Comments on: Guest Post: Aspen Exploration Corporation (OTC:ASPN)

By: Aspen Exploration Corporation (OTC:ASPN) « Greenbackd

Aspen Exploration Corporation (OTC:ASPN) « Greenbackd — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:23:30 +0000

[...] Corporation (OTC:ASPN) to the Greenbackd Portfolio for the reasons identified by MCN1 in his September 3 guest post. ASPN closed yesterday at $0.985, giving it a market capitalization of just $7.2M. We [...]

By: bellamyj

bellamyj — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:40:52 +0000

Aspen recently filed a proxy for their annual meeting, which includes a proposal on liquidation. It’s not binding though, it just gives the board the option to liquidate. The CEO (and 20% owner) is opposed to it, while the other board members are undecided and aren’t providing a recommendation either for or against.

They still plan to distribute the proceeds of the sale to Venoco. Like PREfontaine said, that should be between $.90 and $1.00 per share, paid in December.

However, based on the proxy I wouldn’t expect a full liquidation any time soon. The way I read it, they included this proposal to appease a large shareholder, but none of the board members actually want to go through with a liquidation. That’s just me reading between the lines though, so take it for what it’s worth (very little).

The meeting is on Nov 20th. I wonder if it’s too late for shareholders to nominate directors or conduct a proxy fight…

By: PREfontaine

PREfontaine — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:43:31 +0000

Thanks for the write-up. I think it’s a homerun below $.90/share. So far, they’re only seriously considering a distribution of the proceeds of the California asset sale, which will be around $.90/share after making some conservative cash burn assumptions. I’d like to get more clarity from management on their intentions concerning the rest of the business now that its trading above $1.

Looks like there is a pretty strong seller(s) out there right now. Bid is weak and appears to be one retail buyer looking to get it in at any cost. Maybe (s)he knows something that I don’t…

By: Best Investment articles | Old School Value

Best Investment articles | Old School Value — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:52:34 +0000

[...] Aspen Exploration Corporation (OTC:ASPN) [...]

By: MCN1

MCN1 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:45:51 +0000

Thanks everyone for the comments, I thought I would address a few of the items brought up:

Cash Balance – unfortunately yahoo finance numbers don’t present the post-sale balance sheet of the company. You’ll have to dig into the SEC filing to get that.

Liquidation Costs – I think its an interesting point to bring up, though given the company has already liquidated its core assets I think any future liquidation costs will be minimal. And as tedk81 pointed out, in my analysis I margined cash at 95% which should capture any unforseen costs.

Thanks everyone.

By: tedk81

tedk81 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:18:04 +0000

Liqy,

He cut over $1M from the current assets to arrive at his estimate, in a small company with 2 employees and all the big assets already sold, how much more do you expect liquidation costs to be?

I’m not expecting a huge cash burn either given the state of the company.

By: liqylike

liqylike — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:34:04 +0000

Careful, there is no real mention of liquidation costs in this analysis.

When you start out with only 12 million in cash, liquidation costs can destroy a relatively large % of your value.

I think this was interesting when the stock dipped, those buying above a dollar are taking a very real risk.

By: tedk81

tedk81 — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:39:31 +0000

it’s not reflected in the yahoo numbers, check their 8-K from 7/2. this company isn’t burning cash anymore, they have 2 full-time employees, one of which has a health problem… good post.

i’m glad i was up at 4 am today, saw this post, took a couple hours to research it and made the first trade of the day on it. 9000 shares at .975, so far so good. put a bid in to buy 3k more at .95 that sat there for an hour, but it’s just so thin no one sold at market and then it ran off.

this stock is so thinly traded, i’m pretty sure this post moved the market. biggest volume day on this thing since late june.

By: wes

wes — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:18:16 +0000

interesting stuff. looks like the market got whiff of this posting today!

By: jonas

jonas — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:39:30 +0000

just reread the post. i think probably the 7.6 m in cash from the venoco deal probably not reflected in the yahoo numbers yet it seems.