morley your opinion please, page-4

Yes, that is a valid point. I don't think I've particularly promoted ATP except in preference to APB. I also consider a pearl industry investment very speculative at present.

However, somewhere I read a comment from Jeremy Shepherd of Pearl Paradise near the beginning of this crisis which I took to indicate that major pearl retailers could probably survive a couple of years with very few purchases due to their existing inventory. So it is possible that retailers may have depleted their inventory by now and be back on the buy, hence the recent bounce in auction prices.

If this is the case, I think both ATP and APB probably have the ability to gradually sell down existing inventory to generate cash - however, as ATP has (in my view) used more realistic pricing in their valuation of inventory and biological assets, I think their potential may be greater. Obviously, it will be easier to comment once both have released accounts.