Your humble scribe read with interest this NR out of Gran Colombia Gold (GCM.to) yesterday which announced that our old pally pal pal, Serafino Iacono, had bought a whole boatload of shares in the beaten down gold junior at which our old pally pal pal is co-Chair. Here’s the main part of the NR pasted out for your continued delight and enjoyment:
TORONTO , April 10, 2012 /CNW/ – Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (TSX: GCM, GCM.WT, GCM.WT.A) announces that, since the blackout period ended on April 2, 2012 following the release of the Company‘s 2011 financial results, co-chairman, Serafino Iacono, has bought a total of 2,022,890 shares in the company at an average price of $0.367 per share.The purchases bring Iacono’s total holdings of common shares of Gran Colombia to 7,256,416 or 1.90 percent of the outstanding common shares of the Company. Continues here
Although 7 1/4m shares is a pretty meagre slice of the whole of the blown-out share structure at GCM.to, on the other hand it’s still un huevo de pelpas*. So being the nosey little git that he is, your humble scribe went to find out more about the breakdown of shares held by pally pal pal Serafino** and this chart helps things no end.
To explain a bit, our pally pal pal Serafino** holds his shares of GCM.to in three ways. Firstly, direct holdings under his own name. Then indirectly via a holding company called “Ice Rose Holdings Inc.”, finally in another indirect holding company named “Taribo Holdings”. And as you can see, pally pal pal Serafino** has been adding via all three avenues.
- At the end of 2010, he held a total of 2,518,041 shares of GCM.to. For the record, at that time GCM.to traded at $2.18 so his holding was worth $5,489,329. And thirty-eight cents.
- At the end of 2011, he’d added plenty to his pile and held a total of 5,019,526 shares of GCM.to. For the record, at that time GCM.to traded at $0.52 (oops!) so his holding was worth $2,610,153. And fifty-two cents. It’s worth noting however that 980,985 of those extra shares came from the mid-2011 merger that saw Medoro Resources move back into the Gran Colombia structure. Serafino** didn’t buy those shares, he simply saw his holding in Medoro become GCM shares.
- Now April 2012 (right up to date!) and he holds a total of 7,256,416 shares of GCM.to. As GCM.to current trades at 36c (more oops!) his holding is worth $2,612,309 at current market prices. Oh, and seventy-six cents.
And yes indeed! It’s good news all round! For one thing, his GCM.to position is now worth a full two thousand one hundred and fifty-six dollars more than it did at the end of 2011. You might think it a slight problem that in order to raise the value of his share position by $2,156 he’s had to spend $831,920 (and ninety two cents) but that’d just be picky and fussy on your part!
More good news is that pally pal pal Serafino** clearly intended yesterday’s NR as a signal to the market. After all, if he bothers to launch an NR about the shares he buys he wants everyone to know just how confident he is about the upside (though it is a little strange that he never published an NR from Pacific Rubiales (PRE.to) while he was selling ten of millions of dollars of shares, but it probably just slipped his mind at the time).
Of course, there are those among you that might criticize and point out that he also bought 2,501,485 shares in 2011 (if you included the Medoro shares, which were transferred while GCM.to traded at around $1) and paid $2,128,028 for them all, which means he paid an average of 85.07c per share in 2011. Those of you out there in IKNreaderland that might criticize and poke fun at Serafino** might even try to suggest that he added his 2.5m shares of GCM.to last year because he thought they’d go up, too. And you’d perchance dare to point out that Serafino’s** track record as a gold spec player hasn’t been that stellar so far and that, just maybe, he should have stuck to the oil & gas world. BUT ALL YOU GUYS WOULD JUST LOOK SILLY IF YOU EVEN SUGGESTED THAT, ACTUALLY. SO THERE, NEE NER NEE NER.
So hats off to Serafino** we say! After all, potential shareholders of GCM.to now know that if the stock sinks by another 50% or more by this time next year, at least there’ll be someone willing to take them off your hands. DYODD dude.
*As they say in Argentina…if you care enough it translates as “a lot of shares”
** Errr…you don’t mind if I call you Serafino do you, Serafino? After all it’s a nice name. What’s more, it’s so much nicer than the way I’d normally address you.