MAG Silver (MAG.to)(MVG)

Damn the hides of this opportunistic, self-centred management team. If it weren't for their managerial stupidity and greed this company would have added oodles more shareholder value in 2009.

MAG Silver Corp. (MAG)						As of December 8th, 2009
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Dec 08/09	Dec 01/09	MacInnis, Daniel Thomas	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-2,000	$7.180
Dec 08/09	Dec 01/09	MacInnis, Daniel Thomas	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-2,000	$7.150
Dec 08/09	Dec 01/09	MacInnis, Daniel Thomas	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-2,000	$7.150
Dec 08/09	Dec 01/09	MacInnis, Daniel Thomas	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-2,000	$7.130
Dec 08/09	Dec 01/09	MacInnis, Daniel Thomas	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-2,000	$7.100
Dec 08/09	Dec 02/09	Megaw, Peter	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	47 - Disposition by gift	-38,200

But of course, these fools will blame Fresnillo for all their woes.

Mag Silver (MVG) (MAG.to): Retail, the crop that never fails (Part 47)

Check out previous IKN posts here that show just how many times insiders have sold shares into the market this year. Now here's the latest in the looooong line of gimme da munneh transactions that sees management scoff in the faces of their shareholders once again.

MAG Silver Corp. (MAG)						As of October 6th, 2009
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Oct 06/09	Sep 30/09	Jones, R. Michael	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-20,000	$6.320
Oct 06/09	Sep 29/09	Jones, R. Michael	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	$6.163
Oct 06/09	Sep 28/09	Jones, R. Michael	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	$6.300
Oct 06/09	Sep 25/09	Jones, R. Michael	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	$6.157

Another $300+k to soften the blow of not getting bought out (due to mgmt's own strategic incompetence), Mr. Jones? Oh how sweet.

No wonder only geologists take this company seriously nowadays ;-)

MAG Silver (MAG.to) (MVG) laughs at its shareholders again

MAG Silver (MVG) (MAG.to) management yet again says one thing and does another. For the sake of CAD$38,850 (the gross profit on the deal), the CFO at MAG Silver prefers to send yet another "we prefer to sell our own stock to you saps" signal to the market.

MAG Silver Corp. (MAG)						As of August 27th, 2009
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Aug 27/09	Aug 11/09	Hallam, Frank	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-17,500	$5.220
Aug 27/09	Aug 11/09	Hallam, Frank	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	51 - Exercise of options	17,500	$3.000
Aug 27/09	Aug 11/09	Hallam, Frank	Direct Ownership	Options	51 - Exercise of options	-17,500	$3.000

We also note in passing that CFO Frank Hallam prefers to ignore TSX directives and file his trades after the allotted time period of 10 trading days, just another example of the lack of respect shown to others by the people in charge of this directionless operation. So with another 438,000 or so options at $3,00 to dump on the market still left in his pocket, Hallam has plenty of ammunition to make money and further dilute the share base at the expense of the loyal retail sheep around him.

If it were only one or two occasions, then fair enough. But the insider selling has been non-stop all year as witnessed by these previous posts. Speaking of previous posts, back on December 4th 2008, just after the Fresnillo buyout offer came, your humble correspondent said the company was "dead meat" and according to my calculations the only documented case of resurrection in the last 2,000 years has not been added to by this company. Yet another example of how great rocks can be wasted by a mediocre, self-serving bunch in charge.

DYODD.

MAG Silver: The inside selling goes on

Megaw photographed while not selling things (for a change)

Hey wow! Not content with dumping 46k of his stock on the market between May 12th and May 21st, since we last updated on MAG Silver (MAG.to) (MVG) and the high level of insider-selling activity on May 22nd one of the chief offenders, Peter K. Megaw, director of MAG.to and described in his biog as " a well-known individual in the Mexican mining industry" (I shite thee not, kind reader) has found time to dump another 23,000 shares on to the market at U$5.50 or so.

Why is MAG Silver so keen on telling the world that their stock is undervalued and at the same time the people running the company just keep on selling their stock? Inquiring minds would like to know......

Why all the insider selling at MAG Silver (MVG) (MAG.to)?

I couldn't help but notice that the BoD at MAG Silver (MVG) (MAG.to), the very same people that believe their stock is undervalued by Fresnillo, have been quick to cash out of the company recently and sell large lumps of shares. "That's a bit weird", thought your humble correspondent, "I mean, on the one hand they're telling the world that the FRES.L deal seriously undervalues their shares and on the other hand they're quietly selling their own shares to a willing world and preferring cold hard cash for their own accounts. What gives?".

Of course I was perplexed by this, as you could never accuse the management team of any Canadian junior mining company to be A BUNCH OF SCHEMING, LOWLIFE, TWO-FACED CAPITALIST PIGS OF THE WORST SORT (oops! capslock stuck for a minute there..apologies), so there must be a decent reason. Thus I cast the Otto infonet and heard back that the mgmt is selling a few shares "for tax reasons". So that explains the following, I suppose:

• Peter Megaw has sold 46,000 shares since May 12th (just after receiving 11,250 options priced at C$5.54, too...ain't dat lucky?). Also strange is how he only sells his MAG Silver shares but doesn't touch his shares in either Candente or West Timmins.

• R. Michael Jones, who holds inside shares in no less than seven companies, has deemed that only MAG Silver is worthy of selling "to pay taxes", dumping 14,500 shares of MAG.to this month. Oh wow, a 12,188 options handout last month for you too, Mikey...lucky boy.

• CFO Frank Hallam managed to dump every single one of his 44,500 shares in MAG Silver on May 13th (got over six loonies apiece, too). And hey wow!!! He got 61,797 options granted to him in April, too. Ain't life grand, Frankie....?

So correct me if I'm wrong here, but (as just one example) a guy like Frank Hallam who was paid C$115,000 for his services in 2008 dumps over a quarter of a million dollars' worth of stock on the market just after getting a whole heap of newly minted options...and it's to pay off the tax bill that he himself should stump up on salary, not expect the company (or more precisely the shareholders of the company) to pay via slushy share dealings. Is that right?

Or In Other Words, Sell MAG Silver.

MAG Silver (MVG) (MAG.to): Get Real

If you've been following the wheels and deals at MAG Silver (MVG) (MAG.to), you'll know that despite the recent surge in Hope™ for the metals and mining sector the company's stock price has dropped back from the recent U$6+ prices to sit back at the price offered by Fresnillo in December. Here's a chart that wraps up the whole timeline.

click to enlarge

Now let's play Reality Versus Fantasy

Fantasy: Fresnillo is desperate to get its hands on MAG Silver's assets
Reality: It's a bear market. That means it's a buyer's market.

Fantasy: Fresnillo is about to sweeten the bid
Reality: Check the chart.

Fantasy: A rival bid is on the way.
Reality: No company with a sane CEO would make a hostile/white knight counterbid for an asset that it would have to share with Fresnillo afterwards.

Fantasy: January and February share price at MAG Silver
Reality: March and April share price at MAG Silver.

And if you still need a dose of reality after all this, check the comparative chart of MVG versus (my own fave silver play) Fortuna Silver (FVI.v) and the silver ETF (SLV) as a proxy to the metal. Any further questions?

Moral: Don't start fights that you cannot win. The end.

Mag Silver: dead meat already

An interesting press release from Mag Silver (MVG) (MAG.to) this morning concerning the Fresnillo buyout offer. Here's the link, and here's the main comment from Mag's CEO:

Dan MacInnis, CEO of MAG, commented, "This may be the first time in history that a hostile bidder has announced a bid at a price lower than the closing market price of the target's shares on the trading day prior to announcement. Analysts and a number of shareholders are now calling this a "take-under" offer. We are a little mystified by Fresnillo's actions, but our Board understands its fiduciary and other obligations and will respond more formally in due course. In the meantime, our shareholders have no need to do anything to respond to the Fresnillo announcement."

As this chart points out......

CEO MacInnis is stretching the truth with his argument today. Check this Reuters report dated December 1st for more evidence. This means just one thing; the MVG position is weak, and all the rhetoric in the world won't cover that fact up. And it all boils down to one, simple point: Nobody else will buy Mag Silver. The company has two choices;

1) Accept the Fresnillo offer
2) Watch the stock price fall to where its silver peers are trading.

The only reason that MVG has held up better than peers was the expectation of this FRES.L offer. If it's rejected, nobody else will buy MVG. Take that to the bank. And the result will be the wholesale dumping of its share price.

Be clear; Fresnillo has played this offer very smartly and has MVG over a barrel, the weak counterarguments shown by the MVG CEO today are testimony to that. He may be pissed that this offer means his options are out the money, but that's kapitalism, komrade.

Fresnillo buying Mag Silver

And Otto nails another takeover story.

As part of this post on October 15th, your prescient Otto wrote that Fresnillo (FRES.L), Mexico's very large and very cashed-up silver miner, was going to move on Mag Silver (MVG) (MAG.to). The post wrapped up by saying:

"..Make no mistake; MVG in now most definitely in play. Fresnillo has decided to risk this bear market and try for MVG while prices are still low. Whatever, but Fresnillo has drawn a clear line under this current share price and the risk/reward equation most definitely favours buying MVG."

Tonight, just seven weeks later, this hits the wires:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dec 1 (Reuters) - London-listed Mexican miner Fresnillo Plc (FRES.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said its unit intends to make a formal offer to acquire the remaining shares that it does not already own in MAG Silver (MAG.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (MVG.A: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for $4.54 per share in cash.

The offers represents a 13 percent premium to the stock's Monday close of $4.00 on the American Stock Exchange.

Based on the 49.2 million shares outstanding as of Nov. 24, according to Reuters data, Fresnillo's offer values the remaining 80.2 percent stake in MAG Silver at about $179.0 million.

Fresbal, the company's unit, does not intend to yada yada continues here

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The only bummer is the price; at U$4.54 for the US stock it's just 3c above the 15th October closing price (though you could have got in at $4 a couple of days after my post), due to the sector-wide slaughter and not really much to do with MAG.to itself. So be it. Fresnillo is getting a very big bargain compared to prices of just six months ago. However it's taking on the risk if any prolonged slump in the silver market, but hey...it's a silver miner and it was always a clear shot to buy out MAG, so now's a great time. Smart move, I say.

Anyway, feel free to write in and tell me what an irritating bighead I can be at times. Thanks in advance. Here's the MAG.to 12 month price chart to round off.

Snippety stuff (beaten up LatAm juniors edition)

Blog sponsors Vena Resources (VEM.to) hit the airwaves with this press release update on its Pucara gold/copper project. The thing is long and deserves more than a couple of lines here, so go and read the whole thing. Suffice to say that work continues apace there and it looks like they're going to start getting some cashflow from the project soon.

Fresnillo's approach for MAG silver (MVG) (MAG.to) is now getting wider media attention. Here's Mineweb on the story, and note that they're wise enough to quote this humble corner of cyberspace as they explain to the wider world that MVG is now in play.

Farallon Resources (FAN.to) has released two significant pieces of news this week, Firstly this presser that announced it has started metals deliveries from its G-9 mine in Mexico. Secondly it reported today it has secured $7.75m in rollover and capex financing (and it's no mean feat to get such a capital injection with the wider market the way it is). The downside is yet more dilution to its share base, but at least FAN.to looks like it will be able to mine its ore competitively through this metals price slump. If this is as low as it goes, it's worth giving it some of your DD time, perhaps.........

Gold Hawk Resources (CGK.v) is still fighting the good fight and trying to get its Coricancha mine re-opened. It has paid a few shares and gotten itself an extension on its financing. Here's the press release. I shot a mail to the IR guy at CGK.v Jason Mercier and asked him whether the financing deal is dependent on collecting on its insurance policy (the insurers are dragging their heels a bit, but it looks like they'll pay soon enough). Here's the reply I got from Jason:

1. The extension of the loan repayment schedule is a show of support from our lenders and allows the Company to use its working capital to complete the permitting and approvals process and make plans for the restart instead of paying back the principal.

2. The cooperation of our lenders is a big show of support when you consider current financial markets and is another positive step towards restart.

3. The receipt of permit is absolutely key to returning to production, which is in part why we have not had much news since our submission in mid-August – saying that we are waiting on the Peruvian gov does not give much satisfaction. The expedited process has been speedy and we are being patient.

4. The insurance is a separate matter and there is not a connection to permits or loan extension.

So now you know a few more details about where CGK stands.

Fresnillo is finally making its move on MAG Silver

Scene from the Fresnillo's IPO in May this year

Ever since Fresnillo split away from the Mexican mining giant Peñoles, there has been speculation about not "if" but "when" it would make a move on MAG Silver (MAG.to in Toronto, MVG in the US). The two companies share a very large silver project in development in Mexico, and Fresnnillo made it crystal clear at the time of its London IPO that it would be using the raised funds for acquisitions and expansion.

Now that junior mine valuations have been put in the dumpster, Fresnillo is finally making its move. According to the PR released by MVG today, Fresnillo has recently bought large slugs of its stock at around $5 and now owns a touch under 20% of the company. It makes sense for Fresnillo to stop accumulating just under the 20% barrier to stop the shareholders' rights program from kicking in (check the link above for details, or check this Reuters report).

Make no mistake; MVG in now most definitely in play. Fresnillo has decided to risk this bear market and try for MVG while prices are still low. Whatever, but Fresnillo has drawn a clear line under this current share price and the risk/reward equation most definitely favours buying MVG.

DYODD, dude.

UPDATE: Here's a PR from MVG released tonight with an update on drill results at the JV MAG/Fresnillo silver project. Have a read and find out why Fresnillo is clearly keen to get 100% control of the future mine.