(SVE) Starvest

The miners are on their knee's and if you look through the top 8 Starvest's investments they are on their low's (nearly all)

China is picking up and rest of the world are slowly looking more positive so the Miner's will be in the first of the queue to see the benefits

So why risk on buying one of them when you can buy all of them at a 35% discount!

Today’s lengthy RNS, I think, exhibits Bruce Rowan’s realism and flexibility and gives a lucid exposition of his strategy.

The text also helps to illustrate why punters habitually lose money on this type of company.

As the RNS says: ‘Patience is the key as we await a recovery’.

Valuta

~

Starvest plc
Results for the year ended 30 September 2012
Friday 26 October 2012

(7,500 words) {Reading time: 30 mins }
http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=20121026070056H2549

Hi Zedder,

Am sitting on a loss here, but planning to top up. Hopefully sentiment turns!!

Cheers Scoob.

Another 25k shares for me today, but had to be at the full 7p. RRR, GGP and ORCP all doing well today. Hopefully the start of a lot of the small miners that SVE hold recovering.

Took another 25k today at that same 6.56p. Discount to NAV is still crazy especially with KEFI trying to breakout upwards again.

For all the reasons I highlighted when I bought last Thursday, couldn't help but take another 25000 today at 6.5625p after someone sold 50000 at 6p. Dreadful spread though!

Just did a very interesting calculation. I own 100,000 SVE and I have worked out what number of shares in the Big 7 holdings that 'effectively' means I have. The result:

49893 AAU
5074 BEM
89639 GGP
48202 KEFI
70629 RGM
22833 RRR
55476 ORCP
35982 SRES
1268 CEY

If I had bought all of the above at the full offer today that would have cost £7683.70 before stamp duty and costs. All of the other holdings, the cash and the 2.3m shares in Treasury are in for nothing. So if you could get 100,000 SVE for 7p or less, in my view that would definitely be a bargain! My 46,500 at 6p today most definitely were!!

\Some of the main holdings:

Ariana Resources AAU 19,666,526 0.015 294,998
Greatland Gold GGP 35,333,333 0.0065 229,667
Kefi Minerals plc KEFI 19,000,000 0.035 665,000
Regency Mines RGM 27,840,000 0.0087 242,208
Red Rock RRR 9,000,000 0.017 153,000
Oracle ORCP 21,867,333 0.0225 492,015
Sunrise Resources SRES 14,183,333 0.0115 163,108
Centamin CEY 500,000 0.75 375,000

With KEFI starting to recover, and hopefully leading the way for many other of SVEs holdings, I decided the discount to NAV was getting excessive and have just bought 46,500 at 6p.

On my spreadsheet (with various holdings updated having looked at AIM Rule 26 listings on various comapny websites) I currently get a NAV of 9p per share.

Here are key points of the RNS only; tables are omitted as formatting would be lost.

For the full RNS, use the link below or the News tab above.


Valuta




Starvest plc : Half-yearly report

18 April 2012
Starvest Plc
Half-year report - six months ended 31 March 2012

Chairman's statement

I am pleased to provide a portfolio valuation update as at 31 March 2012, the interim financial statements for the six months ended on 31 March 2012 and a commentary on the progress made during the period.

Investment performance

As I indicated in my annual report last October, 2010 was a year of two parts: from a high valuation point at the end of 2010, the portfolio saw a steady decline in the following nine months to 30 September 2011. This steady decline has continued to date.

The decline has been across our portfolio. Our nine leading stocks have all fallen during the period, some to below cost. This is disappointing, although not entirely unexpected given the challenging conditions in world markets.

We remain encouraged that each of the leading investee companies remain active and continue to develop their projects. We believe that these projects will translate into improved share prices and therefore into improved asset valuations but that it is currently advisable to take a long term view on these developments.

In summary:
• Company net asset value has fallen to £4.98m;
• Starvest's mid share price has fallen to 10.0 pence;
• Closing net asset value of 13.3 pence per share;
• Mid share price on 31 March 2012 had a discount to net asset value of 25%;
• There were no investment sales during the period.

Basis of valuation

Starvest uses closing bid prices or the Directors' lower valuation if deemed appropriate. In addition, a 10% discount is made against those investments where the Company holds either a large percentage of a given investee or where the investment constitutes 7% or more of the portfolio. These valuation discounts totalled £430,000 at 31 March 2012 (2011: £1.08m). Adjusting for this discount, the full value based on bid prices was 14.48 pence per share leading to a share price discount of 31%.

Company statistics

[Table omitted here]

Portfolio comment

During the period, Starvest added to its investment in Ariana Resources plc by exercising an option. Otherwise, there were no purchases during the period.
Starvest's largest investments, comprising 86% of the declared valuation, in order of size were:
• Oracle Coalfields plc
• Ariana Resources plc
• Regency Mines plc
• Kefi Minerals plc
• Centamin plc
• Beowulf Mining plc
• Red Rock Resources plc
• Greatland Gold plc
• Sunrise Resources plc

Since the period end, the Company has supported a fundraising by Alba Mineral Resources plc and agreed to support two new exploration ventures both of which intend to seek admission to PLUS Markets.

Other points of note during the half year

The cautious basis of valuation has resulted in further impairments at the interim stage amounting to £237,000 net. Adding the overheads and taking credit for net interest results in a loss before taxation of £342,651 and a loss after taxation of £253,651 or 0.6 pence per share.

Dividend payments

A year ago, we announced the resumption of a dividend payment. In view of the more challenging conditions which currently prevail, the Board has decided to defer the announcement of a dividend for the current year until conditions improve but most likely until the year end.

In early July, the Company expects to announce an update to the net asset value as at 30 June 2012.


R Bruce Rowan
Chairman & Chief Executive
18 April 2012

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=20120418120331H3663

Indeed. Today's results

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201112020700132209T

RGM have plenty of good news to come.

1) Oracle coalfieds DFS release anytime now
2) DNi Processing Plant completion
3) Red Rock (gold prod news, Kenya, Greenland)

The only problem here is that RRR & RGM have taken a battering, not to sure about RGM during the next 3 months, think it will continue to drift, they need some good news.

Looking to top up here all said and done as we have exposure to many other companies.

Seems good to me too, but keep it quiet as i'm waiting on other investments to perform before buying in here. The dividend and discount to NAV means that this vehicle is going to be my preferred route to having an enlarged stake in RRR & RGM in future, whilst spreading some of the risk over 40 or so companies instead of 2.

http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:SVE.L&it=le&display=news

Looks v good with prospects of more to come?

Profit from realisations 5..1pps (ie PE < 3)
div for yr upped to now 0.75p (7%)

NAV 17.57ppps (26% discount to share price ). Has been higher and I have every conf t will rise again too. (is £6.84m now)
So a value co, income co and potential "growth co" to boot as well!!!

Seems good to me.

would the 1.1 million in cash held by the company allow for this tender offer and cancellation of shares in treasury. sounds like a great use of the funds and in this market would make Rowan popular with his followers.

TIR have announced a Tender Offer today to buy and cancel just under 30% of their shares. With over £2m of cash, hopefully we are next!


Background to and reasons for the Tender Offer

The Board is conscious that the market price of the Shares has long remained at a discount to the Gross NAV per Share, despite the success of many of the Company's investments. Consequently, the Board has decided to give Qualifying Shareholders the opportunity to have some of their investment returned in cash by way of a tender process. The Board believes that this will bring to the attention of the wider market the disparity between the market price of the Shares and the Company's underlying asset value.

If SVE tendered for 10m shares at 16.5p, plus cancelled the 2.3m shares they hold in treasury, the price could rise to 18p and the Mkt Cap would be the same as now.

Sounds like a great plan and you heard it here first!

I predicted 18.5p as fair value even after larger declines in values prior to June and the 20.25p NAV - 10% - highlighted in Tuesday's release revises that to just 18.25p.

I think there is enough strength here (minimal drop in NAV since 30 june 2010) for it to recover to 17p - 18p level in Autumn. I sold some circa 13.5p - 15p to buy regency on dip and now confidently buying back - many buys have shown as sells recently..

Security of wide exposure to real potential and spread of risk makes this gilt edged buy. RRR and Ariana are their big gold investments and ones that will underpin even in uncertain times. However other stocks could be real drivers. Oracle is coming.

"With the gross profit for the year to date of £2.6m, your Board remains confident that its patience is being rewarded. As we await a full recovery, Shareholders enjoy a wide spread of medium term interests, a pooling of risk and the prospect of a further modest
dividend."

12.08 30.06.11 30.09.10 % (20.09.10)

Company asset value £7.71m £8.10m £4.19m 84%
net of tax

Net asset value - 20.25 pence 21.21 pence 11.28 pence 79%
fully diluted
p/share

Share price - mid 13.50 pence 12.50 pence 7.75 pence 74%

Share price discount 33.33% 41.1% 31.3%
to net asset value

Market £4.68m £4.59m £2.84m 65%
capitalisation

Starvest plc

General Update

Tuesday 16 August 2011

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=20110816170400H8805

A good update. Just have to stay with this one.

The sales volume is very low, so says little. What we need is for one (or more) of the stocks in the Starvest portfolio to steam ahead. At the moment it's like the market - very dull.

All the recent transactions indicated as small sells at 13.30p are in fact buys...the only real sell was the one at 13.00.

Value of underlying stocks still underpressure but this price is easily secured by forthcoming guaranteed stock sales and tick up from stocks such as AAU and other s with coal and Gld interests.

See earlier posts for trend predictions.

Arthurx9 the NAV july announcement is certainly not grim reading as at 21.5 pence minus usual 10% or so is at target of 18p - 19p.

"Starvest is focused so that the net asset value has fallen by £2m to £8.1m or 21.2 pence per share against the closing mid price of 12.5 pence. The resulting discount is 41%."

http://www.starvest.co.uk/announcments.html

I speculated at 18.5p in June post so thereabouts. I see this as 19p share again in Autumn. I was sole buyer yesterday buying in at 13.30p (lowest 12.30p day before) absolute bargain after selling at 16p plus.

BEM, RRR and RGM will recover and Ariana is the star for 2012. I hold three of these four.

DYOR. As always.


http://www.starvest.co.uk/announcments.html

Net Asset Value update due in early July. I expect it to make grim reading. Most of the top 8 holdings are down upto 50%. No wonder the share price sags.

Has anyone got a spreadsheet or details of SVE's holdings in investee companies?

This is a star performer waiting for its moment in the sun.

Starvest is sitting on some amazing investments and does not need to sell as has money in bank after clearing overdraft (see March 31 update) and line of credit.

This will always have wide bid/offer ranges and be hard to value outside reporting periods but I believe offers excellent value.

Aim retrench makes my previous blues look a little like ramping but I am blue again because I believe 16p under values this stock within normal valuations and historic ranges. Even with the Beowulf (yes they still hold some) and Regency retrenches Starvest still will reveal NAV of above 18.5 pence in July.

Ariana has held firm and Greatland has started to recover. Oracle at 8p is still way ahead for them even if if the Regency holding (of which starvest is big holder) is now at break even.

Any strength in aim or positive showing from the top 5 investments and the teen pences will be a distant memory.

Great short term excitement, mid term value and long term ROI.

Got back in in here at 14p so down a bit now, I was in on SVE a 3p then 5p but sold out a long time ago so missed the rise to 17p. Will be holding for the long term now.

Also what does anyone think of AHG....?

cheers
Blue.

Discount now 50% as share price drifts lower. I think the discount will stay high until the directors talk of realising shareholder value. Psychologically they just need to talk about liquidating the portfolio 'when appropriate'. That may do the trick?

Flank:

6) The holdings are now considerably more valuable than the last update (note Starvest holding is in Regency not RRR so can benefit directly from Oracle without suffering at hands of recent RRR tree shake .....before ultimately benefiting from both)

Will look further at your spread ideas shortly...note my upper ranges (-10%) from earlier posts for where I think we are at now....and as in poker I stick (although with minimal risk I should be buying even more)

I'm also in RGM and 2 others SVEholdings separately so DYOR

I've made an attempt to create a google spreadsheet to track SVE's investments.
Please tell me where I've gone wrong. It values the portfolio quite a bit higher than the last update.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ApXY7MQZFz3JdDdlYktUU0VpbXNRUF9OSXhKaGw3akE&hl=en#

Things I'm aware of:

1) I've built no discount into the PLUS companies
2) Google cannot work off bid price, so it's mid price only
3) It's hard to find details of SVE holdings when they dip under 3% - any advice welcome
4) GoogleFinance supports AIM with a 20 minute delay, but PLUS isn't supported (manual updates)
5) I'm a muppet and am bound to have made some mistakes

Let me know where to put things right, and it might be a useful tool.

Flank is reading this wrong. This will not need a three month time corridor.

Regency and Greatland have bounced and both much further to go. Market underestimated amount of Beowolf held and value. Blah Blah. See my past posts over last 3 months (don't read beyond as you will get depressed I've been in since 5/6p) and if you want to look clever later on tick them up (lol)

Nav could already be past 40p. A reappraisal is overdue. Which will start when Oracle to market. Starvest hold Oracle and Regency which holds Oracle (20%).

And then the real dark horse is Ariana.......I am increasing stake......

I hold all stocks mentioned so DYOR.

I still think that ORCP is going to 'make' the portfolio. Despite the supposed spread for ORCP on PLUS this morning, there have been 2 buys at 16p for any decent chunks of shares. True the placing associated with the AIM listing has added 60m extra shares at 10p. But the big boys don't take part in placings unless they are VERY confident of major profit!

And mostly buys, yet the price drops. It's a funny one.
A long term keeper.

Mr. Rowan is proving adept at picking undervalued companies with long term potential.

It's probably a good time to add, as the NAV is rising all the time while the offer drops, but only if you can wait another 3 months before it jolts upwards again and be prepared to sit on a loss until the next portfolio update surprises you pleasantly, hopefully. The spread is such that it would have to rise a fair amount to take out the percentage loss you'd see just after purchase.

When RRR and RGM pick themselves up again, then I feel like we'll be appreciating very rapidly and they should regain their places further up the portfolio.

3 big risers today.
Greatland Gold, Oracle Coalfields, and Sunrise Resources

I had no trouble getting 17500 at 17.4p this morning though. That's me now at a round 50000 shares.

NMS is 5000 according to Barclays. Can't be held in an ISA (unfortunately!)

Is this ISAble please?
Does anyone know what the NMS is for this share?
Thanks

I have been in and out of SVE for years, made some money at times. It makes little sense why NAV discounts have widened so much. I get it for companies like Alliance Trust where I could throw a dart in the paper and do better, but for finding a portfolio of microcaps for some speculation then firms like Starvest are great.
I will sit on this for a while this time having bought back in just below current levels. I would be more than happy with 22p by the end of the year.

I have never given four strong blues in a row but this has to be the first time. Amazed this board so quite. Really thought we'd have some of the more sensible investors who divide portfolio by high risk/mid risk/value investing/mktreturn/yield. This one now ticks 3 boxes for me!!!!

So will peak be 19p or 26p - working on 10% discount (corp tax) - in short term. My Autumn prediction ceteris paribus (never is on aim) is beyond 40p for NAV and maybe for stock.

We know the bid price cautionary value but what is really interesting is what a bit of speculation may do.....

Given the current stock market trading volume in some investee companies, it is arguable that mid price rather than bid price would be appropriate. Had the Company adopted such a policy with all options exercised, the value per share would increase by a further £1.64m or 3.61 pence to 32.43 pence per share with a share price discount of 57%.

Closing net asset value of 26.16 pence per share up 131% from 11.28 pence

http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail.html?announcementId=10838104

Viridas secures Rowan backing

5th April 2011

By James Reed - Assistant Editor

MINERAL exploration entrepreneur Ronald Bruce Rowan has invested £250,000 in Viridas.

Mr Rowan, chief executive of Starvest, is among investors who have now bought up £1.05m of unconvertible loan notes in Viridas as the Leeds-based firm changes strategy.

Stanley Wootliff, executive chairman of Viridas, said: "I am delighted that Mr Rowan has decided to invest such a significant amount in Viridas, his track record as an entrepreneur speaks for itself.

"Clearly the company is now well placed to re-launch as a focused natural resources investment vehicle. I believe that following the general meeting, the company will be in a position to enhance real shareholder value in the near-term."

Last month Viridas announced it was abandoning plans to establish an operation in Brazil growing jatropha plants for use in biofuels and would instead become an investment vehicle focused on natural resources.

The company initially raised £750,000 through the placing of zero-coupon, unsecured convertible loan notes to fund the new strategy and that has now increased to £1.05m.