Nickel prospecting investor seeks diversification

Friday 24th September 2004

The ironic thing about investment company Widespread Portfolios is that its investment portfolio is not widespread.

The company's main investment is in Asian Mineral Resources, which, in turn, now has 90% of a nickel-mining prospect in Vietnam.

Director Chris Castle has signalled that it is time for diversification despite the potential of AMR's nickel prospecting.

He believes the 15% stake in the Canada-listed AMR could be worth $25-26 million, although a final decision on whether the Vietnam project goes ahead is still a year away.

Widespread was formed in 1989 to invest in "relatively high-risk, second-line stocks both locally and internationally."

Widespread's shares sold at 2.4c on Wednesday, after director Keith Hindle lifted his shareholding to 5.1 million shares.

Although not a huge deal, given the company's 296 million shares on issue, the sharemarket normally views a director buying stock as positive news.

The company reported a loss of $209,000 for the year to March 31, compared with an $818,000 loss last year.

It recently announced a one for 10 renounceable rights issue at 1.7c a share.

A tender process is expected during October with the closing date for tenders expected to be in mid-November.

WPL reinvests all dividend income and capital gains and has a no-debt policy. At the current share price the company has a market capitalisation of $7.4 million.

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