Man, that was a goood steak and lobster dinner I had last night, after yesterday's excellent day for me, and all Hemi shareholders. Put me to bed early, it did, which is why I am up early, now. Not to mention that Hemi has got me all freakin geeked! I have found the second hidden gem in my life, and there is much to tell, when explaining why it's such a hidden gem.
Below, you will find the beginning of Keith's email to me.
Low,
I have been reading IHUB. You do good objective disclosure. Also I am glad Matt (IHub admin) remembers me... I can remember back when he was 16? or 17? and wanting to start or starting IHUB, 1998? 1999? I knew he was a good guy, but wasn't sure he had the ability to pull this large undertaking off. He certainly proved me wrong and I hope he is enjoying every second of this success, he deserves it... Very cool!
The reason I am writing this is I also read your Money 101 link along with the Hemi thread. Very nice summaries! Please feel free to post this on the board if you like, because I am not going to get even close to posting "inside information", but rather give the folks a look at our corporate M.O. and rationale. I am not going to get in the habit of doing this very often though.
Let's start here: the reason we allowed public trading of our stock on the pink sheets, is because from 2001 through 2005 we had some larger industry partners backing us, invested in our projects/equity, and as time went by, they wanted liquidity for their investments. Pinksheets solved that liquidity problem. Hemi was profitable as a private company, and in hindsight, allowing our shares to trade on pinksheets was probably the worst decision we have ever made with Hemi. To date the negatives have certainly outweighed the positives from my point of view. Sorry, but that is just the way I see it.
We had revenue, assets, and production long before we had a ticker symbol, and we have had minimal fund raising...not enough to justify the pink sheet generic image. This company has not been, and will not be, built on "pinksheet" standards.
We are and will continue building on oil industry standards. The stock price in no way, shape, or form, affects our operations or revenue (the private company mentality is hard to shake).
I get calls all the time from "stock promoters" and "investment groups", all wanting to know if we need "funding". Of course, these guys all want stock discounted 50% or 75%. These chuckleheads make it too easy to say no.
Now this is not to say if a legit group comes along, we won't consider it, and there are some we are talking to (just talking...nothing more) at the moment. Anything considered has to be on fair terms which will serve both party's goals and purposes.
IMPORTANT! I do want to expand on your "dilution" observation on Money 101. We do issue shares from time to time...in fact, I am going to put everyone on notice after the first of the year: we WILL issue several million shares to insiders!
Why?
Because none of us around here are making more than $36k a year, and instead, opting to take restricted shares instead. They will be restricted as all our others are, and no insider has EVER sold to date. The underlying reasons are multiple and its not the typical pink sheet promoter double talk.
1. When we started back in 2001, as a group we decided our exit strategy would be a buy-out by an O&G industry company. This would, in no way, be done according to our stock price, but rather our oil and gas assets and reserves, potential future production and industry evaluations. The proverbial "big fish eating little fish" theory. The Hemi crew are older guys, Ed is 75, Craig is 60 or 61 and I am 45. So us hired help and insiders are going to make our money when we get bought out and I hope it's a truck load of money!!! Yup I am not ashamed to say that to any one that wants to hear it. Either it is a sale of the assets and a stock dispersal (big final dividend to shareholders) or a true M/A.
Anyhow, we waive our short term paychecks (as we could afford to pay ourselves more), but we know what we are doing and believe 100% in our projects. We have much more oil in the ground than money in the bank! A buyout will compensate us much nicer in the end, than to "cash-strap" the company right now, by taking excessive salaries.
Our buy out time horizon is between 2008 and 2010. Will it happen? I don't know...oil patch economics are virtually impossible to predict.
(more to come)
to make a million bucks over night" 
