lukematt

Book Review: 'An American Hedge Fund' by Timothy Sykes

Please allow me to inform you that Timothy Sykes is a hypocrite.

After I discovered severe corruption at Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, I wrote a fully documented message detailing the allegations, which I posted on Timothy Syke’s website.

In a very short time, my message was deleted. When I contacted Sykes, his excuses ran the gamut from “the file size was too large” to “the message doesn’t fit the theme of our website” to “you don’t write good enough”.

Timothy Sykes is not a prophet who exposes “manipulative forces at work in companies, the media, ANALysts, etc.” as he proclaims. Timothy Sykes is a liar who probably works *for* the manipulative forces as a facade of opposition.

Five Ways to Invest in the Czech Republic

When the Prague Stock Exchange started in the mid 1990s, shares in 1700+ companies could be traded. Almost all of these companies have since been delisted.

My wife and I have stock certificates from several Czech companies that we want to sell.

A buyer could regard these certificates as an equities investment. It is possible to perform “due diligence” at the following websites:

Obchodni rejstrik (portal.justice.cz/uvod...)
Obchodni rejstrik is maintained on the official server of the Czech Ministry of Justice.

Obchodni vestnik (ov.ihned.cz/)
Obchodni vestnik is maintained by the company ECONOMIA a.s. for the Czech Ministry of the Interior (i.e. the ministry that includes the Czech police).

IPoint (ipoint.financninoviny....)
IPoint is maintained by the Czech Capital Information Agency (Ceska kapitalova informacni agentura, a.s., CEKIA), a leading domestic provider of corporate databases and economic information.


A buyer could also regard these certificates as “collectibles”, especially given that most companies in the Czech Republic have very few outstanding shares.

If you would like to receive a detailed list of the stock certificates that we are selling, including name of company, identification number, number of certificates, and price per certificate, please contact us by email.


Jeffrey W. Bowyer (American)
[e-mail]

Ing. Pavla Bowyerova (Czech)
[e-mail]

Five Ways to Invest in the Czech Republic

I’m an American who has lived in the Czech Republic for the last 17+ years.

The biggest problem with this article is the inclusion of CZECH REPUBLIC RESOURCES [CZHC.PK] in the list of “ways to invest in the Czech Republic”. Quite frankly, I have serious doubts about the integrity of the person who wrote this article.

>
> In a comment to the article, GlobalTrekker wrote: “all of the Pink Sheet stocks are
> completely illiquid and, essentially, ‘uninvestible’.”
>

Hmmmm.

Komercni Banka

Actively traded on the Prague Stock Exchange
A very strong company
KMBNY.PK was last traded on July 15, 2008 (not too bad, I think)

Telefonica 02 Czech

Actively traded on the Prague Stock Exchange
A very strong company
TFATF.PK was last traded on August 15, 2008

Previously named “SPT Telecom” until it was bought out by the Spanish company “Telefonica”

Zentiva NV

Actively traded on the Prague Stock Exchange
A very strong company
ZTVAF.PK was last traded on August 8, 2006 (OK, not much market here)

Ceske Energeticke Zavody (the natives simply call it “CEZ”…sounds like “chez”)

Actively traded on the Prague Stock Exchange
A very strong company
CZAVF.PK was last traded on August 12, 2008


GlobalTrekker, if you are a day trader, then of course you don’t want to invest in these companies. However, if the share price is low and you are a real…sorry…long-term investor, you can’t find better stocks ***that are still listed on the Prague Stock Exchange*** than these four companies.

Spark Networks: No Love for LOV

For an article dated August 10, 2008, I'm very surprised that the author made no reference to Spark Networks' (symbol: LOV) recently released 2008 Q2 financial results. Although the thesis of his article would not have changed--No Love for LOV--he could have used more timely and diverse examples such as the following:

"Average paying subscribers in the second quarter of 2008 were 190,455, a 13% decrease compared to 219,196 for the second quarter of 2007."

Another problem with LOV--the company makes almost no effort to diversify its business model. With "dating" as its starting point, the company could branch off into so many different possibilities. For example, Spark Networks could acquire The Parent Company (symbol: KIDS), another Internet business. KIDS' current executives don't have a clue about the correct way to manage their company.

Three Key Chinese Financial Sector ADRs

Although I have followed E-House (symbol: EJ) for several months now, I still have not purchased shares because I have not received satisfactory answers to these questions:

1. During 2008 Q1, why did E-House take a $42.7 million RMB loan when the company is flush with cash? Even stranger [to me :-) ], why did E-House secure the loan with a $44.1 million USD deposit, which is now
listed on their balance sheets as "Restricted cash"?

2. On February 1, 2008, why did E-House sell 6 million more ADSs when the company was already (somewhat) flush with cash?

If you know the answers, please feel free to contact me by email.


Jeff Bowyer
[e-mail]