Meridian Petroleum (MRP) - Heading for Break-Up?

I have been having a look at MRP - it's an intriguing stock which the City seems to have fallen out of love with. The Company has a market capitalisation of £6.8 million but is producing around £500k per month from one producing gas asset (Orion in Michigan). The valuation seems to take no account of its assets in Southern Australia or its other assets in the USA.  Its management team seems to lack the means of delivering any additional revenue as they have no upstream experience, including Stephen Gutteridge, Chairman, whose only previous experience is in gas storage.  The share price has drifted down from the high teens to a current share price of 7p since the previous CEO left (who was responsible for bringing online its only producing asset). The CEO's departure followed close on the heels of a disastrous 11p placing give-away with the bucket shops by Gutteridge, when the stock was trading at 17p. I understand a number of acquisition approaches have been made, including a very recent attempt to purchase its Australian licences at a very substantial premium (more soon on this).  All have been refused by Gutteridge. Management seem content to line their own pockets without the need for further production. I question whether this team is capable of realising further value for its shareholders. The only solution seems to be a forced break-up of the group which could presumably closely follow the board's refusal to cooperate with suitors. Should make for an interesting AGM, which will be held on Thursday 12th June 2008 at the offices of Grant Thornton, 30 Finsbury Square, London. I may attend and ask some pertinent (or impertinent questions). All in my opinion and no advice intended.

We Won Large!

The Conservatives secured a 7,860 majority - with a swing of 17.6 per cent from Labour, with 49% of the vote.

Boris Catapults Greens

Boris brought the house down during his first question time. He was asked by the Greens if he had considered their alternative plans for a new means of spanning the Thames. Crikey what's this? Boris beamed enthusiastically.  He then drew on his knowledge of the classics - Caesar propelling his troops across the Rubicon. "Do you envisage a kind of catapult?" he asked, to much merriment.

Brown Heads for Bunker as Air Raid Warnings Sound

Brown "had his own dog sent back to bite him" today during PMQs when he was asked by David Cameron, why he was not going to justify his record on the streets of Crewe. He answered he was relying on the custom that PMs do not do by-elections. Big Dave then quoted Tony Blair who previously said on his way to a by-election that he preferred to ignore this convention, when the result mattered, and lead from the front - unlike Gordon who would rather hunker down in his bunker. Definitely worth another look. Details.

Labour heading for Crushing Defeat in Crewe

An ICM poll for The Guardian this morning shows the lowest levels of support for Labour, since records began in 1984. The poll has the Conservatives on 41 (up two), Labour on 27 (down 7) and the Lib Dems on 22 (up 3). Brown is behind David Cameron on every aspect. Alarmingly for Labour, of the people who voted Labour in 2005, three quarters think Blair was a better Prime Minister than Brown. Details.

The Independent also has a new poll out this morning for the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, which has the Conservatives 13 points ahead of Labour, their largest showing to date. Labours’s surge tactics and negative campaigning has certainly paid off (for the Conservatives!). Details.

Breath of Fresh Air

Today, David Cameron spoke out about how people cannot take any more tax, and how desperate the country is for some relief from all this taxing and wasting we have become so used to under this government. In a speech in Birmingham, he called for the proportion of national income used for public spending to be cut "to create the space for cutting tax". See full details.

Electoral Bribe Backfires!

Ha Ha! The Supreme Leader’s £2.7bn unfunded electoral tax bribe has backfired spectacularly. The Conservative lead in Crewe & Nantwich has doubled, according to an ICM poll for the News of the World today. The poll places the Conservatives on 45% against Labour's 37%, suggesting a Conservative majority of about 1,000 - with a 12% swing. The under-35s have turned against Brown with venom, with 56% of them saying they will vote Conservative.  Some 24% say the tax bribe has made them more likely to vote against Labour and only a meagre 4% say they are more likely to vote Labour as a result. Oh dear! A new Yougov Poll in today’s Sunday Times puts the Conservatives on 45% some twenty points ahead of Labour! Details.

Seat of Government Moved to Crewe and Nantwich

In an act of pure desperation, Gordon Brown has ordered his entire Government to Crewe and Nantwich for last-minute campaigning to avoid a disastrous by-election defeat next week.  According to the Daily Telegraph about 80 ministers, whips and parliamentary aides have been told to visit the Cheshire seat, amid growing alarm that the Conservatives will overturn Labour's 7,000-vote majority there on Thursday.

Following this month’s calamitous local election results and general loss of control over events, both fiscal and political, Mr. Brown’s already fragile position could become untenable if this is followed by a disastrous by-election showing.

Bottom of the Class

Oh dear, now the government has donned its education dunce hat this morning in the guise of Kathleen Tattersall, the chairman of Ofqual (the examinations watchdog). She has said that parents had a simplistic expectation that the marking of GCSE and A-level papers should be accurate. (Why on earth not?).  We are told 22,000 of our little darlings successfully appealed their results last year (predominantly from the private sector). My son is currently sitting his GCSEs and I will be appealing his results as a matter of course with this “shower” at the helm (unless of course he gets 10 A* which will cost me a small fortune).

Medicine Man

Gordon Brown, like some demented medicine man whose snake oil has been found out to be a con, does the rounds this morning telling anyone that will listen that he is following his own fiscal rules. The sad reality is that this government has no more wriggle room. His unfunded give-away means he is now at his borrowing limit of 40% of GDP, having spent £1.2 trillion additionally in the last 10 years - instead of retiring debt to provide for any downturn. The Treasury is now looking into the abyss faced with the double whammy of rocketing inflation and declining growth, with no remaining fiscal discretion. Time to "sell in May and go away"!

Move Over, Darling

There's plenty of comment rattling around this morning on Darling's 10p tax compensation. The Guardian calls it "crude, simple and costly". The package works out at £360,000 for every voter in the Crewe by-election. Hmm. I wonder what the cost of a general election will be!

Election Bribery

Good post from Fraser Nelson on the Spectator blog. We are going to end up paying for this blatant electioneering:

"So, does this make Crewe the most expensive by-election in British history? It will cost £2.7 billion for Darling's move to try win back votes lost from his 10p tax debacle - but the money isn't there. So what does he do? Blithely slaps it on the national deficit.

Now and again, Labour bangs on about a "black hole" in Tory proposals of one or two billion. And yet they jack up the national debt in this way without so much as blinking. I suppose the more Brown thinks Labour will lose the next election, the more minded he will be to vandalise the public finances. This may be the start of a scorched-earth policy. We'll be watching."