Aurora Russia Discussion Board http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion http://www.iii.co.uk/icons/logos/uk_logo.gif http://www.iii.co.uk tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.9431205 http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=9431205&action=detail Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:30:00 GMT I R Baboon tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.9429452
Just finished a two part review of all the Russia focused/related closed-end funds out there, including AURR - hope you'll take a look & comment:

http://wexboy.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/from-russia-with-love/

Cheers,

Wexboy By Wexboy ]]> http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=9429452&action=detail Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:34:00 GMT Wexboy tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.9182058 But let's not be too depressed, the directors are still drawing their fees, so they are happy. I would rather pay them on a 'time' and 'realisation value' matrix to give them some incentive to take action. By alpal ]]> http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=9182058&action=detail Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:38:00 GMT alpal tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.9181215 http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=9181215&action=detail Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:26:00 GMT I R Baboon tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.8520872 http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=8520872&action=detail Tue, 12 Jul 2011 08:01:00 GMT alpal tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.8520591 http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=8520591&action=detail Tue, 12 Jul 2011 06:06:00 GMT I R Baboon tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.8520589 http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=8520589&action=detail Tue, 12 Jul 2011 06:05:00 GMT I R Baboon tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.8516572 http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=8516572&action=detail Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:10:00 GMT alpal tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.8418381 Warrants keeping an eye one this one. I haven't found out the size of his holding yet.
Rodgivad By rodgivad ]]> http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=8418381&action=detail Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:23:00 GMT rodgivad tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.8417683
I wonder what's behind it? By alpal ]]> http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=8417683&action=detail Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:46:00 GMT alpal tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.8227006 i was referring to the proportion of consolidated income taken by the fees (OSG plus the 100% entities are consolidated) but as the minority held entities (Superstroy and Unistream) do not have their income consolidated into the group these had escaped my attention

as of yesterday am a holder as i think the results will be good based on business growth and the GBP/RUR is favourable for revals
By I R Baboon ]]> http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=8227006&action=detail Tue, 10 May 2011 06:13:00 GMT I R Baboon tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.8225220
However not sure I agree with all points made. Specifically point 5 - eg Superstoy's revenues (?turnover) was RUB 6.9B last year, which is a turnover of £150M pa. So management fees are a very small percentage of turnover of the companies owned by AURR. They may be a large percentage of their profits, but it sounds as if the companies which are doing well (not all of the portfolio) are expanding rapidly and therefore reinvesting?

The market seems to like the results.. But the note of caution is helpful, and Russia is tiger country in governance terms as pointed out by IRB

Cheers B_N By Barum_novice ]]> http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=8225220&action=detail Mon, 09 May 2011 15:52:00 GMT Barum_novice tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.8223146 http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=8223146&action=detail Mon, 09 May 2011 09:57:00 GMT alpal tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.8223046
1) page 47, VUB which was aquired is borderline solvent, its only notable asset is its banking license, without which it has almost no assets, the licence is intangible therefore is not really an asset at all and its value is based on the opinion of valuers, more of that later, further almost no other banks in russia capitalise the value of their license, meaning the are very aggressive in terms of accounting, or desperate, or both (think enron)

2) page 45 - OSG is worse total assets acquired were 7.1m, but intangibles were 8m therefore the sum total of all its assets except intangible are negative, in fact the intangible is its only notable asset,this mythical intangible is its ''customer base'' since its customer base are big businesses a yellow pages would do just as well and not cost 8 million! think desperate, think aggressive, think enron accounting - this has of course been ''valued''

3) osg continued - well if having a balance sheet made up of mythical assets is not bad enough what could be worse, oh yes paying over the odds for them, still on page 45, as goodwil is 14m AUR have paid 14m more than the 8m of thin air assets are 'worth' , in total they have paid 20m for something with net liabilities, we are in google fantasy dot com land here on a company which stores old papers in dusty old warehouses

4) valuations we are informed by directors have been performed by independent professional valuation firms, in russia there is no such thing, in UK valuations go like this -directors appoint a firm who are reputable then accept the results, in russia it goes like this - directors decide what value they want then audition firms to get the valuation they want at the lowest cost, if directors had used pwc or kpmg or something they would have said so, as they havent we can only imagine who they have used and why .... worryingly if directors had wanted their investmenst valued twice bigger in the accounts how do we know they wouldnt have got it.......

5) management fee was 1.7m, that accounts for more than a third of total turnover in the businesses under management, hardly likely to be profitable is it?

despite the above am not saying the price wont rise, just be aware that of all the russia focussed funds this is far and away the most risky, the market doesnt lie hence the price / NAV is very very low and if you are in and it goes up remember not to stick around til its found out that the emperor really does have no clothes ;-)

By I R Baboon ]]> http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=8223046&action=detail Mon, 09 May 2011 09:40:00 GMT I R Baboon tag:iii.co.uk,2003:tst.8222876 yeah i would say those prefs are an income seekers wet dream, yielding about 9%, at current prices, but scope for them to increase also, RUS's shares are well backed by in-demand tangible assets too so i think its relatively low risk compared to this one for example

i didnt pick up any prefs as im cash poor right now but i want some
if u are looking for decent prefs u could also check out santander which are reasonably attractive (as no doubt lots of others are right now too) By I R Baboon ]]> http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail?code=cotn:AURR.L&display=discussion&id=8222876&action=detail Mon, 09 May 2011 09:08:00 GMT I R Baboon