SHAC newsletter 41 - SHAC >> Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty

How Low can they go? HLS now
kicked off the Pink Sheets!
Well as far as trading exchanges go,
Huntingdon really have hit rock bottom.
After multiple demos in New York and
an email action action alert from the UK,
Huntingdon’s last remaining market maker
Vertical dropped out and with no market
maker HLS were bumped off the Pink
Sheets. So where have they gone? Well
before I answer that question, let me first
explain how the financial markets view the
Pink Sheets...Yes the same Pink Sheets
HLS have just been knocked off. The quotes
below are from a financial website called
www.pennymarkets.com:
“It’s a bit like having to move out of your
house in Beverly Hills to an industrial park
20 miles east of downtown L.A.,” said Marc
Beauchamp, the executive director of the
North American Securities Administrators
Association explaing what it’s like to go on
to the Pink Sheets.
.
“We are the tier of stuff that can’t, won’t, or
doesn’t want to be listed on the exchange
NYSE.”
So in market terms HLS have gone from the
industrial park in LA to a shack (pardon the
pun) by the road as they have moved on to
the Grey Markets. Now the Grey Markets
are not an exchange as such but more of
an auction, there is no website you can
check on called the Grey Markets or any
kind of organised structure. This leads to
unbelievable volatility with the share price
bouncing up and down. Huntingdon are so
desperate to keep their share price up that
they are forced into propping up the share
price themselves. Numerous examples have
been seen of this, for example yesterday
their share price was at $9.25 so along
comes someone and hikes it up to $11 (It
still finished the day on $9.25). So the next
time you are in Tesco’s and you bill comes
to £60 remember to say to the cashier: “I’m
not paying that but I’ll give you £80.”
The reason for this desperation is the need
to keep their share price inflated above $8
as this makes their market capitalisation
$100 million which is a stipulation for them
to be considered for the NYSE, which they
still hold a hope of getting on to hence the
advert to the right.
Recently HLS reported their first quarter figures
2006 which are compared like for like
to quarter one 2005. In Q1 2005 their sales
were $43, 294 million and in Q1 2006 they
were $42, 455 million. Profits also dropped
from like quarter to quarter from $2.5 million
to $470,000. Cass noted on the figures
that they were “disappointing in absolute
terms” and complained of “unusually high
cancellations.”
It is astonishing that with all the help that
Huntingdon have had from Tony Blair, Lord
Sainsbury and industry bodies that their
turnover has not trebled or quadrupled. But
it is only now that it has climbed above pre
1997 levels, after all the help they have had!
The upshot is that we have been having
fanatastic success against HLS on the
financial markets but we need to step it up
against HLS customers and push down
their orders.
HLS are more than ever considered a lame
duck by the financial lenders across the
world and an indication of this is seen in
Huntingdon’s recent $70 million refinancing.
The fact that Andrew Baker had to
personally guarantee $30 million of this is
very telling. Do you think Richard Branson
has to underwrite loans to Virgin? Of
course not. On top of that, the interest on
this loan is very very high and the clauses
in the contract are many, for instance the
loan can be called in if Baker or Cass leave
the company!
The last word must go to Andrew Baker
CEO of HLS who recently whined in the
Sunday Telegraph 14th May 2006. Can you
imagine any other CEO ranting hysterically
in the national press like this?
“My low point has been caused by not getting
support - an extraordinary feeling of
being abandoned.”
“ Why have we allowed 10 - perhaps 20 at
most - pathetic, sick, pychologically disturbed
people to intimidate a country of 60
million people?”
He then went onto to blame David Blunkett
and Securicor and even the City itself
claiming “...the excuse that they want to
protect their employees just doesn’t cut it
any more.” Talk about losing control? And
anyway as if the City cares what Andrew
Baker thinks!
Dumb and Dumber
Yep you’ve guessed it! Just when we thought the animals’
enemies couldn’t get any dumber they’ve become even
more dumb! The ad below was taken out in the New York
Times at a cost of $150,000. It came out on April 28th on
the day SHAC were marching through the City of London.
It is thought that the ad was taken out by the Centre for
Consumer Freedom in the US. They are a rightwing industry
body like the Research Defence Society in the UK. On the
evidence of this advert they’re certainly as stupid as the
RDS. Whilst HLS are desperately trying to calm already
frayed nerves amongst investors after their demise on to
the Grey Markets their supposed friends’ great idea is to..er..
frighten the very people HLS are trying to calm.
And you know what? Two weeks later they took out the
same advert in the New York Times spending in total
$300,000.Maybe they have been infiltrated by AR sympathisers
cos we couldn’t have done a better job ourselves!