will the rain help my little cotton stocks, page-17

Hi Bert,

Unfortunately NAM have never been big on ann's or SH correspondence, which usually means a lot of guesswork needs to occur.

The thing that makes it so difficult for the co to make ann's on, is that even when there is an indication of what the crop is going to be like, it is still not cash until it is in the bale and sold. What I mean is that once the cotton has been picked, it goes to the ginnery and waits for processing. If the weather is kind during the ginning season (very little rains) then they potentially have a dream processing run and can make good money as overheads are kept at a reasonable level.

The only other unknown in this equation, which could cause higher costs, is if they have a lot of breakdowns during the season. This last scenario should be unlikely though as the NAM gins were usually very well maintained. So the real difficult one is the weather during the ginning season.

I am expecting (hoping) for the full year results which should be announced in the next few weeks, around the end of the month, which I also expect (read "HOPE") will come with a nice little divi of around 3-5c as they have not bought any more shares back this year. By this time they will have had about a months worth of ginning in the bag and should have a bit more confidence of how they are going to go, which with the dry weather so far in northern NSW should lead to a great start to the season.

My current sentiment is hold until the ann, then either buy or sell based on what is said in that.

Of course this is all only my thoughts (dreams;)))). Mop.