Summary: Will the last one out please turn off the lights?

NAV fell from 37p to 1p between 30 September 08 and 31 December 08.

The share price has been bouncing around a penny for the last few weeks, so the market saw this one coming.

A wonderfully euphemistic finish to the announcement:

While the discussions with the Company's lending bank continue the Directors
believe it is inappropriate to declare a dividend for the period.

LonZim (AIM: LZM), which was established for the purpose of making investments in Zimbabwe and the Beira corridor in Mozambique, announces that it has acquired 59,682,817 ordinary shares in Lonrho plc, the AIM traded conglomerate with a structured portfolio of African investments (“Lonrho”). The Lonrho shares were acquired over a period of approximately three months and include the acquisition of 55,000,000 ordinary shares in a private placement by Lonrho at a price of 5p per share announced on 11 November 2008.

Eh? Wasn’t LonZim meant to be LonRho’s vehicle for investing in Zimbabwe. What the hell is it doing buying shares in the parent?

The acquisition of Lonrho shares under the private placement arranged by Lonrho constituted a related party transaction within the meaning of the AIM Rules but disclosure was not made of this transaction in the necessary form at that time. Further, the Company did not consult with Collins Stewart Europe Limited (“Collins Stewart”), its nominated adviser, on such transaction and in the circumstances pertaining to it, Collins Stewart is not in a position to advise the Company that the terms of the transaction are fair and reasonable insofar as shareholders are concerned.

Whoops!

What a complete and utter shambles. LONR off 23% as I write.

So LONR sets up LZM, keeps a 25% stake and management fees. LONR then does a fund raising which is gets LZM to subscribe for, but doesn’t tell anyone. Since the fundraising was done at a discount, LZM can report an instant increase in NAV, which also helps LONR since it has a 25% stake in LZM — and round and round we go….

Until it all unravels…  now LONR is tumbling because LZM has been suspended, and LZM’s NAV is falling because of the fall in LONR… and so on and so forth. LOL LOL LOL.

5:46pm – The AIM Distribution Trust – Dividend Cancellation

The Board of The AIM Distribution Trust plc announces that, as a result of a reduction in its net asset value since declaring a dividend of 2p per share to be paid on 27 March 2009, the Board now believes that the Company can no longer pay this dividend without causing a technical contravention of Section 831 of the Companies Act 2006. Regrettably, the Board announces that this dividend is cancelled and will not now be paid.

Ouch!

5:44pm Max Petroleum - Changes of Terms of Existing Options and Issue of Additional Options

36 million options to acquire shares in the company repriced to 4.75p, and a further 1.5 million options issued to two directors. Original strike price of the options? Not disclosed in the announcement but the annual report shows a range of 35p to 185p per share.

I’m sure it’s of no consequence that all of the remuneration committee members who approved this change are also holders of the aforesaid options?

I note that The Viceroy Fund’s website has now disappeared off the face of the web and the domain registration has expired.

I don’t suppose we’ll ever find out now who was behind The Viceroy Fund, although I have my suspicions….

The SFO continues to investigate but I think the world is now more focused on the Madoff’s and the Stanford’s of the world rather than a minuscule $75m fraud!

Here are a couple of updates, for those who are still interested. Firstly, in late August, it was reported that the Serious Fraud Office was considering launching an investigation into the collapse of the airline. The SFO? I can’t really understand why the SFO would get involved for what seemed like a simple breach of contract. It would seem that stranger things were going on than that though.

The peculiar thing about the Viceroy Fund was that no-one seemed to have heard of it, no-one was aware of any investments it had made, no-one got a response from the Fund when emailing it, and its web site was less than helpful. Well, the one-page web site has now gone.

I have my own views about this, but I think I best keep them to myself for the moment.

That’s it – until the Icelandic government defaults as well

And the government is planning to repatriate pension fund assets invested abroad. Is it just me, or is that the most bizarre proposal? The currency is in freefall, the domestic economy is in freefall – I’d much rather have my pension assets invested outside of the country so that my purchasing power is not completely destroyed.

And note that Icesave is no longer processing withdrawals. Hope the UK banks are ready to make their contributions to the FSCS to pay for the failure of a foreign bank.

I wonder whether the guarantee will also cover foreign banks passported into the UK FSCS (such as Landsbanki’s Icesave) or foreign banks with UK banking subsidiaries (such as Kaupthing Edge). As a UK taxpayer, I would not be happy to guarantee the deposits of these banks, which are clearly in such a parlous state. Up to a certain limit, it makes sense, as each bank has to contribute to the compensation scheme. But in my opinion, if we have to go down the route of a blanket guarantee, it should only apply to British banks and building societies.

On a broader note, what on earth will this mean for any country within the Eurozone that CAN’T afford to guarantee its savers’ deposits? A flight of capital out of the country as savers move their deposits to Guaranteeland, a collapse of that country’s banking system, and the first (perhaps not the last) country to leave the Euro and return to the lira its former currency?