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#31-Jan-2021 NTA=17.36 cps
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Last edited 3 years ago

08-Feb-2021:  NTA Backing as at 31 January 2021

As expected, the NTA of BEL is up +33.25% from $0.1306 on 31-Dec-2020 to $0.1736 on 31-Jan-2021 on the back of the increase in the SP of their main position, being Strike Resources (SRK) which was 14.5 cps on 31-Dec and 23.5 cps on 31-Jan.  SRK is currently trading at 21.5 cps. 

Bentley Capital's 52,553,493 shareholding in Strike Resources Limited (ASX:SRK) - being 25.37% of SRK - represented 82.4% of BEL's NTA as at 31-Jan-2021.  Interestingly, their NTA Backing announcement (link above) shows $2.2m of net liabilities compared to only $0.37m ($370K) one month prior (31-Dec-2020).  That $2.2m is likely performance fees, and/or payments to associated parties, staff or directors.  Bentley itself is owned and controlled by two other ASX-listed companies, Orion Equities (ASX:OEQ) and Queste Communications (ASX:QUE).  I have given more colour around that in my valuation for BEL, and I have explained the ownership structure in detail in a straw titled "#Corporate Structure". 

That $2.2m of net liabilites is now larger than their $1.8m of cash.

Their post-tax NTA, which includes tax payable on both realised and unrealised capital gains, remains exactly the same as their pre-tax NTA, and that is because, according to "Note 4" from this announcement, "Bentley’s current accounting policy is to recognise deferred tax assets arising from its carried forward tax losses and its unrealised loss on investments only to the extent of offsetting any deferred tax liabilities arising from its unrealised gains on investments."

In other words, they have carried forward tax losses from prior years, and they use those to offset their tax liabilities, but do not otherwise state those tax losses as being an asset.  While they continue to have carried forward tax losses to use to offset their unrealised and realised capital gains, their post-tax NTA will remain equal to their pre-tax NTA.

Despite their 31-Jan-2021 NTA being 17.36 cps (cents per share) and still being over 15 cps today, they are currently still trading at below 10 cps.  While that looks like a huge discount, and it is, it pays to remember that the majority of that valuation hinges on the value of their SRK position (being around 80% of their NTA), and SRK is an iron ore project developer who are not yet profitable, as they have no regular income and they are just burning through cash.  If the SP of SRK was to halve, and it could, the investment thesis behind BEL (being the massive discount to NTA in their SP) would evaporate.  There is significant risk here.

[I hold BEL shares, and they are also one of the larger positions on my Strawman.com scorecard.]

[Update:  12-Aug-2021:  Not any more.  I sold out of BEL at a small profit.  I have explained why in my BEL valuation, which I updated last night.]

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#Corporate Structure
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Last edited 3 years ago

06-Feb-2021:  Bentley Capital (BEL) is an investment company, and for the purposes of this straw, all of the following is current as at 31-Dec-2020, and I have no reason to think much has changed since then (in the 6 weeks since) except where I have noted a change.

This straw is about 4 companies, Strike Resources (SRK), Bentley Capital (BEL), Orion Equities (OEQ) and Queste Communications (QUE), which are all public companies listed on the ASX.

Strike (SRK) is a resources company with a few different projects, and they are mainly involved in the development of an iron ore mining project, which is still at an early stage.  They are not profitable, because of what they do and the stage they are at.

The other 3 (BEL, OEQ & QUE) are all investment companies whose main assets are shares in each other and in Strike (SRK), although some do hold other assets as well.  They are all controlled by Farooq Khan and his associates, in particular his sister Ambreen Chaudhri and his brother-in-law, Azhar Chaudhri.

Strike Resources is the main asset that underpins the valuations of the other three companies.

Strike Resources (SRK) has a current market capitalisation (m/cap) of $58m, and a board comprised of:

  • Farooq Khan, Chairman and Director
  • William (Bill) Johnson, Managing Director (MD)
  • Victor Ho, Director and Company Secretary
  • Matthew Hammond, Director
  • Malcolm Richmond, Director

SRK's substantial shareholders are:

  • Bentley Capital Ltd, 52,553,493 shares, 25.37%
  • HSBC Custody Nominees (Australia) Limited, 25,825,000 shares, 12.47%
  • Ambreen Chaudhri, 10,629,063 shares, 5.13%

Note: Ambreen Chaudhri is Farooq Khan's sister and is married to Azhar Chaudhri, who is regarded as an associate of Farooq Khan.  The Chaudhris and their company, Database Systems, got into trouble with the Takeovers Panel (TOV) back in 2011 and were forced to divest 3.7m BEL shares (in 2012) by order of the TOV - see here and here.  The Chaudhris are also involved with a company registered in the British Virgin Islands called Renmuir Holdings and a company registered in Hong Kong called Chi Tung Investments.  Those companies show up as substantial holders of both BEL and OEQ, see below.

Bentley Capital (BEL) has a $7m m/cap and a board comprised of:

  • Farooq Khan, Executive Chairman and Executive Director
  • William (Bill) Johnson, Executive Director
  • Simon Cato, NED (non-executive Director)

Victor Ho is the company secretary of BEL, as well as SRK, QUE and OEQ.

BEL's substantial shareholders are:

  • Azhar Chaudhri and Renmuir Holdings Ltd, 21,739,535 shares, 28.56%
  • Queste Communications Ltd, 21,739,535 shares, 28.56%
  • Orion Equities Limited, 20,513,783 shares, 26.95%
  • Khan, Farooq, 11,717,586 shares, 15.39%
  • Charles W. Rockefeller Pty Ltd, 4,042,232 shares, 5.31%
  • Colin and Robin Vaughan, 3,990,192 shares, 5.24%, which was subsequently sold down on 21-Jan-2021 to below 5%, so they are no longer substantial shareholders

Azhar Chaudhri and Renmuir Holdings (and their associates, including Farooq Khan) are considered to be in control of Queste Communications (QUE), so those shareholdings (28.56% of BEL) are the same, not different holdings.

Orion Equities are regarded as being a controlled entity of Queste Communications (QUE), so the 28.56% of BEL owned by Queste, Azhar Chaudhri and Renmuir Holdings does include the 26.95% of BEL owned by Orion Equities (OEQ).

Orion Equities (OEQ) are a $3m m/cap company with a board consisting of:

  • Farooq Khan, Executive Chairman and Executive Director
  • Victor Ho, Executive Director and Company Secretary
  • Yaqoob Khan, NED

OEQ's substantial shareholders are:

  • Azhar Chaudhri, Renmuir Holdings Ltd and Chi Tung Investments Ltd, 9,422,882 shares, 60.21%
  • Queste Communications Ltd, 9,367,653 shares, 59.86%
  • Geoff Wilson and entities, 923,038 shares, 5.90%

The 59.86% of OEQ owned by Queste (QUE) is included in the 60.21% of OEQ owned by Chaudhri, Renmuir and Chi Tung, as they control Queste (QUE) along with associate Farooq Khan.

Queste Communications (QUE) is a $730K m/cap company (yep, sub-$1m) whose board consists of:

  • Farooq Khan, Executive Chairman and Managing Director (MD)
  • Victor Ho, Executive Director and Company Secretary
  • Yaqoob Khan, NED

QUE's substantial shareholders are:

  • Azhar Chaudhri, Renmuir Holdings Ltd and Chi Tung Investments Ltd, 8,322,737 shares, 30.70%
  • Farooq Khan, 5,344,872 shares, 19.70%
  • Geoff Wilson and entities, 4,391,975 shares, 16.20%
  • Samuel Terry Asset Management Pty Ltd, 3,902,430 shares, 13.80%

Khan, Chaudhri (Khan's brother-in-law), Renmuir and Chi Tung together control 50.4% of QUE, which is a controlling stake.  This means they also control 60.21% of Orion (OEQ), again, a controlling stake.  They do NOT however control more than 50% of Bentley (BEL) at this point, mostly due to the forced sell-down back in 2012 (imposed by the Takeovers Panel - TOV).  

For more information of what each of these three investment companies actually holds within their own investment portfolios, see here:

Queste Communications (QUE) Quarterly Activities Report for the quarter ending 31-Dec-2020

Orion Equities (OEQ) NTA Backing 31-Dec-2020 and NTA breakdown (investment portfolio)

Bentley Capital (BEL) NTA Backing 31-Dec-2020 and Portfolio breakdown (what they hold)

Also, Samuel Terry Asset Management, who own 13.8% of QUE, run a fund that is only available to wholesale investors, and QUE is not one of their top 10 portfolio holdings - see here: https://www.samuelterry.com.au/index.php, and here:  https://www.samuelterry.com.au/pdf-reports/2020-December-Quarter.pdf

Finally, you may have noticed that Geoff Wilson (of WAM Funds) holds 16.2% of Queste (QUE) and 5.9% of Orion (OEQ).  It looks like these are private positions of Geoff's, rather than through WAM Funds.  While 16.2% might seem like a lot, Queste is only a $730K company, so Geoff's 16.2% of QUE is only worth around $118K.  Likewise, his 5.9% of OEQ is only worth around $177K.  That is not a particularly significant investment for a multi-millionaire like Geoff Wilson.  Worth noting, but best to keep it in perspective.  I imagine that's why these are private positions of Geoff's rather than positions within one or more of his WAM Funds' LICs.  I think QUE and OEQ are way too small even for WMI (WAM Microcap).  They are ultra-nano-cap companies.  Perhaps OK for a side-punt by GW, but not suitable for his LICs where he is investing money on behalf of other people alongside his own.

Disclosure:  Of the five ASX-listed companies mentioned above, I currently hold shares in BEL & WMI, but I am not a direct shareholder in SRK, QUE or OEQ. 

Updated disclosure:  12-Aug-2021:  I no longer hold WMI or BEL.  I have explained why I sold out of BEL in my update towards the end of my BEL valuation.  I sold out of WMI to lock in profits and because they started trading at a serious premium to their NTA, and they were trading at close NTA when I bought them.  I made a small profit on BEL and a much healthier one on WMI.

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Valuation of $0.100
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Added 3 years ago
Ah Bear! How funny. I managed to get out IRL two weeks ago as well! Managed 30% gain but was getting a bit sweaty about it. I have a sell on it in SM portfolio at 0.12, though this might need amending. And came to pretty much the same conclusions you did. I think I should have picked up on the reasons why earlier on, in retrospect, but was seduced by the idea of having found something "on sale". I have left rest of original valuation story below this line. ------------------------------------- I have no idea how I ended up on this company. I somehow was reading up on the merits of buying shell companies, and via some strangely Qanon-type rabbit hole ended up here. Its amazing what you can end up when you are meant to be doing audits! Let me start by saying this is a tiny LIC. They do not make any money on a regular basis, have an MC of 8 million and basically own shares in two companies: SRK and YOW. So, ridiculously concentrated and has immense operating costs (%age wise of about 1.5 million last year, though state much of this is non-recurring ). They lost money last year. You are probably saying "WTF?" at this point. here is a quick outline of their holdings: 1) SRK are a speculative iron ore minor with seemingly good prospects and benefitting from a rapidly rising Fe ore price. Plus a few other speculative ventures. (I have absolutely no idea of the merits of this company becoming a long term success story) YOW own a brand of chocolate and confectionaries which they licence out to manufacturers. They have been smashed by covid but appear to have a capital light model and are expanding into the USA successfully. They are also (curiously) very good at returning cash to share holders. WAM (in its many formats) are big holders. The merits of the investment thesis lie in one thing only. Bentley’s major securities holdings as at 31 December 2020 were: SRK $7.36million which represents 74.0% of total holdings Bentley has valued its 52,553,493 shareholding in Strike Resources Limited (ASX:SRK) based on the $0.14 last bid price as at 31 December 2020 (30 November: $0.135). Bentley notes that Strike’s current bid price was $0.155 (as at 8 January 2021). They also own ~11million shares of Yowie which at ashare price of $0.043 = $483k the rest of the assets are pretty much worthless. The share price of SRK today is 0.25 as per above, they own ~52 million shares = $ 13 million Compare that to the current MC of (~76 mill shares x 0.10) = $7.6 million. So. Basically a discount to NAV of nearly 50%. But wait there's more.... Any distribution will be fully franked. Farooq Khan owns 15% as chairman but other C suite dont seem to figure much. Lets hope Farooq sees sense in liquidating early and returning capital to shareholders for a mighty win! Risks - Management will consider this as clear evidence that they are geniuses, despite clear evidence to the contrary, and plough the winnings into something else with a high likelihood of failure. At worst this is a great short term arbitrage play when the NAV report is released at the end of the month, which should prompt a re-rate. DISC: I bought a small position yesterday FWIW: this is the first time I have tried a play like this.
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Valuation of $0.150
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Added 3 years ago
Based on their position in SRK alone, BEL is worth closer to 20 cps, however BEL's Executive Chairman, Farooq Khan, is also the founder and Chairman of SRK (Strike Resources). William Johnson is also a NED (non-executive director) of BEL and the Managing Director (MD) of SRK, and the two companies also share the same company secretary, Victor Ho, who is also a Director of SRK. Additionally, Ho is also the company secretary of, and a director of, Orion Equities (ASX: OEQ). Khan is the Executive Chairman of OEQ. If that's not already enough, Khan is also the Executive Chairman and Managing Director (MD) of Queste Communications (ASX: QUE) who own 59.86% of Orion Equities (OEQ) and 1.61% of Bentley Capital (BEL) (as at 31-Dec-2020). Victor Ho is also a director of QUE and their company secretary. Orion (OEQ) own a portfolio that is split 36% equities (BEL + SRK), 43% property, and 21% net cash and other assets. The 36% of their portfolio that is invested in equities comprises of just two positions according to their website: http://www.orionequities.com.au/investment-portfolio - and that is split as follows: 77% = shares in Bentley Capital (BEL) and 23% = shares in Strike Resources (SRK). OEQ is also trading at a significant NTA-discount based on the current market values of SRK and BEL, and if BEL was trading at or near their own NTA, obviously OEQ (Orion) would be worth even more. However, I'm not too interested in dabbling in Orion (OEQ) due to the 43% of their portfolio invested in property. I don't have any reason to be particularly confident about their valuations around those properties, or about their intentions around those properties and/or the substantial cash they hold (~21%). I am also not interested in Queste (QUE). Their website, which is clearly out of date suggests they provide VoIP telephony software solutions and services, however their receipts from customers over the 6 months up until 31-Dec-2020 was just $18K. That's eighteen thousand dollars (not million dollars) in total revenue from customers. It seems they have also turned into an investment company, with their principal business activity now being the management of their assets, and their assets are predominantly their positions in OEQ and BEL. Bentley (BEL) is a much cleaner company, because 82% of their portfolio (as at 31-Dec-2020) was invested in just two companies, 74% in Strike Resources (SRK) and 8.1% in Yowie Group (YOW). BEL also had $1.4m of net cash (after liabilities) which was worth around 14.3% of their portfolio, leaving just 3.6% of their portfolio invested in "other" assets (managed funds and other listed securities). The main "cons" of investing in BEL as I see them are: 1. They are very small, and lack liquidity, so could be a lobster-pot stock, not too hard to get into, but perhaps difficult to get out of without losing skin (i.e. money); 2. It's a tangled web, between Strike, Bentley, Queste and Orion, with Farooq Khan controlling all four companies, and being the founder of Strike as well (Strike being the underpinning asset of all four companies). Khan's intentions are far from clear, including his intentions in relation to future capital returns and dividends from BEL, QUE or OEQ (the three investment companies of the four). If he thinks SRK is worth substantially more than where they are trading, and as the founder and board chairman of SRK he probably does, then he is unlikely to start selling SRK shares within either BEL or OEQ, or sell BEL or OEQ from within QUE. Which could mean that the value within BEL & OEQ remains locked up and BEL in particular continues to trade at a very big NTA-discount - due to there being no obvious catalyst to cause a positive market re-rating of the company and its low share price. 3. Despite the very obvious HUGE NTA-discounts in their respective share prices, the market doesn't seem too interested in buying up either BEL or OEQ at current levels, so there is certainly plenty of caution out there. What would change that? 4. The main asset underpinning all of this is Strike Resources (SRK), an iron ore project developer that is NOT yet in production and has no regular income (revenue) and certainly no earnings (profits), so is very hard to accurately value (in terms of intrinsic value rather than market value). The SRK share price could halve tomorrow and the investment thesis behind BEL (or OEQ) could evaporate. In summary, I believe there is significant value there in BEL, but also plenty of risk. I have added $20K of BEL to one of my real life portfolios and around $10K to my Strawman.com scorecard. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. Thanks to @Chagsy and @Reilz96 for the heads-up on this one! Further Reading: https://www.businessnews.com.au/Person/Farooq-Khan 11-Aug-2021: I have since sold out of this one in real life and I've also removed them from my Strawman.com virtual portfolio, at a small profit. I got cold feet. The more I looked into the backgrounds of the main players here, the more uncomfortable I got with the investment thesis. When the price got above my buy price, I quickly sold. The stock is illiquid and moves around a lot, but if you look at the twelve month chart the trend is heading in the right direction - specifically up and to the right. I feel that this company will get to my 15 cent price target within the next year, however I won't be on it when it does. I'm too concerned about the management of this fund and the associated funds and companies that I have written about in various straws. If you look at the twelve month chart of Strike Resources (SRK), which is Bentley Capital's main underlying asset, as explained above, SRK has a similar trajectory, yet with even greater volatility. They're heading up, but certainly not in a straight line, you could easily trade those valleys and peaks. SRK has been over 30 cps as recently as 19-July-2021 (less than a month ago) and they're down to 24 cps today - and looking (on their chart) like they're getting ready for another leg up, but I'm no chartist and I prefer fundamental analysis, and Strike have potential, but are not producing anything yet. Bentley and the other LICs and investment companies associated with Bentley (BEL) SHOULD reflect the value of the underlying assets that they hold, however I would question whether the people who run these tiny companies have in the past always acted in the best interests of ordinary retail shareholders. People could be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that these companies have been set up to cream off multiple sets of directors and other fees for Farooq Khan, his family, and his friends and associates. Despite what looks at face value to be a large discount to NAV in the BEL share price, I would NOW prefer to invest directly in Strike, if I want to own Strike Resources shares, rather than do it through BEL, and if I want exposure to Yowie Group (YOW), I would definitely not look for it via investing in BEL. Basically, I believe I now understand the reason for the big discount to NAV in the SP of BEL, and I agree with it. So I'm now avoiding BEL, OEQ and QUE, although, to be fair, I was already avoiding OEQ and QUE when I briefly "invested" in BEL and then thought better of it. This is not a comment on the quality and outlook for Strike - SRK - that's another matter entirely. However, as I said, I would prefer to invest directly in SRK now than through BEL, and I'm NOT currently invested in SRK or BEL (or OEQ or QUE).
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#ASX Announcements SRK update
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Added 3 years ago

Iron Ore Production Ramps Up in Peru HIGHLIGHTS
Significant Company milestone achieved with 20,000 tonnes of high-grade direct shipping ore (DSO) mined from the Apurimac Project in Peru since late December 2020, with ore stockpiled locally for crushing and screening.
Strike is initially targeting annualised production of ~125,000 tonnes of iron ore from specific portions of concessions comprising the Apurimac Project.
Potential exists to significantly expand production through ore from multiple sites within the Apurimac Project, once steady state operations are achieved.
Targeting production of a high grade “Apurimac Premium Lump” DSO product of 64-65% Fe with low impurities.
Current strong iron ore price (currently US$168 per tonne1) and high lump premium (of an additional potential ~US$33 per tonne) indicate a significant near term positive cashflow opportunity.
Production costings have been completed with anticipated FOB cost at Pisco Port of less than ~US$70 per tonne.
First cashflow from sales expected in the June 2021 Quarter.
Strike Resources Limited (ASX:SRK) (Strike) is pleased to provide an update on a significant milestone in company operations in Peru relating to its 100% owned Apurimac Iron Ore Project.
Strike confirms that since mining of high-grade surface deposits of iron ore from the Apurimac Project concessions commenced in late December 2020, over 20,000 tonnes of direct shipping ore (DSO) has been mined and transported by trucks for local crushing and screening, with over 6,000 tonnes of material having been crushed to date.
Strike is now ramping up operations to increase throughput both via mining operations and the engagement of a second crushing and screening plant to increase crushing capacity to 1,000 tonnes per day.
Once Strike has successfully crushed approximately 20,000 tonnes of material, it plans to progressively transport the Apurimac Premium Lump DSO product to a stockpile at the Port of Pisco, (located approximately 570km by road from the Apurimac Project) using locally sourced trucks.
        1 62% Fe Index (CFR China), as at 16 March 2021 www.strikeresources.com.au
STRIKE RESOURCES LIMITED
Level 2, 31 Ventnor Avenue, West Perth, Western Australia 6005 ASX : SRK T | (08) 9214 9700 F | (08) 9214 9701
A.B.N. 94 088 488 

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#Comments on Structure
stale
Last edited 3 years ago

09-Feb-2021:  Just a comment on the complexity of the ownership structure, which I've described in detail in another straw here. 

Why the complexity?  The obvious answer is to make it very difficult for anybody to gain control of any of the companies involved, but I guess the main advantage to the directors and shareholders that control these companies is the high management fees and the directors fees that they can generate.  For instance, Farooq Khan is the Chairman of SRK, BEL, OEQ and QUE, so presumably collects 4 lots of director and chairman's fees.  Victor Ho is the company secretary of all four companies and a director of three of them.  Bill Johnson is the MD of SRK and also a director of BEL.  Farooq's brother Yaqoob Khan is a director of both OEQ and QUE.

The employees of the company are presumably paid well also, even though they are mostly just "managing" passive investments that do not require any work except ASX-related paperwork every month or so, plus collecting those fees of course. This also applies to the directors and chairman of BEL, OEQ and QUE too of course - what real work have they got to do, really?

It looks like Bentley pay fees to Orion who pay fees to Queste, and as I've explained elsewhere Queste and Orion are both majority owned by Farooq Khan and his associates, including his sister and her husband - the Chaudhris - and the Chaudhris hold their shares partly in two holding companies of their own (Renmuir Holdings and Chi Tung Investments) which are registered in the British Virgin Islands and in Hong Kong respectively.  They also previously used another holding company called Database Systems. 

The Chaudhri's Database Systems owned 5.65% of Strike (SRK) up until 17-Aug-2020, and Farooq's sister, Ambreen Chaudhri still owns 5.13% of Strike, in addition to the 25.37% of Strike that Bentley (BEL) owns.  It appears that Farooq and his associates only control around 44% of Bentley, and even less of Strike, but do however have controlling stakes in Queste which in turn has a controlling stake in Orion which owns around 27% of Bentley (BEL).  I have included that 27% in my estimate of the 44% of Bentley that I think Khan and the Chaudhris (and their holding companies) own.

The short version is it's all about fees and control, but I would imagine mostly about fees.

Farooq Khan is into some other companies as well, and has tangled with Geoff Wilson on more than one occasion, as this AFR article explains:  https://www.afr.com/rear-window/geoff-wilson-creeps-up-farooq-khans-register-at-queste-20180215-h0w4j3

Geoff Wilson creeps up Farooq Khan's register at Queste

by Myriam Robin, AFR Columnist

Feb 16, 2018

Veteran fund manager Geoff Wilson is sitting on a lot of cash these days. So while his funds wait for the ASX rout to finish, we guess he had to do something to keep himself entertained.

According to a notice lodged late on Wednesday, Wilson has in the past two weeks purchased a 14.54 per cent stake in Queste Communications, using what appears to be his own personal superannuation fund, Dynasty Peak.

The stake has set his personal fortune back almost $300,000. And trust us, he's not doing it for the investment potential of the nominal communications company: according to its January cash-flow report, Queste has made $19,000 in receipts from customers this year to date and received $218,000 in dividends, while paying out $279,000 in leases and staff costs.

But Queste's chairman is Perth business identity Farooq Khan, and through it, Khan controls and chairs another company, Orion, which controls another company, Bentley, which controls yet another firm, Keybridge Capital, which has major stakes in a range of investments including listed cash box Molopo, which Wilson briefly tried to take over last year.

Queste is the top of the food chain, and whoever controls it controls the entire edifice.

Wilson has a history of tangling with Khan. In 2009 he voted in favour of removing Khan from the chairmanship of Bentley. And in 2016 Khan, through Bentley, opposed Wilson's attempt to wind up the Hastings High Yield fund.

So we're reading Wilson buying up the stake in Queste – conveniently at the same time several other long-term shareholders exited the company – as unambiguously hostile.

But how much he can do from here is unclear. Queste's major shareholders are Khan, with a 19.4 per cent stake, and his brother-in-law Azhar Chaudhri, who owns another 31.64 per cent.

And if the two of them didn't have the whole thing locked down between them, there are plenty of other family members on the register, such as Ayub Khan and Afia Khan (with 0.8 per cent apiece).

Meanwhile Yaqoob Khan, Farooq's brother, isn't in the top twenty 20 shareholders, but is the company's executive director.

--- ends ---

Geoff Wilson still holds 5.9% of Orion (OEQ) and 16.2% of Queste (QUE).

Bentley DID control Keybridge Capital which controlled Molopo, and Wilson's WAM Funds have tried to takeover both of those companies, or at least release some value for their ordinary retail shareholders.

See here:  https://www.businessnewsaustralia.com/articles/wam-triumphs-over-bolton-s-keybridge-capital-in-the-supreme-court.html

That article mentions Yowie also, which is of course the other main holding of Bentley Capital (BEL) - other than their shares in SRK.  BEL own 9.71% of YOW, and WAM Funds now own 26.77 of YOW, which includes the 25.27% of YOW owned by Keybridge Capital (KBC), which is itself now 47.52% owned by WAM Funds - but was 50.16% owned by WAM Funds from 15-Sep-2020 to 24-Dec-2020, so was seen as a controlled entity of WAM Funds during that time.

Regarding Molopo Energy - see here:  https://www.smh.com.au/business/geoff-wilson-counters-nick-boltons-raid-on-molopos-65m-cash-box-20171109-gzhtjg.html

and here:  https://switzer.com.au/the-experts/tim-boreham/the-new-criterion-molopo-energy/

In their last Quarterley Activities Report on 29-Oct-2020, the last day they announced anything to the ASX, Molopo Energy (MPO) said:

Molopo’s shares have been suspended from trading since 27 July 2017 due to the level of its operations not being, in ASX’s opinion, sufficient to warrant the continued quotation of its securities in compliance with Listing Rule 12.1.

As previously reported, the Company is not pursuing any new oil and gas activities (outside of those which it indirectly holds via its 30% interest in Drawbridge) at the present time.

Following a previous application to ASX by Molopo, the ASX confirmed an extension to the deadline for Molopo’s removal was on the basis that it afforded Molopo the opportunity to demonstrate to ASX that it is in the ‘final stages’ of implementing a transaction that will lead to the resumption of trading of its securities. For these purposes, being in the ‘final stages’ of implementing a transaction means that the Company has completed the requirements referred to in ASX Guidance Note 33.

The ASX has now considered the Company’s further submissions on the progress of Molopo’s Victorian Supreme Court proceedings against former Molopo directors. Given the present circumstances, the ASX has agreed to further extend the deadline from 1 September 2020 to 28 February 2021 to afford Molopo the opportunity to demonstrate to ASX that it is in the ‘final stages’ of implementing a transaction that will lead to the resumption of trading of its securities.

Whilst the Current Directors recognise that this is extremely frustrating for shareholders, the Molopo Board will address the Company’s listing on ASX once the litigation proceedings against the Former Directors are completed. The Board will then consider and address the issue further before that date.

--- end of excerpt ---

...which is all to say that Farooq Khan and his associates have been involved in some interesting businesses, and have had a number of fights with Geoff Wilson, and it looks like Geoff Wilson's interest in Farooq Khan's currently controlled businesses (particularly OEQ and QUE) is ongoing.

It's getting late.  That's enough for tonight...

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