CGA Drops 11% On Profit Taking Closes @$2.75

CGA, B2Gold merger gets thumbs-up from Philippine gov't 2012-09-24 10:40 ET - News Release Also News Release (C-BTO) B2Gold Corp   Mr. Michael Carrick of CGA reports   B2GOLD & CGA PROPOSED MERGER: "IT'S A VOTE OF CONFIDENCE IN THE PHILIPPINES" - PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT   In an interview, the Philippine government's Director of Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Leo Jasareno, said of the proposed merger of CGA Mining Ltd. and B2Gold Corp., "It's a vote of confidence in the Philippines." Mr. Jasareno went on to also confirm the recent successful renewal of the mineral processing permit for a further five years (the maximum period allowed under the relevant legislation) at the Masbate gold project, a further confirmation of the support for the project from the Philippine government. The renewal was successfully approved by the Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources following the issuance of executive order 79, which details the mining policy of the administration of President Benigno S.C. Aquino III.   Mr. Aquino is scheduled to visit Australia next month to promote further investment in the Philippines mining sector. We seek Safe Harbor.

BTO Dropped as well:

Brokers Buy and Sells show Anonymous as dumping shares as fast as they can
And who is Anonymous? Well it sure isn't you and every other retail trader/investor.
This is a pure dump by insiders, and brokers who wish to hide the fact

that they are exiting the stock as fast as possible.
 

House Positions for C:CGA from 20120924 to 20120924

House	Bought	$Val	Ave	Sold	$Val	Ave	Net	$Net
9 BMO Nesbitt	795,401	2,298,472	2.89	187,126	537,425	2.872	608,275	-1,761,047
82 Stifel Nicholas	485,500	1,393,734	2.871	164,000	466,760	2.846	321,500	-926,974
2 RBC	608,350	1,773,537	2.915	386,601	1,107,098	2.864	221,749	-666,439
79 CIBC	1,848,841	5,247,607	2.838	1,638,917	4,671,605	2.85	209,924	-576,002
7 TD Sec	303,622	874,227	2.879	96,100	271,519	2.825	207,522	-602,708
80 National Bank	605,100	1,730,833	2.86	399,600	1,161,802	2.907	205,500	-569,031
19 Desjardins	431,799	1,237,731	2.866	228,175	648,953	2.844	203,624	-588,778
62 Haywood	190,000	535,700	2.819	61,792	182,092	2.947	128,208	-353,608
53 Morgan Stanley	121,400	345,694	2.848	50,400	142,826	2.834	71,000	-202,868
11 MacQuarie	153,000	438,752	2.868	100,000	290,000	2.90	53,000	-148,752
65 Goldman	48,000	141,621	2.95	600	1,794	2.99	47,400	-139,827
87 Beacon	100,000	298,000	2.98	59,400	170,099	2.864	40,600	-127,901
14 ITG	30,900	85,810	2.777	185	517	2.795	30,715	-85,293
81 HSBC	26,590	76,019	2.859	0			26,590	-76,019
124 Questrade	23,200	66,179	2.853	400	1,116	2.79	22,800	-65,063
85 Scotia	60,610	172,124	2.84	43,995	130,565	2.968	16,615	-41,559
59 PI	10,000	27,900	2.79	0			10,000	-27,900
123 Citigroup	8,718	25,650	2.942	0			8,718	-25,650
15 UBS	242,000	704,640	2.912	235,000	689,087	2.932	7,000	-15,553
102 Lakeshore	3,554	9,843	2.77	0			3,554	-9,843
46 Macquarie	2,000	5,860	2.93	0			2,000	-5,860
58 Qtrade	1,300	3,681	2.832	0			1,300	-3,681
13 Instinet	0			80	220	2.75	-80	220
57 Interactive	0			120	353	2.942	-120	353
101 Newedge	15,700	44,430	2.83	18,500	54,334	2.937	-2,800	9,904
36 Latimer	11,100	30,858	2.78	26,400	74,082	2.806	-15,300	43,224
39 Merrill Lynch	1,056,200	2,970,407	2.812	1,074,200	3,021,095	2.812	-18,000	50,688
72 Credit Suisse	86,900	241,475	2.779	114,900	340,176	2.961	-28,000	98,701
90 Barclays	0			44,700	127,847	2.86	-44,700	127,847
33 Canaccord	2,815,300	8,147,107	2.894	2,886,194	8,377,180	2.903	-70,894	230,073
89 Raymond James	304,100	880,067	2.894	406,400	1,174,317	2.89	-102,300	294,250
99 Jitney	764,600	2,213,567	2.895	1,392,700	4,014,333	2.882	-628,100	1,800,766
1 Anonymous	428,900	1,220,195	2.845	1,966,200	5,584,525	2.84	-1,537,300	4,364,330
TOTAL	11,582,685	33,241,720	2.87	11,582,685	33,241,720	2.87	0	0

What Business Is Wall Street In?...Or Bay Street?

Wall Street doesn't know what business it is in. Regulators don't know what the business of Wall Street is. Investor/shareholders don't know what business Wall Street is in.

The only people who know what business Wall Street is in are the high frequency and automated traders. They know what business Wall Street is in better than everyone else. To traders, whether day traders or high frequency or somewhere in between, Wall Street has nothing to do with creating capital for businesses, its original goal. Wall Street is a platform. It's a platform to be exploited by every technological and intellectual means possible.

The best analogy for traders? They are hackers. Just as hackers search for and exploit operating system and application shortcomings, high frequency traders do the same thing. A hacker wants to jump in front of your shopping cart and grab your credit card and then sell it. A high frequency trader wants to jump in front of your trade and then sell that stock to you. A hacker will tell you that they are serving a purpose by identifying the weak links in your system. A trader will tell you they deserve the pennies they are making on the trade or the rebate they are getting from the exchange because they provide liquidity to the market.

I recognize that one is illegal, the other is not. That isn't the important issue.

The important issue is recognizing that Wall Street is no longer serving the purpose that it was designed to. Wall Street was designed to be a market to which companies provide securities (stocks/bonds), from which they received capital that would help them start/grow/sell businesses. Investors made their money by recognizing value where others did not, or by simply committing to a company and growing with it as a shareholder, receiving dividends or appreciation in their holdings. What percentage of the market is driven by investors these days?

I started actively trading stocks in 1992. I traded a lot. Over the years I've written quite a bit about the market. I have always thought I had a good handle on the market. Until recently.

Over just the past five years, the market has changed. It is getting increasingly difficult to just invest in companies you believe in. Discussion in the market place is not about the performance of specific companies and their returns. Discussion is about macro issues that impact all stocks. And those macro issues impact automated trading decisions, which impact any and every stock that is part of any and every index or ETF. Combine that with the leverage of derivatives tracking companies, indexes and other packages or the leveraged ETFs, and individual stocks become pawns in a much bigger game that I feel increasingly less comfortable playing. It is a game fraught with ever increasing risk.

So back to the original question. What business is Wall Street in?

Its primary business is no longer creating capital for business. Creating capital for business has to be less than one percent of the volume on Wall Street in any given period. (I would be curious if anyone out there knows what percentage of transactions actually return money to a company for any reason). It wouldn't shock me that even in this environment that more money flows from companies to the market in the form of buybacks (which I think are always a mistake), than flows into companies in the form of equity.

My two cents is that it is important for this country to push Wall Street back to the business of creating capital for business. Whether it's through a use of taxes on trades (hit every trade on a stock held less than one hour with a 10 cent tax and all these problems go away), or changing the capital gains tax structure so that there is no capital gains tax on any shares of stock (private or public company) held for one year or more, and no tax on dividends paid to shareholders who have held stock in the company for more than five years. However we need to do it, we need to get the smart money on Wall Street back to thinking about ways to use their capital to help start and grow companies. That is what will create jobs. That is where we will find the next big thing that will accelerate the world economy. It won't come from traders trying to hack the financial system for a few pennies per trade.

And solutions won't come from bureaucrats trying to prevent the traders from hacking the system. The only certainty when bureaucrats step in is that the law of unintended consequences will smack us all in the head and the trader/hackers will find new ways to exploit the system that makes them big money and even more money for the big institutions that develop products for the other institutions that are desperate to play the game.

Regulators have got to start to recognize that traders are not investors and vice versa and treat them differently. Different regulations. Different tax structure. Different oversight. Individual investors and the funds that just invest in stocks and bonds are not going to crash the market. Big traders who are always leveraging up and maximizing the number of trades/hacks they make will always put the system at risk. We need to recognize that they do not serve much of a purpose other than to add substantial risk to the global economy. That their stated value add of liquidity does not compensate the U.S. and world economy nearly enough for the risk of collapse they introduce into the system.

Wall Street as a whole needs to be in the business of creating capital for companies and selling shares to investors who believe they are shareholders. The government needs to create simple and obvious incentives for this business and extract compensation from the traders/hackers for the systemic failure risk they introduce.

There will be another flash crash, and probably a crash far worse than the May 2010 flash crash simply because there are too many players looking for the trillion dollar score. They can't all win, yet how many do you think wouldn't risk everything, even what is not theirs, for that remote chance to score big? Put another way, there is zero moral hazard attached to any trade. So why wouldn't traders take the biggest risk possible?

There is value to trading automation. It is here to stay. There is absolutely NO VALUE to high frequency trading. None. We need to bring our markets back to their original goals of creating capital for business. It's impossible to guess how many small to medium size companies have been held back from growing and creating jobs and wealth because of lack of access to capital from the stock market. It's not impossible to know that our economy has suffered because Wall Street equity markets are no longer a source of equity for helping companies grow, it is not a platform for hackers and that needs to change. Quickly.

Cross-posted from Blog Maverick.

Mining deals drop as commodity prices fall

• BY:SARAH-JANE TASKER 
• From:The Australian 
• September 22, 2012 12:00AM

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MINING deals have been hit by the fall in commodity prices and negative market sentiment and the lower trend is tipped to continue for the remainder of the year.

In the first half of 2012, global merger and acquisition activity fell more than 30 per cent and, excluding the Glencore and Xstrata merger, the value of transactions dropped to $25 billion, one-third of the 2011 first half-year total, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Jock O'Callaghan, PwC's Australian energy, utilities and mining leader, said domestic activity mirrored the global themes, but it was likely to be felt more acutely here given the importance of the sector to the nation's economy.

"We are still an attractive destination for investment, but there are fewer enthusiastic and well equipped buyers," he said.

"When you add in all the other factors, deals are getting harder to do and we don't think there is much on the horizon that is going to shift that sentiment to make deals easier to do."

He said while there were a lot of "bargain hunters" in the market looking for a cheap deal, he did not think there were a lot of keen sellers locally.

"The short-term outlook will have a big impact on sentiment and equity values, but that doesn't equate to long-term views on value," he said.

"The bargain hunters can often be disappointed."

Mr O'Callaghan said that two to five years ago, companies were focused on getting bigger and better, but now they were "battening down the hatches". The focus was on operating expenditure and productivity.

"It would take a lot of courage for buyers to go out with a company-defining transaction given the uncertain sentiment around prices and costs," he said.

"No matter how compelling strategically a transaction may be, it is very hard to convince the board and the market the merits of doing a deal right now."

The report found there were 940 transactions recorded in the first half of 2012, compared to 1371 for the same period in 2011, which was the busiest half year for deals in the mining sector's history.

"Volatile capital markets and global economic uncertainty are to blame for this significant drop in activity," the report concluded.

Mr O'Callaghan said that, from a buyer's perspective, there were very few companies who were well equipped with the financial horsepower to do deals quickly.

"As we have seen, when deals are done with a long gestation period many things can shift dramatically and the value equation can shift," he said.

"Very few can go out and cut a cheque and make a deal happen."

The report found that all signs point to a slow second half of 2012 for M&A in the global mining sector and another mega deal is unlikely given market fears.

Mr O'Callaghan said the most important indicator of transaction sentiment was the middle-sized deals. The mid-sized deals were a sign of a very confident market.

He said the market was void of such deals and that, while there were likely to be some potential sellers under pressure to perform, it would not drive deal activity in the second half of this year.

"If you are sitting as a seller under some pressure, you'd rather try and ride out this part of the cycle than give away the crown jewels," he said. "Those that are under some pressure to do something in Australia are a small number and that adds to our feeling that there is not going to be any deals of any real magnitude done."

B2Gold, CGA Mining sign merger agreement 3.18/share

 

House Positions for C:CGA from 20120921 to 20120921

House	Bought	$Val	Ave	Sold	$Val	Ave	Net	$Net
2 RBC	4,397,250	13,071,752	2.973	1,171,400	3,457,663	2.952	3,225,850	-9,614,089
91 Jones	1,036,900	3,094,203	2.984	0			1,036,900	-3,094,203
99 Jitney	1,979,100	5,891,500	2.977	1,322,800	3,944,754	2.982	656,300	-1,946,746
80 National Bank	597,800	1,773,411	2.967	331,200	983,555	2.97	266,600	-789,856
123 Citigroup	23,800	70,097	2.945	0			23,800	-70,097
33 Canaccord	500	1,475	2.95	0			500	-1,475
102 Lakeshore	0			241	713	2.959	-241	713
58 Qtrade	0			1,000	2,940	2.94	-1,000	2,940
14 ITG	0			1,420	4,182	2.945	-1,420	4,182
101 Newedge	22,200	66,163	2.98	24,400	71,844	2.944	-2,200	5,681
36 Latimer	11,610	34,097	2.937	14,600	43,508	2.98	-2,990	9,411
22 Fidelity	0			3,000	9,060	3.02	-3,000	9,060
19 Desjardins	55,546	160,908	2.897	60,083	176,177	2.932	-4,537	15,269
65 Goldman	9,400	27,518	2.927	19,200	56,218	2.928	-9,800	28,700
90 Barclays	0			11,900	34,736	2.919	-11,900	34,736
124 Questrade	400	1,200	3.00	17,650	52,335	2.965	-17,250	51,135
86 Pictet	0			18,665	54,687	2.93	-18,665	54,687
72 Credit Suisse	0			18,900	56,201	2.974	-18,900	56,201
9 BMO Nesbitt	118,500	347,360	2.931	140,810	414,728	2.945	-22,310	67,368
81 HSBC	2,000	5,720	2.86	25,200	74,228	2.946	-23,200	68,508
85 Scotia	4,220	12,617	2.99	32,305	96,289	2.981	-28,085	83,672
53 Morgan Stanley	84,908	251,362	2.96	119,900	351,042	2.928	-34,992	99,680
15 UBS	752,200	2,177,673	2.895	824,700	2,396,005	2.905	-72,500	218,332
7 TD Sec	271,895	810,332	2.98	366,880	1,091,662	2.976	-94,985	281,330
82 Stifel Nicholas	18,200	53,402	2.934	210,000	627,103	2.986	-191,800	573,701
27 Dundee	0			223,200	657,544	2.946	-223,200	657,544
79 CIBC	1,182,200	3,522,036	2.979	1,442,425	4,303,528	2.984	-260,225	781,492
39 Merrill Lynch	1,755,700	5,270,317	3.002	2,376,500	7,132,080	3.001	-620,800	1,861,763
1 Anonymous	399,300	1,174,249	2.941	1,757,700	5,220,548	2.97	-1,358,400	4,046,299
62 Haywood	773,900	2,286,305	2.954	2,961,450	8,790,367	2.968	-2,187,550	6,504,062
TOTAL	13,497,529	40,103,697	2.971	13,497,529	40,103,697	2.971	0	0

House Positions for C:CGA from 20120921 to 20120921

2012-09-19 07:32 ET - News Release

See News Release (C-BTO) B2Gold Corp

Mr. Clive Johnson of B2Gold reports

B2GOLD CORP. AND CGA MINING LIMITED SIGN MERGER IMPLEMENTATION AGREEMENT FOR BUSINESS COMBINATION

B2Gold Corp. and CGA Mining Ltd. have entered into a definitive merger implementation agreement to combine the two companies at the agreed exchange ratio of 0.74 B2Gold common share for each CGA share held, which represents a purchase price of approximately $3.18 per CGA share and a premium of 22 per cent using the 20-day volume-weighted average share price of each respective company, and a 26-per-cent premium over the CGA closing share price on Sept. 17, 2012, based on the closing price for the B2Gold shares as of such date. The transaction is valued at approximately $1.1-billion.

The merger will be implemented by way of a scheme of arrangement under the Australian Corporations Act 2001. Upon completion of the scheme, existing B2Gold shareholders and CGA shareholders will own approximately 62 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively, of the issued common shares of the combined company.

The combination of B2Gold and CGA will result in a merged entity operating the Masbate gold mine in the Philippines, in addition to B2Gold's existing Limon and La Libertad gold mines in Nicaragua. The Masbate gold mine will produce in the order of 200,000 ounces of gold over the 12-month period ending June 30, 2013. B2Gold is well positioned to operate and progress further development at Masbate given its strong financing capacity and a management team with significant exploration, mine development and operating experience. Further, the combined company will possess a strong growth profile through its Otjikoto project in Namibia and its Gramalote joint venture (51 per cent AngloGold Ashanti/49 per cent B2Gold) project in Colombia. In addition, B2Gold has a highly regarded and experienced exploration team that sees significant exploration potential at Masbate.

"We believe CGA and its flagship Masbate mine offers B2Gold shareholders immediate leverage to a significantly larger combined production profile. With this transaction, B2Gold has taken a major step towards cementing itself as a leading gold sector consolidator, providing for geographic and operational diversity while contributing significant cash and future cash flow towards B2Gold's exciting development projects. We have great respect for what CGA has built and look forward to working with this exceptional team," said Clive Johnson, president and chief executive officer of B2Gold.

"With this transaction, CGA shareholders will have the opportunity to incorporate with a management team who have a demonstrated track record of success and value creation. B2Gold has a remarkable development profile ahead, and Masbate will play a key role in bringing those projects to fruition. We are pleased to be a part of B2Gold's platform of growth, discovery and superior performance," commented Michael Carrick, president and chief executive officer of CGA.

Posttransaction highlights of B2Gold:

• Rapidly expanding production profile: Total production of approximately 350,000 ounces of gold in 2012 from three operating mines, with projected growth to over 700,000 ounces of gold production by 2016 from five operating mines (based on current assumptions);

• Significant reserve and resource base: Proven and probable reserves of 3.9 million ounces, measured and indicated resources of 9.2 million ounces (inclusive of reserves), and inferred resources of 4.0 million ounces;

• Aggressive exploration agenda: Significant exploration programs at existing mines and development assets, as well as at highly prospective earlier-stage projects in Nicaragua and Uruguay;

• Geographic diversification: Production and development assets spanning three continents and located in high-growth emerging economies, serving to mitigate collective operational and geopolitical risk;

strong financial position: Cash and cash equivalent assets of approximately $190-million which, in addition to continued strong cash flow from operations and good access to capital, will allow B2Gold substantial flexibility for future development activities;
Experienced management team: Proven combined management and technical personnel with extensive exploration, mine development, operating and financial expertise;
Enhanced capital markets profile: Anticipated levels of trading liquidity and research analyst coverage commensurate with combined market capitalization of approximately $2.9-billion.



Recommendation from board of directors

The board of directors of CGA unanimously recommends that CGA shareholders vote in favour of the proposed scheme, in the absence of a superior proposal for CGA and subject to an independent expert opining that the scheme is in the best interests of CGA shareholders. On the same basis, each director of CGA intends to vote all CGA shares over which they control in favour of the scheme and any other scheme-related matters at a meeting of CGA shareholders to be convened later this year.