Here are my thoughts on this whole mess.
Charles Bitters may be a heck of an oil man (I have never met him, but I've talked with him twice, and seems to know the drill), be he's not proven he can run a publicly traded company.
If he thinks he wants to play with the big boys by either moving to the AMEX, or just flat out trying to attract big money, he's got to prove to the little folks that he deserves the chance.
As investors, we stepped up to the plate and wiped out his BDC for the better of the company, and for the better of us investors. Now he thinks he's going to chop our shares by a factor 25, but it'll be all OK because "theoretically the price should go up by a factor 25".
That's nice and all, Charles, but some of us have been to this rodeo before, and that's not how it works.
I fully realize that this proxy vote is a ways off, and a lot can happen before the vote is cast. However, at the moment this just seems like a slap in the face.
Additionally, I'm fundamentally opposed to selling shares to buy more production when oil and gas prices are this high. He's got existing production that generating revenue. He best be using that revenue and funneling it back into the company, rather than selling shares.
Chesapeake has the same bad habit. They come across a lease they want to purchase, but don't have the cash to do it so they offer up $500 million in shares. They pretty much do this every year like clockwork. All the while shareholders are asking about what they're doing with their cash flow.
Remember folks, there is a big difference between a good oil man and a good business man. Charlie may be a heck of an oil man, but he hasn't proven he's worth a damn as a business man.
AI
