Letter to Shareholders

Last week I wrote a letter to Indiore shareholders.

My main point in the letter was that First Samuel was giving us a $6 million loan to be repaid in three years time as approximately $9 million and it could either be repaid in cash or shares.  My concern was if the share price was depressed either deliberately or because of project problems then First Samuel would then own half the company and could do what they like.

Since the letter went out Ive spoken to First Samuel,  Fiori, the company secretary and also Aitken Murray Capital partners either by phone or email and I feel more comfortable than what I did before the letter went out.  I felt they were being pretty level with me and I hope that from here on in,  when decisions are made about recapitalisations and capital raisings, there will be more of an understanding about how the dilution affects shareholders.

I'm glad that First Samuel is investing in Indiore but I'm voting against the loan in its current form and I'm voting against the performance rights and options and placement capacity.

Ive mentioned to the above people that I rent and live modestly and when I do a job I don't ask for 'performance rights for doing that job and when Directors give them themselves more shares they are diluting our shares.  I'm very happy when they buy their shares on the market.

In regards to Cedric I have discussed him with people a lot in the last few days. A few people blame everything on him.  What I realised though is that people who are the closest to knowing what is actually going on have a great amount of respect for what he did.  Apparently the good relationship with the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh is because of him.  Apparently he always flew economy class and never spent company money on unnecessary things like restaurants etc.  Enough has been said about any mistakes he has made and any promises he made that couldn't be delivered on.

I lived in India for 8 months.  One time I needed to catch a bus to a remote town.  I went to a massive bus station and asked someone where the bus-stand to get to my town was.  He pointed me in some direction and I walked all the way over there.  When I got there I asked if I was in the right place and they said no and tried telling me in Hindi where to go and I went there instead.  I got there and they said no and to go somewhere else.  This continued like this for an hour until I got sent back to the original bus-stand exhausted on this extremely hot day.  I gave in and went home.  This is one incident of many in a country like India where doing simple tasks is difficult.  Thank goodness I didn't have to build an iron ore plant there. 

A lot has been achieved and anybody that doesn't think so can catch a flight to India and experience this wonderful (but difficult ) country and then they might think differently.  Sean and his wife are there living and it cant be easy for her.  It will be interesting hearing what is going on at the meeting this Tuesday.

Voting ends 10:30 Sunday if you are casting your proxies by email.