Odyssey Marine Exploration: Digging for Gold - And Finding It

Our family used to vacation at a beach house on Topsail Island, North Carolina. Edward Teach, aka Edward Drummond, aka Blackbeard, was rumored to frequent the area (he lived in Bath, N.C), and the Wiki entry speaks to the history of its name:

Topsail Island is supposedly derived from its nefarious history. According to popular belief, pirates once hid in the channel between the island and the mainland waiting for passing ships. The topsail was supposedly the only part of the pirate ship that could be seen by the passing 'victim' until it gave chase. There is a legend that Blackbeard hid his treasure on Topsail Island and it is still being searched for today.

Visions of searching for hidden treasure and pieces of eight filled our vacations there. I spent many a day combing the beach for signs of doubloons, but the closest I came was finding loads of sharks teeth - and I can remember filling up entire mason jars full of them (not so comforting when you're swimming).

While dreams of becoming a treasure hunter have faded over the years (insert 'astronaut', 'NFL quarterback', etc.), I remember reading an article a few years back in some magazine regarding "dream jobs". One such job was treasure hunter, and the profile was Mel Fisher. Mel Fisher passed away in 1998, but was the architect of the largest treasure find ever - the Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank in a hurricane off the Florida Keys in 1622. Fisher found it in 1985, and retrieved a reported $400M in coins and other booty. Still have the treasure hunting itch? The operation is still ongoing, and you can download their diver application here. Some more background here:

Bounty of the Deep
The Billion Dollar Boat
and a book on the search, "Fatal Treasure"
and a DVD on the search, "Treasure! The Search for the Atocha"

What does any of this have to do with investing? Explorers from Odyssey Marine Exploration (OMR) announced Friday that they have found what could be the richest shipwreck treasure in history - 17 tons of colonial era silver and gold coins worth an estimated $500M. Article here. This news has catapulted the stock from its closing price Thursday of $4.60 to $8.32, for a 80%+ return.

Interestingly enough, a number of hedge funds own the stock, including DE Shaw, Fortress, Goldman Sachs, and the apt named Galleon.

OMR 1-yr chart

Comments

[Frank Li]

Has anyone looked at valuation on this stock? Full disclosure: I'm long OMR.

[Ralph F]

This article contains almost no info about this stock, other than who owns it.

[Ralph F]

Any thoughts on this?

Spain may send navy to search U.S. treasure boats
www.reuters.com/articl...

[Long-ShortGuy]

News:
<blockquote>
July 17, 2007 09:38 AM
Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:OMEX) survey vessel, the Ocean Alert, was cleared for departure by the Spanish Guardia Civil on Saturday, July 14; however, because of a need to replace required paperwork that was removed from the ship’s bridge during the inspection and a holiday that found authorities unavailable to provide documentation required for departure, the ship has not yet departed. The ship had been detained in the Spanish port of Algeciras since Thursday, July 12, 2007, undergoing a thorough inspection by the Guardia Civil.

“We were confident that an inspection by the Guardia Civil would not reveal any evidence of alleged activities in the area as we have always acted legally and have consistently communicated our movements in the area to the Guardia Civil and marine traffic authorities,” said Greg Stemm, Co-founder of Odyssey Marine Exploration. “We are pleased to have the ship released so we can put it back to work on other shipwreck projects.”...
</blockquote>

Source:
Odyssey Survey Vessel Completes Inspection and is Cleared to Depart Spanish Port (Press Release)