uncertainty is because no one can know what the price of the ordinary shares - set by the company's board every six months - will be.
The redeemable preferences offer a fixed return and are redeemed for cash in mid-2007.
Aquiline's sales pitch is of small companies with lazy balance sheets, picked up cheap, stripped of excess capital, and revved up with new management. The company claims an annualised turnover of $200 million. On a board-set share price of $17.78, its capitalisation is $160 million.
It reported a profit of $3.35 million for the six months to December 31 from revenue of $74 million.
Scott says small and medium-sized companies are radically under-valued and can be snapped up at a multiple of four times annual earnings. Aquiline says its own forward-looking multiple is 15 to 20. Preston: "You're creating the arbitrage yourself - by setting the share price."

[Placebo]

Nice to see Granny Herald resorting to quoting their own columnist in that story! Sounded a fun sort of sideshow.

[whatsup]

I wonder what value a trading bank would place on a Aquiline share if Jim Scott went to it(the bank) and wanted to his Aquiline shares as security as a loan , would they take his valuation as gospel or would they get a valuation of their own?

[whatsup]

I see that this "misunderstood" company has advised the unlisted registry that it plans to trade its shares on that venue . I wonder how the shares now will be valued.

[whatsup]

I see that Aquiline is quoted on Unlisted Buyers $1.75(1000) Sellers$17.00(20000) Great spread whos game.

[Bubble Boy]

In their latest "share price reveiw" the directors have set the share price at $20. Will be intersteding to see if any ever trade on Unlisted.

These guys should be comedians. Check on some of the announcements on their website. www.aquiline.co.nz . I am still wiping the tears from my eyes....

[Steve]

I read an article somewhere recently (The Independent?) that a number of original shareholders are selling out because they didn't like the negative publicity created by the aborted share issue...

[Bubble Boy]

No surprises here really...

Aquiline delists as results fall due
17 June 2005
By DAVID KING

Controversial investment business Aquiline Holdings has abruptly delisted itself and is refusing to release its results to the media.


The investment business run by former Air New Zealand chief executive Jim Scott had been trading on the Unlisted market but said yesterday it was delisting itself.

The move coincided with the due date for the release of Aquiline's third-quarter results, but investor relations manager Brenda Crene refused to release them to BusinessDay.

The results would have been made public if the company was still trading on the Unlisted platform, but delisting yesterday meant it only had to send them directly to its 300 shareholders.

Ms Crene said the results were "not as good as anticipated" and the decision to delist was "indirectly" linked to them.

She said Aquiline's shares had failed to achieve the liquidity the company had hoped for since listing on the alternative market. According to Unlisted, Aquiline's shares have not traded since February.

Uncertainty over Unlisted's future was also behind the decision.

AdvertisementAdvertisementUnlisted operates as a privately run alternative to the New Zealand Exchange for companies who used to operate on the old grey market.

The Government is in the process of deciding whether to regulate the trading platform to bring it under the Securities Act.

A $90 million fund raising by Aquiline last year was effectively scuppered by the Securities Commission. A commission report found Aquiline's earlier offering breached the Securities Act because its prospectus did not contain an adequate description of how its share price is set.

Ms Crene said the company would be going back to trading its shares in-house.

Unlisted manager Bruce Cossill said it was disappointing to lose a share issuer.

[whatsup]

Going-----Going-----Go--?

[Dough Boy]

Anyone have a photo of the Jim that oversaw the Air NZ stuff-up so if I recogonize him in the street I could congratulate him on missing out on a jail sentence because he was found to be a simply a ******** rather than a criminal for what he did with Air NZ.