ctb, I’m sorry you consider me to be “pretty sour on the whole idea of AMEP as an investment vehicle” because you now are using that to dismiss me as an AMEP detractor even though I took pains to point out my attraction to this stock. I will agree that “skeptical” is a fair characterization, however. Despite what you say, the BDC structure typically is NOT quite common among start-up companies and it is particularly uncommon among O&G start-ups (please name any other O&G BDCs you know of in this market which is currently awash in O&G start-ups). I do prefer to know what I am getting in AMEP as I wish to own shares in E&Ps, not in the financial sector. Small-cap companies in general -- and start-ups of every kind in particular -- tend to be most successful when they concentrate on doing one thing, the thing that they know best. What does Bitters know best? Making a go of it in the public markets is difficult enough without complicating things further through a lack of focus or a muddled message. Perhaps that’s what AMEP is finding out.
So what does Bitters want for and from AMEP other than a steady $13,500/month income? Does he want to build an O&G company or does he want to run an oil sector venture fund? Is he an oilman or a banker? Maybe the BDC was just a means to allow O&G operations to continue in subsidiaries (effectively) without being exposed to the concurrent litigation involving the parent. Who knows? But if Bitters -- the sole employee and officer of AMEP -- intends to establish his start-up as both an O&G company and an investment vehicle then he is likely to fail future shareholders in the same way he has failed past and current shareholders.
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