The farm out deal amongst small cap oil and gas companies is far from over. With small cap AIM oil and gas investors in the likes of Bowleven and Xcite Energy waiting for their farm out news on Bonomo and Bentley, it appears that the big guys still have an appetite for an investment which can produce a very healthy return indeed for investors.

I came across an article in the FT called “Gold mining: Squandered opportunity” and the sentiment expressed in it reflects the over exuberance and waste which has been endemic in not only the gold industry but in many, many commodity companies over the last few years. When prices were high, management took their eye off the ball on their cost base and went all guns blazing developing trophy assets in far flung, high risk areas around the world. The  [read more →]

On Wednesday, investors in FTSE main market listed Dialight (DIA) got another shock with a pretty dismal trading update.

A report today that Statoil is considering a major acquisition seems to have rejuvenated a few names in the oil and gas sector. Tullow oil was up nearly 7% on reports it is looking at reducing its focus on Norway and potentially for the government looking to cut its stake from 67% to 51%.

Its amazing what a listing on Nasdaq can do for you if you a biotechnology/biophamecutical company right now. The appetite from U.S. investors for anything in the sector seems insatiable.

Moody’s has cut the average price of gold to $1,100/oz and for Silver $18/oz in 2014. They say the fundamentals seem unfavorable over the next couple of years.

An RNS on Tuesday caught my eye from a company that I first wrote about in early 2011 called Vialogy – up to recently an oil and gas seismic analysis specialist. It announced it was issuing 1.1 billion shares to raise £1.1 million in a placing

An interesting interview with emerging markets veteran, Mark Mobius, of Templeton Emerging Markets. He believes the fundamentals of emerging markets are strong despite the falls in 2013.

It’s that time of the year where I look at my pension holdings and decide where to place my bets. For the last couple of years the focus of my investments have been in global equity funds and they have done rather well. But with the big gains in 2013 (23%) , I moved everything into money market funds late in 2013, so missed out on the Santa Rally, though I avoided some of the emerging markets sell off.  [read more →]

The words too big to fail might have been coined during the various bail out’s of the 2008/2009 financial crisis, but little seems to have changed in the last 5 years. Data provider SNL Financial found that the five largest banks in the United States own 44% of the industry’s total assets.