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They only succeed if shareholders let them. These are scare tactics and they are laughing at those dumb enough to fall for their ploy and drive down the PPS.
Happy holidays to you as well.
Folks, a couple of things. First, please take this report from Chris Jensen with a grain of salt. He has a history of doing stories in an extremely biased manner against Laidlaw and spins the news in that manner.
Second, this opinion from the Consumer Advocate is not from the PUC staff and has nothing to do with the PUC staff so any suggestion that this person is a member of the PUC staff is incorrect. Expert testimony has been provided by Dr. Shapiro in favor of the PPA. I suggest you read it.
The single biggest issue driving the Berlin project is the significant number of jobs it will create in the North Country and the positive economic impact it will have on that region. Those jobs and that economic boost are badly needed.
I believe all will be well. The dissemination of this news here is just another attempt by small-minded people to hurt this company.
If you look through my prior posts I believe I have addressed this question previously. Have a good night everyone.
You are correct that our goal is to deploy capital in areas that will accelerate revenues and allow for less dependence on third party financing, but the rest of you post is just incorrect. We have working capital and we have the means to make other acquisitions and expect to do so very shortly. Enough said.
I don't know where you get your info, but you are totally wrong.
You are absolutely incorrect to suggest that the new projects we are developing are somehow dependent on anything related to Berlin.
There's no big mystery about our capital structure. It is exactly as listed on our web site. We have no debt currently and no "toxic" convertibles of any kind. The preferred shares are simply a means by which we maintain voting control of the company since we issued quite a few shares historically for financing purposes. The preferred shares are convertible to common but that is not their purpose. The preferred shares are there for voting control and this is not an uncommon way of dealing with this. I personally also own a substantial number of common shares and all members of management are shareholders or hold options so our interests are totally aligned with our shareholders. We all benefit if the stock goes up. I hope this has helped address your question. For more info you are going to have to wait for our registration statement since I don't think this is the appropriate place to disseminate such info. Bottom line if you are concerned about additional shares flooding into the marketplace that is not going to happen here. Hopefully shareholders have taken note that we have not issued any new shares in quite a long time (other than when I exercised some options) and don't have any plans to do so. Have a good holiday.
Mike
I agree. Going forward LLEG will be the 100% equity holder of all projects currently under development or targeted as acquisitions unless we do a JV on a project with a strategic partner or sell some equity in the project for project financing purposes. This should make everything much clearer and less cumbersome moving forward.
We still have a substantial financial interest in that project. To the extent we are cashed out at project financial closing my goal is to buy an operating plant that will immediately add revenue to the company. Hopefully you should be able to read all the details when our registration statement is filed. We have targeted several new deals that have not been previously discussed, so there may be a few surprises coming down the road hopefully very soon. Have a great holiday.
Not only am I not worried, I don't think I've ever been as psyched about our prospects.
That is really nice of you to say. Thanks and thanks to all for your messages of encouragement. Happy holidays to all!
As I said earlier, I am extremely pleased with the recent progress of the company. Unfortunately, the nature of our business does not allow us to explain when acquisitions/deals are 90% done and sometimes things need to be held close to the vest. Of course, the flip side of that is when they are done such a positive unforseen event may have a very positive impact on our share price. I can tell you that I am very, very optimistic about our near-term prospects.
Best,
Mike
We have absolutely no knowledge of this whatsoever. We don't pay people to promote our stock.
I've received a lot of emails from people asking me for details of transactions we have in the works. I've been very busy and have not had an opportunity to reply to many so I'm sorry about that, but suffice to say that I've never felt as excited about our prospects as I do now. You are going to have to wait a little longer for the details, but I think it will be worth the wait.
Best,
Mike
There are thousands of pages of documents that have been filed with the state of New Hampshire that are publicly available. I note that the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee unanimously determined that we had the technical, managerial and financial capability to build and operate a 70 MW biomass plant. Probably not too many pink sheet companies that have had state regulatory bodies verify their capabilities and business model. I was in the room when that was stated, so I assume it appears in the transcript somewhere and will certainly be in the written decision which should be available any day now. In the near future, you will be able to read the annual report that we file with the SEC. That is the highest level of transparency a company can achieve. That's all for me folks. Thanks as always to our many loyal and supportive shareholders.
Sorry, but that's just not correct.
I received an email from another shareholder concerning your allegations in this post. I can tell you without a doubt that your suggestion that Charlie is selling is completely wrong. Charlie didn't even receive any shares for serving on the board. He genuinely wanted to do it because he really believes in our company and what we can achieve in biomass energy and the positive impact our company can have on the people of New Hampshire.
I met Charlie years ago when he was in Congress and before he had anything to do with our company. He was extremely excited about the prospects for biomass in New Hampshire and very proud of his nephew Steve Walker's company New England Wood Pellet, where he serves on the board. Charlie is a good guy. He walks the talk. The people of NH would be well served to have him back in Congress.
I have said repeatedly and I will say it again. Everything we do is for the benefit of the shareholders of LLEG. I am the largest shareholder of LLEG, so my interests are aligned with the shareholders of the company. The suggestion that we might personally enrich ourselves at the expense of our shareholders is insulting and patently false. The management agreement I signed as CEO of Laidlaw Berlin pays me zero in compensation. We(LLEG) make money if the project is successful. If it doesn't, we don't and I think we have been pretty successful thus far.
I have no idea why my last post was deleted, but that just serves to reinforce that there are plenty of better things to do than spend time on Ihub. I just left the office 30 minutes ago and we are plenty busy so back to work...
Ah, but I have aces full so they are going broke...
Folks -- There are issues of confidentiality at play here which is why you haven't heard from me. All will be explained in the near future. Obviously we believe this is a good thing for LLEG.
MBB
Folks, I have received a lot of emails and calls from people about the share price. I just want to reassure everyone that we have not issued any new shares. In terms of our business I believe things are going very well and we continue to make good progress. Seems like some unnecessary panic selling going on.
One thing I do want to say about timelines. When we say, e.g., we anticipate doing [x] in 120 days, that is our good faith estimate at the time we made that statement. We are not building widgets. The transactions we undertake are complex and I have never been one to rush when it comes to doing deals, because I feel when you rush you make mistakes or leave money on the table. I do believe we are getting down to brass tacks on the Mass transactions. I also believe we will do those deals, so whether it is a week or a month it shouldn't matter if you are a long-term shareholder.
For those shareholders that weren't around for when we closed our last big acquisition in December 2008, we had the exact same scenario. The naysayers came out of the woodwork and questioned the deal from start to finish, but nonetheless we closed on the aquisition. Those who have been shareholders long enough know that when I say the deal will get done there is probably a 99% chance it will get done.
We will endeavor to build more time into our estimates in the future, but some factors that influence the time frame are simply our of our control. The bottom line is that we feel highly confident these deals will be consummated and we will be adding new projects to our portfolio.
Lastly, please don't ask me questions pertaining to material non-public events. We will make announcements to all shareholders when appropriate. We simply can't answer questions like that for individual shareholders.
Thanks,
Mike
Illinois
I just discussed the two Mass Projects in Wednesday's Shareholder Update.
Matt --
I don't intend to make comments regarding our Berlin project while we have a permit application pending before the state of NH. I will say that I believe your question is answered in our application. Our objective is to start construction prior to the end of 2010.
We do intend to take control of an operating power house in connection with one of our Mass projects pending conversion to biomass. Our intent it to first lease it and then purchase it once we have all permits to operate as a biomass plant.
My goal is to increase transarency to the shareholders this year. I have no specific target in mind.
Regards,
Mike
Based on my inquiries, the current selling is coming from retail investors, so that sort of confirms the "scared money" theory. From what I can discern, doesn't look like it would take a lot to reverse the trend, i.e., only 450,000 shares for sale at 21. Just my opinion.
I might add, and this is just my opinion, but from what I can discern, not a lot of shares are being sold. The market should be able to absorb a couple of million shares a day. The problem occurs I believe when you get a domino effect of sellers exiting the stock because they believe that "dilution is bad" and then you add to that all the naysayers who come out of the woodwork and scare others into selling. I suppose some might say this is a good thing if they buy the shares that are being sold in a panic at a bargain price...
Anyway, I hope this has helped address some concerns and shed some light on the situation. Enough message board posts. Back to work.
Mike
Fair question. We have done 4 small capital raises over the last few months. I am sure the people who call the TA every day noted the OS increases. Anyway, with three of those transactions I noticed no selling whatsoever and I believe that those investors either continue to hold or to the extent they sold any shares did so in a way that did not impact the market price based on my observation. In the 4th situation, which was approx 30 million shares, I think we are seeing selling pressure from those shares. This is a lesson learned and we would be very cautious about doing business with that firm again based on this experience. I don't like to see the stock price decline any more than you do. The good news is it is not a lot of shares. I have spoken to this investor and asked him to back off, but ultimately that is not within my control.
Thanks very much for your investment and kind words and for all the other messages of support from the other investors on this board!
First of all, thanks for your investment and support of the company. I read your other post where you stated you had purchased 50 million shares this month. I appreciate the confidence you have placed in us.
I have received a number of comments from people asking why I have posted here or on Twitter or have a blog. The goal is really to increase transparency and communication to help investors have more confidence in the company and be able to make informed decisions.
I think you make a good point about an update on the Mass projects, so I will post an update on my blog. I intend to also cover a few other topics as well.
Mike
Well, if we issue shares after the news we get criticized for that too, so it seems we can't win here. The timing of the transaction is more of a function of our capital needs, so we can't always sit around and hope to pick the top of the market.
Messages like this don't serve any purpose other than to panic weak hands into selling.
We issued a small number of shares last week. I doubt those shares have anything to do with any price decline b/c they were restricted, so under Rule 144 the buyer has to hold them at least 6 months.
When we issue shares it is for a good reason. We needed some capital for new project development. Our deal with Homeland is just starting to bear fruit, so since we anticipate receiving capital from them going forward for development expenses and working capital, I expect we will be able to hold off on any further issuances for a while. We basically needed to bridge the gap between when we made that deal and when the funds started flowing and I think we have accomplished that.
I'll try to communicate a bit more in the future on this issue, so shareholders will have an understanding as to the purpose and necessity if we need to issue addditional shares to raise capital.
Mike
Thanks for the kind words. Happy holidays to you too.
That's a fair question. There is a coprporate flow chart included with the application that explains the relationship between the applicant, LLEG, JV, etc. I also explain this in my testimony. I suggest you read this as soon as it's available online for a complete explanation.
We hand delivered the application to the state yesterday afternoon. My understanding is that the electronic copy will be up in a couple of days.
The simple answer to your question is that when we upload the release it asks us for the stock symbol and automatically links the release to it. If you pull up a quote on our stock anywhere you'll see the story. Mountains out of mole hills...
Really? What is the basis for that assumption? Plenty of business days left in December...
No, we have not issued any shares recently and the last shares we issued quite some time ago were restricted. The rules have changed for Rule 504 offerings making it very difficult to issue any shares that are "free trading"...at least that is what our legal counsel has told us. I can't speak for what other companies may do and their compliance (or lack thereof) with state and Federal securities regs.
Folks, we have a winner.
Apparently you didn't read it very well...
Not any material delay in my view. Simply a time and attention matter. I intend to try like hell to ink at least one by the end of the year if we can't manage both.
Ok, that's it for me. Back to work.
Regards,
Mike
You guys read too much into everything. I certainly did not intend to imply that.
Frankly, we have been so busy finalizing the application and working on other contracts for Berlin and Mass projects, that this has been on the back burner. More content is coming to the JV website, but we haven't even started on the Laidlaw Energy web site. This is sort of what I was trying to say the other day. It's not that we weren't sincere when we said we were going to build a new web site, it's just that we have prioritize things we work on in order of importance.
Same goes for the Mass transactions. I mentioned previously that we hope to close those deals by the end of the year and we have documents in hand and we are working on in furtherance of that goal, but if I have to put those docs aside to focus on something of greater importance for Berlin e.g.,the PPA, then I am going to do that and it may mean we close those deals in Jan. Guys who are focusing on our company on a day-to-day basis see this as a major transgression, while we see it in the grand scheme of things as nothing because we are focusing on the long game and assess progress with a different set of benchmarks.
I don't intend to make it a habit to post here, but I thought this was an appropriate opportunity to use your question to clarify things a bit.
Happy holidays to all!
Mike