Petropavlovsk (POG) has announced a “Convertible bond offering and repurchase” – with net proceeds to be used to advance construction of a new flotation facility at the company's Pioneer mine…

I covered the May portfolio update from Neil Woodford’s Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) earlier today. Now I turn to his gated Equity Income Fund (WEIF). As a starting point, I note that its borrowings were up to 2.64%. With the fund valued at £3.7 billion it means the gating started with the massive headwind of a bank overdraft of £97.7 million which we have subsequently learned that the bank has demanded settlement of. Not a good start for a fund which was gated the next trading day facing, we learn, almost £300 million of redemptions. So Neil has to find £400 million just to pay that lot off.

Sound Energy (SOU) has proved to be a great example of why private investors shouldn’t get too far ahead of themselves and start ordering a new Ferrari, based purely on early results in any company drilling for oil and gas.

Is there anything better than sitting back and reading a well-written article on a lazy Sunday? Every week ShareProphets features some long form journalism that you'll find of interest. Grab your cuppa and enjoy these five articles.   

The May month-end numbers from Neil Woodford’s funds are out and the numbers at Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) are really horrible. Just as horrible is that since the end of May the NAV per share has dropped sharply from 89.61p to the current figure of 83.79p – a drop of 6.5% in just three weeks. Bearing in mind that most of WPCT is unlisted, that’s some going.

I took this picture on the plaza at Kings Cross Station in London last night. What is an immersive experience of 'The Wolf Of Wall Street?' Hell if I know. Maybe you get to crawl across the floor on a 10 year old qualude or get arrested by the actors wearing FBI jackets to the music of Simon and Garfunkel.

It seems as if Versarien (VRS) owning morons take particularly badly to exposes on how senior execs may be fraudsters and are certainly liars and respond with abuse for the messengers. And thus in honour of these prize poltroons Bulletin Board Moron of the Week is back. Simply post the most moronic comment found on twitter or the LSE, ADVFN or iii asylums in the comments section below. It does not have to be about Versarien but moronic deadwood press Neil Woodford articles by Ali Hussein or Jeff Presstrip are not eligible. The deadline for entries is midnight Saturday and the winner will receive a mythical photo of Julie Meyer filling in a tax return.

I predicted that Neil Woodford’s replacement at St James’ Place would not hang around dumping the 5% of Kier Group (KIE) received when Woodford was sacked – and so it has proved.

Previously writing on Fox Marble (FOX), earlier this month we noted operational momentum with its biggest single order for Alexandrian White marble. Now the company “is pleased to announce the largest single order of its highly prized Illirico Selene marble from the Maleshevë quarry in Kosovo”…

Today's bearcast is a little late thanks to the amazing work of Brokerman Dan at the Welsh Hovel. Photos later. I start with the blunders of Julie Meyer's latest lawyer. Then I look at Chesterfield Resources (CHF) and other mining tiddlers and explian why Doc Holliday (a bull) is either very right or very wrong and why I think, but do not know, that it is the latter. Then more questions for IQE (IQE) including when is the placing? 

Neil Woodford’s Income Focus fund (WIFF) has taken a real beating since his Equity Income fund (WEIF) was gated. This morning’s figures from Morningstar show that the units dropped 0.5% yesterday – but redemptions saw yet more funds withdrawn.

As an active oil sector investor,  I sift through the myriad of AIM listed oilers drilling into the detail of the management, assets and finances before 9 times out of 10 concluding there is something in one or more categories that puts me off investing. Of course this sees me sometimes dismissing companies that go onto to have share price inflation due to momentum and hype before crashing back to reality – Sound Energy (SOU) comes to mind in this respect.

The LSE Asylum has deleted a post by a long time contributor and handed out a three day suspension. The crime: telling the truth about UK Oil & Gas (UKOG) boss Lyin’ Steve Sanderson.

From the FCA's spreadsheet of short positions required to be disclosed to it, the following shows the shorted AIM shares with positions from 2018 and thus far in 2019 (by net short position %, those in bold not on the list at the start of 2019) – and if this position has increased (red), reduced (green) or remained unchanged (black) since last week...

Neil Woodford’s last few remaining pennies invested into Oslobors-listed Thin Film appear to be heading for money heaven: this morning the company cancelled a fundraise announced earlier this week as it seems that nobody was interested. With the last remnants of its cash running out, a trip to the corporate undertakers seems odds-on.

Hello Share Slushers. I’ve oft remarked how important the oil price is to share shifters like us. But there’s never any harm in re-stressing points which are so important. Obviously, when it rises we can expect shares in Footsie oilers, like Royal Dutch Shell  (RDSA and RDSB) and BP (BP.) to react accordingly. Just as they’re doing now. But the oil price is more significant than that.

I start with a few words on comments from Jeremy Hunt showing why the entire political class deserves an encounter with an asteroid, his contempt for the victims of crime (you and I the taxpayer) and his support for a fraudster. I look at IQE (IQE), Nanoco (NANO), Agronomics (ANIC), Andalas (ADL), Thin Film (another Neil Woodford disaster) and RM2 (RM2). And now I must rush, more tomorrow.

Major shareholder Sports Direct (SPD) has accused Goals Soccer Centres (GOAL) of having “not appointed independent advisers to assist Goals in examining its historical treatment of VAT as well as its ongoing discussions with HMRC” and called upon it “to agree to Kroll's appointment” – and Goals has now responded…

Well that was quick! A few days ago, having been hoping to offload some AIM-listed Ariana (AAU) at 2p for months and months the shares finally gave me the chance, so I moved to strong hold with a next target of 2.5p. All of a sudden the gold price surged – and so did Ariana’s shares: we have reached 2.5p. Hooray! But now what?

I noted a few weeks ago, the way Big Dish (DISH) had issued an RNS essentially stating that “funding secured” (so no placing needed) and then a week later doing a placing and ‘fessing that even with the £2 million it raised it now only had cash until 2021. Was that market abuse? Today it got worse.