Forum Topics TBR TBR Tribune Resources Ltd General Discussion
stevegreenycom
Added 6 years ago

Very good and useful summary there given the unusual situation of this stock.

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Bear77
Added 6 years ago

Be very careful about extrapolating Tribune's (TBR's) recent dividend history into the future.  The same goes for Rand Mining (RND).  These two companies are controlled by Anthony (Anton) Billis, who I have posted about already (in TBR and RND).  There was an "interesting" cross-shareholding structure between the two and the beneficial owners of the majority of the shares issued by both companies turned out to be Anton Billis, his wife, and their associates (as widely expected).  However, it was not an easy thing to discover, and required an application by one shareholder to the Takeovers Panel (TOV) who - after a thorough investigation - made a declaration of "Unacceptable Circumstances" in relation to declarations and notifications made to the ASX in relation to various substantial shareholders of TBR (who were all controlled by AB and his associates as it turns out).  Long story short - Shares were forcibly sold - by ASIC - under orders by the TOV.  And EVN (Evolution Mining) now controls almost 20% of TBR.

Also, TBR and RND have traditionally taken their share of the EKJV gold (East Kundana Joint Venture - with NST - Northern Star Resources - being TBR & RND's main asset) as gold bullion which has been stored in the Perth Mint.  They accounted for this in their books at cost, which greatly understated the true value of both companies.  Up until the last couple of years, neither company paid dividends.  They just kept adding millions of dollars of gold to their Perth Mint store annually.  A small number of activist investors have attempted to try to force the company to reveal its true ownership structure, either via court action, or via complaints to the ASX, to ASIC, or to the TOV.  The TOV (the Takeovers Panel) is the only body that seems to have had the teeth - or the will - to do anything.

A couple of years ago, possibly in an attempt to try to appease some of those minority shareholders, both companies starting to pay dividends, which were 20c annually in the case of TBR and 10c annually in the case of RND.  When it became obvious that the TOV was going to force the sale of a large quanitity of TBR shares to somebody who was entirely unrelated to AB and his associates, and that AB COULD lose his complete control of the two companies, they very quickly sold the vast majority of their gold (that was stored in The Perth Mint), pre-paid the capital gains tax (on the amount the gold was sold for - which was a lot higher than the book price which was the cost price of the gold when it was first mined), then paid out massive fully franked special dividends with the proceeds.  In TBR's case, their special dividend was $3.50 (paid on Oct 1st 2018, that date being brought forward, possibly to try to get ahead of action by the TOV who were quite active at that time) and in RND's case, it was $1.25 (paid on Oct 12th 2018).  At the time those dividends were declared, they were massive.  The $3.50 spec div was announced on September 20th, and was 50% of TBR's closing share price (SP) the previous day (which was $7).  In RND's case their $1.25 spec div was 52% of their $2.40 SP the prior day.

Now that the vast majority of their gold has been sold and the proceeds returned to shareholders via those special dividends, there is zero chance of similar massive special dividends in the future.  There is also a strong chance that those "normal" dividends (20c/year in TBR's case, and 10c/year in RND's case) will also reduce, since those were also being funded by sales of gold, and TBR has recently begun spending money elsewhere, including in the Phillipines (the Diwalwal Gold Project).  They also have iron ore interests in Ghana where they are awaiting a mining permit.

RND has been forced to sell their substantial TBR shareholding (most of which is now owned by EVN), but TBR still owns 44.2% of RND, and Anton Billis still owns over 80% of TBR, plus another ~26% of RND - through both direct shareholdings and indirect shareholdings - including through his various controlled companies which include Trans Global Capital, Sierra Gold, Nimby WA, Lake Grace Exploration, and Northwest Capital.  AB therefore well and truly still controls RND because he controls TBR (owns/controls ~80% of the shares on issue) and TBR controls 44% of RND and AB controls another ~26% of RND - so he controls at least 66% of RND.

Anton Billis is one of the geologists who first discovered the massive gold deposits around East Kundana, so he has every right to financially benefit from those gold deposits.  Some (like the TOV, ASIC & the ASX) might argue with some of his methods however.

Be in no doubt that both Tribune (TBR) and Rand (RND) exist primarily as vehicles for Anton Billis and his associates - and while it's possible to make some money by being in and out of them at the right times, it's also a very risky place to attempt to "invest" - IMHO.

In this case, past dividend history is DEFINITELY NOT a reliable indicator of future dividend expectations!!

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Strawman
Added 6 years ago

Excellent post - thanks Bear77!

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