Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Interoil: Company Swings to Profit; Goldman Sachs Joins Soros as Shareholders (IOC)

The stock is down 11 cents at $64.00 in early pre-market trade.
This is an odd one and there are enough undercurrents to get my antennae twitching.
We last visited IOC in December's "Media relations emails of the day, Interoil edition" (IOC)":

From Felix Salmon at Reuters:

On Monday, Barry Minkow put out a press release accusing a NYSE-listed company, InterOil, of being “nothing more than hype”. InterOil has had a large short interest for some time, and it seems that Minkow touched a nerve, because InterOil’s senior manager for media relations, Susuve Laumaea, went borderline insane via email in response:

you are a gutless coward of the highest order, a jealous and envious SOB… You are a loser, a non-achiever and a sour-grape. Piss off you good for nothing… Do not be afraid on account of me being a descendant of cannibals … no, no, believe me, I will not cannibalise you or feed you to the swamp crocodiles…

you are known crook, conman, convicted felon, a psychopath and a pathological liar who is jealously envious… You have no sense of common decency. You are neither here nor there among the cream of decent God- fearing humanity. You are a scum of the earth, a creepy-crawlie who should have been locked away and the key thrown away too so that you rot away like the dung heap you are. You are a coward of the highest order… I can’t use you as crocodile feed because you are too poisonous … those alligators will die eating you, cooked or uncooked…

Who gave you the authority to investigate InterOil, you piece of shitty non-entity? You are nothing more than an internet pirate, a low-life manipulator who is out to profit by your dishonest, fraudulent, slanderous and cowardly methods. Up yours...
From RTT News:
Interoil Corp. (IOC: News ) reported fiscal 2009 net income of US$6.08 million or US$0.15 per share, compared to a loss of US$11.8 million or US$0.35 per share last year.

Analysts polled by Thompson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of US$0.77 per share for the year. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
From StreetInsider (Feb 12):
Interoil (IOC) Shares Rising as Goldman Shows 7.2% Stake in 13G
Shares of Interoil (NYSE: IOC) are moving in today's after-hours session as Goldman Sachs has filed a Form 13G related to the company. Goldman is now showing a 7.2% stake (3,249,932 shares) in the company, up from 0.33% as of 9/30/09.

After closing at $66.60 today, Interoil is now trading up about a percent and a half to $67.50.