Olam: Non-executive and independent directors Robert Michael Tomlin and Michael Lim announced open mkt share purchases, each buying 200k shares at $1.55/sh and $1.545/sh respectively. Both directors had nil shares in Olam prior to this purchase. The insidersâ share purchases, coupled with Olamâs quick and firm rebuttal to short seller Muddy Watersâ negative report, may further bolster investor confidence in the company. The stock extends its recovery, adding 0.1% to $1.575.
Muddy Water fires another missile :::: Olam's response to our November 27th report is remarkable in that, despite being 45 pages long, it fastidiously avoids addressing the vast majority of our points. The response is essentially a waste of toner, as much of it consists of canned presentation slides and consultant drivel. Where Olam's response attempts to be substantive, it contains numerous instances of irrelevant information, factual inaccuracies, misleading statements, and mischaracterizations of our report. However, the response does demonstrate Olam's continuing deluded denial of its fiscal problems. It seems the Titanic is still heading full steam toward the iceberg.
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Muddy Waters :::: Shareholders might have reason to worry that senior management could be facing margin calls (that could cause it to liquidate Olam shares) because it possibly
pledged significant numbers of shares. Mr. Verghese refused to answer a
question about share pledges on a recent conference call, so managementâs
motivation for its fierce salvo against Muddy Waters is possibly not transparent.
On the other hand, Muddy Waters has always been transparent about our
economic incentives. We do, however, draw the line at being called âmanipulatorsâ and being accused of acting in concert with a group of hedge funds to drive down the price of Olamâs shares. Mr. Vergheseâs statements accusing us of this behavior are defamatory, and we demand a full retraction and apology. We reserve the right to pursue legal action against him and Olam for these baseless statements.
SINGAPORE--Olam International Ltd. (
O32.SG
) said Friday Chief Executive Sunny Verghese has bought one million shares in the Singapore-based commodities trader at 1.54 Singapore dollars ($1.26) apiece, amid an increasingly acrimonious dispute between the company and short seller Carson Block.
Mr. Verghese's move Friday to buy Olam shares on the open market raises his stake in the company to 4.67% from 4.63% previously, Olam said in a filing to the Singapore Exchange.
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