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78.3% Of Research Into New Small-Cap Investments Comes From The Web

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:55 AM on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

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As some of you may have noticed, we love to take surveys because of the valuable data they provide.  Despite the fact we’re an online company, quite a number of our surveys are done offline (i.e. at conferences).  Why?  There’s no point in trying to figure out the impact of the web on small-cap investors if you’re only going to ask online people.

To this end, here is some incredibly valuable information that we discovered about small-cap investors over the last 12 months:

In 2008

  • The web accounted for 74.3% of all research into new small-cap investments, up from 67% in 2007
  • 73% of Investors Conduct the Majority of their Research (75%+) into New Stocks Online
  • 48% of Investors Conduct All of their Research (95%+) into New Stocks Online
  • 64% of Investors Use Discussion Forums For Information and/or Research, up 7% from 2007

In 2009

  • The web accounted for 78.3% of all research into new small-cap investments, up from 74.3% in 2008
  • 73% of Investors Conduct the Majority of their Research (75%+) into New Stocks Online, up from 73% in 2008
  • 55% of Investors Conduct All of their Research (95%+) into New Stocks Online, up from 48% in 2008
  • 54% of Investors Use Discussion Forums For Information and/or Research, down from 64% in 2008

Clearly, small-cap investors are overwhelmingly using the web to research new investments.  We didn’t get as far as asking why they rely on the web so heavily but one answer has to be the fact that major financial media don’t cover small-cap stocks extensively.  As such, small-cap investors are forced to resort to search engines, electronic shareholder forums and social networks to help them discover new small-cap stocks.

I hope you found this information to be helpful.  If you’re a small-cap CEO that isn’t conducting a significant online investor relations program, take this data to your board …. and then call me 🙂  Hey, couldn’t resist.  The data is just that good.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, Online Investor Relations, Small-Cap CEO Lessons, Surveys | 7 Comments »

Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (“IFFCO”) Buys 6,000,000 Shares Of Legend Int’l (LGDI) In Open Market

Posted by AGORACOM at 10:13 AM on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Trading in former AGORACOM Client Legend International Holdings turned up strongly at the start of trading season this year with some heavy volume and a significant price move.  See this 5-day chart below (click on it to see live chart):

Stock Chart - LGDI

 

A look at a recent SEC filing shows that IFFCO (Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative) has already added to its significant holdings of Legend by acquiring about 6,000,000 shares in the open market last week.  The did so through Kisan International Trading, FZE (“Kisan”), a corporation wholly owned by IFFCO.   Kisan is a private investment and trading vehicle for IFFCO.  Here is a list of the exact purchases and dates:

September 8, 2009 – 727,300 shares @ $0.60

September 9, 2009 – 2,323,700 shares @ $0.60

September 10, 2009 – 2,849,946 shares @ $ 0.60

As a result of these purchases, IFFCO now beneficially owns 51,300,464 shares of Legend International Holdings, or 21.1% of the company.  That includes an option to acquire 17,000,000 shares.  Legend has about 226,000,000 shares outstanding.  This is significant considering the following:

LGDI SIGNS LANDMARK AGREEMENT WITH IFFCO, INDIA’S LARGEST FERTILIZER ENTERPRISE

On July 16th, 2008, LGDI and IFFCO, announced this landmark agreement.

IFFCO is India’s largest fertilizer enterprise, a cooperative with over 50 million farmers associated with it, primarily engaged in production and marketing of nitrogenous and phosphate fertilizers in India. IFFCO has five fertilizer plants in India with a domestic annual capacity of producing 4.3 million tonnes of phosphatic fertilizers and 4.2 million tonnes of nitrogenous fertilizers.

When your biggest future customer has enough confidence in you to outright own 34,000,00 shares + an option to acquire another 17,000,000 shares, you have to feel good about the company.

Other notable notes are as follows:

GEORGE SOROS OWNS 10.18% OF LEGEND INTERNATIONAL

Reuters reported that George Soros, via Soros Fund Management, has taken a 5.19% stake (11.7 million shares) in AGORACOM client Legend International Holdings (LGDI: OTCBB).

On October 17,2008 his stake in LGDI was increased to 10.18%

SALMAN BELIEVES LEGEND IS A LIKELY TAKEOVER TARGET OF POTASH CORP

According to this 2008 excerpt from the October 24th Metals Morning Note from Salman Partners , Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan is “On The Prowl” as depressed equity prices have provided significant acquisition opportunities.

Specifically, Salman believes Legend International Holdings is a likely target given its ability to provide Potash Corp with an entrée into Indian markets.

If you are looking for reasons behind both the Soros and IFFCO investments and Salman’s call for an acquisition by Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, take a look at the following.

CONCLUSION

If LGDI is good enough for IFFCO and George Soros, it is worthy of a serious look from any investor with less investment savvy.  Sometimes, these kinds of 3rd party investments are the best due diligence.  As always, do your own.

Regards,

George

Posted in All Recent Posts | 4 Comments »

AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (September 22/09)

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:00 AM on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s September 22nd and we’ve found 4 great press releases and 2 stock halts to report on at the open. Another great day for mall-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed or download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

  • **Uracan Resources Ltd. – TSX-V:URC $0.22
  • CanAlaska Uranium – TSX-V:CVV $0.15
  • Alexis Minerals Corporation – TSX:AMC $0.44
  • Solar Energy Initiatives, Inc. – OTC.BB:SNRY $0.39
  • Redcorp Ventures Corp – TSX: RDV Stock Halted (Cease Trade Order)
  • Gale Force Petroleum Inc – TSX-V: GFP Stock Halted (Pending News)

Posted in All Recent Posts | Comments Off on AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (September 22/09)

City Telecom (Nasdaq:CTEL) – Hong Kong’s Largest Fibre Network Provider With Next To No Debt, Growth, Profits And Happy Customers.

Posted by AGORACOM at 6:00 PM on Monday, September 21st, 2009

PYWMYMI (Pim-Wi-Mee) is the act of Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.   Individuals like Muhammad Ali used it to back up their talk – but very few organizations are willing or able to PYMWYMI in an effort to back up their products or services.  Sure, I can think of a dozen commercials with beautiful spokespeople throwing canned responses at me “our customers come first” but can’t remember the last time they backed it up with their pocket book.

THE COMPANY – CITY TELECOM

City Telecom (CTEL:Nasdaq) is a company that practices PYMWYMI.  Via it’s main operating entity – Hong Kong Broadband Network -  CTEL now claims Hong Kong’s largest fibre network subscriber base and, amongst many other reasons, has accomplished this goal by providing customers with a bandwidth guarantee of 2x their money back.

This was one of the first hooks provided to me by John Marco at Elite IR, so I took a closer look.  What I found is a Chinese small-cap company with business achievements and a corporate culture that make me want to become a long-term investor.  Here are just some highlights, followed by an in-depth webcast interview with CFO, NiQ Lai, at the very end.

THE FACTS AND FIGURES

  • $167 Million in revenues for 2008 and $93 Million in revenue in H1 2009
  • A brand new fibre network that completely bypasses the incumbent’s inferior network
  • Cost per Mbps that blows away the incumbent
  • Peak CapEx is over
  • Positive free cash flow and dividends
  • Steadily increasing ARPU
  • Valuations (P/E and EBIDTA) that are well below industry averages

WHY WALL STREET IS STARTING TO PAY ATTENTION

The company just completed a roadshow that criss-crossed the United States over the last 2 weeks.  With the company’s share price up nicely, I have to conclude that fund managers liked what they heard.  Here are 3 key points to consider:

1. Verizon FiOS at 1/5 the cost

Essentially, CTEL’s competitive advantage comes from having built a Verizon FiOS-like Fibre Network in Hong Kong. Due to Hong Kong’s extreme density of 16,000 people per square mile versus 890 for the US, CTEL’s cost per home pass of ~US$200 is about 1/5th of Verizon FiOS’s cost of ~US$1,100 (data according to CTEL).

2. US$385 million gross investment cost is almost 2x current Market Capitalization

It has taken CTEL 10 years to build its Fibre Network at a gross book cost of US$385 million, almost 2x current market capitalization of US$200 million. The replacement cost for the network would be much higher today, due to the congested in-building conduits and time value. With the company now delivering financial success, the strategic value of the network should be recognized by the market over time.

3. Valuation

The stock market has yet to reflect CTEL’s true valuation. Comp’s are trading at significantly higher multiples on EBITDA and P/E basis.

THE GREAT MARKETING

What you can’t see on the financial statements is simply how cool this company is.  This isn’t relative to other Chinese small and mid caps, this is relative to all companies I have ever seen.  For example, even if you can’t speak Chinese, you can clearly see the genius behind these three TV ads and how they almost have a Mac vs. PC feel to them by pointing out the incumbent’s weakness. Take 90 seconds out to watch them:  Ad1 … Ad2 …  Ad3

THE CORPORATE CULTURE

Finally, despite its’ small-cap status,  CTEL has publicly announced its Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG) To Become Hong Kong’s Largest IP Service Provider By 2016. More than just lip service, the company expects to achieve this goal by benchmarking itself against the best corporations in the world for many different categories.. For example,Toyota Production System for back end process, Disney for outdoor customer service, HSBC Premier Premium Banking for Personal Account Serving, China Light & Power for service reliability and safety.

City Telecom also took 47 Senior Managers on a Japan study mission earlier this year to learn best practices from Panasonic and Toyota.  Some of their most important takeaways?

  • Continuous Change Is Essential – Species that adapt, survive
  • It Is The Duty Of The Manager To “Worry” – A good manager thinks and plans faster than subordinates
  • Raising The Number Of Charcoals – A charcoal is a manager that fuels growth. CTEL was founded with 2 – but needs 3,000+ to achieve its’ BHAG

THE INTERVIEW

I sat down with NiQ Lai to discuss my findings and the company even further.  It’s an audio interview with 17 accompanying slides, so enjoy and good luck with whatever actions you decide to take with City Telecom.

Regards,
George

Posted in All Recent Posts, China | 1 Comment »

AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (September 21/09)

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:00 AM on Monday, September 21st, 2009

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s September 21st and we’ve found 4 great press releases and 1 stock halts to report on at the open. Another great day for mall-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed or download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

  • China North East Petroleum Holdings Ltd – NYSEamex:NEP $4.66
  • Gen2Media Corp – OTC.BB:GTWO $0.37
  • Melkior Resources – TSX-V:MKR $0.29
  • GelTech Solutions Inc. – OTC.BB:GLTC $1.90
  • Fitch Street Capital Corp – TSX-V:FSC.P Stock Halted Pending News

Posted in All Recent Posts | Comments Off on AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (September 21/09)

Case Study: Online Investor Relations Success For Seabridge Gold (SA:NYSE – SEA:TSX). Forbes Now Calling For $50 Share Price

Posted by AGORACOM at 1:29 PM on Sunday, September 20th, 2009

Congratulations to our friend and recent client Rudi Fronk, President and CEO of Seabridge Gold, for receiving some serious love out of Forbes this weekend.  In an article, writer Robert Maltbie stated:

Looks Like Our Media Messaging Worked To A Charm!

Looks Like Our Media Messaging Worked To A Charm!

AGORACOM INVESTOR RELATIONS CASE STUDY: SEABRIDGE GOLD (SA:NYSE) (SEA:TSX) September 2008 – June 2009

Seabridge Gold came to AGORACOM with a mountain of gold but a molehill of brand recognition.  So we embarked on an investor relations campaign whose primary purpose was to target and educate online gold investors about the company’s incredible gold projects.  Simply put, we knew that gold and metals investors would love this story, it was simply a matter of getting the facts into their hands.  If we could execute, I knew the results would be spectacular for this unsung gold hero.

To this end, AGORACOM Investor Relations incorporated:

The Result? About $600 Million in increased Market Capitalization.  However, to be fair, I always state that AGORACOM never takes more than 1/3 of the credit or blame.  For an online investor relations program to work, you need to have these 3 critical components:

  • A great company (Seabridge Gold is an awesome company)
  • A great investor relations program (that would be us)
  • A cooperative market.  Mind you, Seabridge was able to blast ahead during Q1 2009 when the markets were cratering.

Put all of those together and you get something like this …

Thus endeth the lesson.

Posted in AGORACOM Client Feature, All Recent Posts, Gold $2,000, Online Investor Relations, Social Media Investor Relations | 3 Comments »

AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (September 18/09)

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:00 AM on Friday, September 18th, 2009

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s September 18th and we’ve found 1 great press releases and 3 stock halts to report on at the open. Another great day for mall-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed or download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

  • **VMS Ventures – TSX-V:VMS $0.34
  • Kernow Res & Dev – TSX-V:KRD Stock Halted (Pending News)
  • Repeatseat – TSX-V:RPS Stock Halted (Pending News)
  • Fortress Energy Inc: TSX-V:FEI Stock Halted (Pending News)

Posted in All Recent Posts | Comments Off on AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (September 18/09)

AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (September 17/09)

Posted by AGORACOM at 9:00 AM on Thursday, September 17th, 2009

Good morning to you all. Please find enclosed a summary of the breaking small-cap and micro-cap financial news we highlighted on our TV show this morning. It’s September 17th and we’ve found 3 great press releases and stock halts to report on at the open. Another great day for mall-cap and micro-cap financial news.

If you are new to the show, it is a daily, fast-paced, edgy report that we put out at or before the open everyday that strictly reports on the best small cap and micro cap news of the day in 3-5 minutes. You can watch AGORACOM TV right from our home page .

If you miss an episode or want to search for your company in our archive, you can visit our industry leading Small-Cap Podcast site at any time:

If you want to subscribe to our Small-Cap RSS Feed or download our podcast everyday via iTunes, or your favourite podcatcher, just use the following:

As always, don’t forget to visit the AGORACOM Marketplace where we list compelling summaries for over 85 great small-cap and micro-cap companies that you can sort by exchange and industry to suit your personal investing tastes.

TODAY’S SMALL-CAP AND MICRO-CAP BREAKING FINANCIAL NEWS BEFORE THE OPEN

Our daily show focuses on content over form so that you can get profitable information into your hands as fast as possible. The same holds true for these entries in our small-cap, micro-cap news blog, where I simply cut and paste my TV notes for your benefit, without any editing, so don’t give me a hard time!

Now, onto our show notes for the day.

** Denotes an AGORACOM Client. AGORACOM TV Only Reports News From AGORACOM Clients That Meets The Same Newsworthy Threshold Of All Other Press Releases.

Posted in All Recent Posts | Comments Off on AGORACOM Financial News TV – Breaking Small-Cap And Micro-Cap Financial News At The Open (September 17/09)

New Dawn Mining Implements Program To Increase Gold Production To 35 – 50,000 Ounces

Posted by AGORACOM at 4:00 PM on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

New Dawn’s Turk and Angelus Mines in Zimbabwe

http://blog.agoracom.com/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=3240

35,000 to 50,000 oz Potential Gold Production

Expansion Plans Fully Funded From Operating Cash Flow

AGORACOM Client, New Dawn Mining, announced via press release that it has implemented a program to increase its current production at its Turk and Angelus Mines in Zimbabwe to an annual production rate of 35,000 to 50,000 ounces of gold.

COMPANY WILL BE ADDING TO CURRENT PRODUCTION AND REVENUE

This is more than just lip service from a company that is already producing meaningful revenues from current gold production. Specifically, in mid-August, the company issued production, revenue and cash flow numbers that demonstrate great progress.  Here are the highlights:

# US$0.016 per basic share or US$464,003 of operating income before

other income/expense and future taxes

# US$0.025 per basic share or US$719,644 of income before non-cashexpenses and future taxes (non-GAAP)

# US$2,865,285 of revenues from the sale of 3,122 ounces of gold at an average sale price of $917 per of2,931 ounces of gold produced during the quarter ended June 30, 2009

# Cash costs of US$503 per ounce during the quarter ended June 30, 2009 (cash costs are a non-GAAP measure)

# 100% of gold sales received and collected in US dollars

# Company re-affirms its first production rate target of 3,600 ounces of gold per quarter by Fiscal Q1 2009/2010

NEW DAWN PRODUCTION EXPECTATIONS GOING FORWARD

Targets:

· Turk Mine is expected to achieve its first annual production target of 14,000 ounces of gold in October 2009.

· The next annual production target of 22,000 to 23,000 ounces of gold is expected to be reached by the end of the third quarter of calendar 2011.

· Management also intends to test a new lower energy fine grinding technology that, if successful, is expected to both improve recoveries and further lower cash costs to below $400 per ounce of gold produced.

Click here to view today’s press release in its entirety.

New Dawn Mining Corp. IR Hub
New Dawn Mining Corp. Profile
New Dawn Mining Corp. Discussion Forum

Congratulations to the entire New Dawn Mining Team on it’s continued progress.

Regards,

George

Posted in AGORACOM Clients (New), All Recent Posts | 2 Comments »

Benton Options Claims in Heart of Timmins Gold Camp

Posted by AGORACOM at 3:00 PM on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Benton Resources announced that the Company has entered into a letter of intent (LOI) with Deloro Mining and Smelting to a option 100% interest in two mining patents and one mining claim located 5 km southeast of the city if Timmins along the prolific Dome-Aunor-Delnite mine trend. The property is situated 900 meters west and on strike of the 930,000 ounce past producing Delnite mine and is host to at least three separate bands of quartz-ankerite veining hosted within a package of strong carbonate altered and sheared mafic volcanic rocks containing pyrite and trace chalcopyrite.

Company Highlights Include:

  • $15.2 Million in Cash
  • 34% ownership Coro Mining Corp (COP.TSX)
  • Ownership in Marathon PGM Corp (MAR.TSX)
  • Currently drilling second phase diamond drill program on the Copper Hill Block A Property

Benton Resources: Profile

Benton Resources: Hub

Benton Resources: Shareholder Forum

Posted in All Recent Posts | Comments Off on Benton Options Claims in Heart of Timmins Gold Camp

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