Yesterdays news was to say, at the very least, unusual. When you stand back and take a look at it, it is very different from the NZZ news. The big difference is that ISM continues to have direct equity interest in NZZ and will profit from any gain that can be realized from Jasper. However, the Metal Mines news implies that ISM will only retain approximately 10% interest in Langmuir after they push the shares to the ISM shareholders. For a company that has no regular income stream this is very unusual. So, this is where I introduce the "Gloom", or "Great" scenario.
Gloom Scenario:
In the "gloom" scenario ISM managment believe that Langmuir will never yield significant return and have been unable to sell the property on the open market. Langmuir is proving to be the nemesis for ISM management and this move would create some "distance" between Langmuir and ISM managment. Since they have considerable reserves they have renewed opportunity to "unlock" (ISM words) the potential of their other holdings.
Great Scenario:
In the "great" scenario ISM management already have some inside knowledge as to the potential in the Langmuir and/or other holdings. ISM seems to always spins off opportunities to other players for a healthy return; or separate corporate entities, in an effort to protect ISM assets and limit ISM's liablity. In this scenario, with many more questions to be answered before shareholders vote on the deal, it would be an ovedue big win for ISM shareholders. What is amazing is that the day for determining who will receive Metal Mines shares will occur before the shareholders vote on the Metal Mines endeavour, locking the beneficiaries of those shares in place before ISM makes full disclosure on the whole situation.
There just is not enough information to qualify and quantify exactly what is going on. This is why I agree with Vanchester that there should be some latitude shown for objective opinion and reasonable speculation until ISM makes things more clear. This is inevitable as disclosure will have to be made prior to the "vote".
aatozz
P.S. I noticed a a block trade of approximately 43,500 shares went through at approximately 10:01am today so I think the NCIB is still alive.
