Brautigan & Tuck Holdings Resolution and Comments On Class Action Suit
Intlibber Brautigan and I had a chat yesterday, where he responded to the threat of a Class Action lawsuit. We had a long conversation, and much was said - in Second Life, much is always said - but the crux of it was that after discussions with his own legal counsel stated 'BNT is not threatened by this attempted action'. I will not write the details, but I will say that he gave some compelling arguments against the case and it seemed that he was well versed in the accusations.
The onus is really on the people proposing the lawsuit at this point. The last I heard of it was that they were up to about 3 million Linden dollars in damages.
At the end of that conversation, Intlibber pointed me at the Resolution of BNT Financial and Its Depositors. In looking over it, it does not seem too dissimilar to SLCapEx's SLWallet:
...we are left with no choice but to convert BNT Financial into a Real Estate Investment Trust which will IPO on the ACE exchange. There will be 6 million total shares, with 4.23+ million offered to the public at 1.00 per share. Funds raised will go to liquidate depositor claims. At the end of the IPO period, any unpurchased IPO shares will be distributed to the depositors for their self determination.
BNTF RE will be a FULLY collateralized entity. It is being assigned 10 BNT sims to be managed for its benefit. Revenues from sales of land will go to the stockholders as dividends and possibly stock buybacks, and tier profits will pay for operating expenses. Thus, the Net Asset Value, NAV, of BNTFRE will remain at its IPO price, and rise as the real estate market continues to pick up.
This will allow depositors in BNTF the opportunity to obtain as close to the value of their deposits as possible, and with some wise trading, even profit above that. The NAV ensures that the company is worth its price. However it is up to shareholders to value the company properly...
In this, SLCapEx does differ in theory. SLWallet is supposed to allow buyback at 1.03, which is still pending and seems to be doubted by at least a vocal few. The BNTF RE does not apparently offer a buyback price. The BNTF RE is using Second Life land as collateral; SLWallet is using a real life company's equity for buyback.
Neither has reached fruition for stockholders at this point. Time, as always, will tell.
Maybe SLCapEx will put Ancapex in their land description and really confuse new investors.
Technorati Tags: Business Metaverse Op/Ed SecondLife SL Capital Exchange Stock Exchange Intlibber Brautigan BNT Financial BNTF RE ANCAPEX
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Value of BNT
So does this mean that the assests of BnT will drop by 10 sims. Now BnT will never have to pay dividends, as there dividend policy is they will pay out dividends when BnT hits 100 sims. They are only at 40 sims and have been at 40 sims for a long time. Now with this new stock BnT will be at 30 sims and BNTF RE will have 10 sims. Will BnT ever get to 100 sims, will they ever even get half way there? Let me guess its a company that is growing. But now the growth has been stunted.
BNT is at 56 sims
As BNTFRE's main stockholder is BNT, and its management is BNT's management, the 10 sims of BNTFRE remain essentially "BNT sims". What BNTFRE does is provide a guaranteed revenue stream, varying based on turnover in the sims and excess tier profits, to pay dividends to BNTFRE shareholders.
BNT has also just opened its own grid server, Extropia Grid, with 16 sims on it. As this server fills out we will be adding more opensim sims to our independent grid. This puts us back on a growth path and investing in the new growth area in virtual worlds, with much higher profit margins, and independent of Linden Lab's economic bumbling.
Its not yet spring, who knows, we may yet reach 100 sims...
Wondering...
What the companies projections look like for a sustainable revenue stream, as you say. Some information that provides conservative projections (goals) for sim rentals would be reasonable, I think.
If its already out there, feel free to point it out. ;-)
Second Life Consultant
BNT, dividends and you
This is an interesting discussion about BNT. Check it out, hope this helps.
VSTEX Communication and Public Relations
http://www.vstex.net
100 Sims
Intlibber said " Projecting most conservatively based on past performance, this implies that we will reach 100 sims in 3-4 months (i.e. December), and 300 sims 3-4 months after that" This was his comment on August 22nd 2007.
Maybe he meant 100 bots generating traffic on his sims. I wonder if these bots get a pay check.
BnT Expenses
Payroll $3,995,484
Performance Bonuses $520,000
Wow payroll is $16,000 USD
Company Net Profits L$16,444
SL has no memory of History Sometimes
Business plans change. The thread VSTEX points to was written in August, before the Investor Allen/Sal Ackland fallout and before BNT resources were turned to the launch and maintain of Ancapex.
Yes, there is some short term dilution of BNT shares, but I bet you NAV is still above the current BNT share price. BNT is the largest holder of BNTRE and as I understand there is a buy back plan in place. Any dividend from BNTRE shares will hit the BNT bottom line. The shareholders do take a hit, however it provides the BNT Financial depositors with fully collaterized equity, which is the way it should be (in lieu of taking months to sell the sims off and pay the cash out).