Monday, April 23, 2007

BLMC - Adieu

(Update - I did finally make contact with BLMC. See my other posts regarding this company.)

So I tried my best to get a sit down with the Biloxi Marsh Land Company - a fascinating pink sheet company that owns tens of thousands of acres of marshland in Louisiana. I was at an investment conference in New Orleans and actually stayed in Metarie right near their headquarters. It was a strange sequence of events and I must recount it here for the record:

Early March - Called BLMC and asked them to mail information on their exploration and devlopment potential that they presented at NAPE in February. They asked me to send an e-mail so they would have a record of it. (I honestly think that I forgot to send an e-mail as I was overworked on other issues.)

March 20 - Sent an e-mail asking for a face to face meeting with anyone in management.

March 20 - Received a very prompt e-mail answer from IR asking me to call Will Rudolf, the CEO of BLMC.

March 21 or 22 - I called BLMC and asked to speak to Mr. Rudolf. I was told that he was on the phone with a shareholder and that he would call back. (This was the last contact or response that I had with BLMC)

March 27 - Sent an e-mail to IR asking for a face to face meeting and received no response.

April 4 - Sent an e-mail post conference and included a list of my questions. I have received no response to date.

I don't understand why they responded to my initial e-mails and then suddenly cut me off from further contact. My questions really weren't all that tough either. I am not a shareholder activist type of hedge fund and wasn't going to ask them to recapitalize and pay out a huge dividend, etc. It was the inconsistency of the response that continues to puzzle me.

Here are my questions that I had for them. It would be difficult for me to invest money in this company until they were answered:

1. Has all the operations recovered fully from the hurricanes? Are all wells that were producing back on line?

2. Is the Manti Group the only operator currently drilling on your land? And they have committed to a 5 well package? Are they on schedule?

3. Your land is on your books at cost – which is $234,000 – I know you would never sell but do you have any idea of the current value?

4. On your balance sheet you have categories called:

Other investment – $1,775,995 - was not there at end of 2005. What is this investment?

Marketable Debt Securities - $4,732,349 at cost. What type of bonds? Are they all investment grade?

Marketable Debt and Equity Securities - $7,183,412 – this is not listed under current assets but under “investments” indicating that it is a long - term type of investment. What are the details of these investments?

5. What sort of insider ownership is there in BLMC?

6. What is the relationship between BLMC and the Lake Eugenie Land Company? Is there a cross ownership? Why do you call it your sister company?

7. What is the effect on the title to your land if the marsh land should become completely reclaimed by the ocean?

8. Would you ever consider moving onto NASDAQ or the AMEX? If not, is that by choice or because that you don't meet exchange requirements regarding numbers of shareholders, etc.

1 comment:

mp said...

thanks, I just added your contrarius site as well.