asc stock

[ski_resort_observer]

Anyone else notice that ASC stock spiked up today almost 20%. Very unusual except the stock took off for a couple of months just about this same time last year. Hmmmmmmmmm :-?

 

[Greg]

Moving to skiing...

 

[Sparky]

Where are you looking? MSNBC shows it going up $.01 or 3.45%. I have been watching for a while. there has been some spikes in the past.

 

[Greg]

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Got to $0.35 at one point this morning. Back to $0.30 now.

 

[Sparky]

Hmmmmmmmmm. I wounder why the bump.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

I figured it would be short lived but not that quick. It's not a very active stock so a bunch of stock was bought then a bunch was sold. But why? 8) Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[ctenidae]

Big jump in shares traded- I'd say there was a negotiated deal there, maybe a little PIPE trade. The jump is probably just to the negotiated price, and it'll settle back to $0.29 again.

 

[thetrailboss]

Yep, got to get those ASC shares :roll: I know there were some folks who did get burned.

 

[Charlie Schuessler]

Wasn't the IPO around $15.00 a share,,,

 

[ctenidae]

Close- it debuted 11/06/97 at 18.125.

And never traded that high again. Personally, I think it could be a great buy for a buyout firm. Cut out some of the fat (and most of the management), it could do well.

 

[Geoff]

Close- it debuted 11/06/97 at 18.125.

And never traded that high again. Personally, I think it could be a great buy for a buyout firm. Cut out some of the fat (and most of the management), it could do well.

Nope. Too much debt. They already lost control of all their developable land at Killington. With few real estate development opportunites and negative cash flow from all the interest payments, nobody would touch the company with a 10 foot ski pole.

 

[Angus]

Interesting to see who owns their various classes (I assume they have a tiered debt structure) of debt, they will be the owners of the company at some point.

I didn't realize the ASC was a penny stock. That's sad - even for such a poorly managed company - I don't have a view but will accept the CW.

 

[loafer89]

I remember well when ASC went public, as they bought out all of SKII shares at $18.00 each (mine included )in June of 1996. I still have the paperwork, and the announcement from the SKII board of directors.

I had 0% interest in buying ASC shares and stayed away from them like the plague.

 

[loafer89]

Here is the front page of the ASC buyout of SKII:

 

[ctenidae]

Interesting- going over ASC's 10-Q-
Not nearly as much debt as they used to have- about $250 million in senior notes, which refinanced their old debt (payments started in January), and a smattering of preffered share classes totaling less than $100M ($12.5M with Oak Hill Capital Partners, a buyout firm). Looks like their biggest problems are the Grand Summit property at Killington (haven't been meeting sales goals, so they've hit two defaults with the lender on that- the first was waived, the second is in process), and Steamboat, which just hasn't worked out well for them at all. They sold Haystack for a measly $5 million- ASC has first refusal rights on development property for two years (value= $0), a 20-year first refusal on buying the mountain back, and it looks like they still have to foot the bill for Haystack's water rights.

On the upside, it looks like they're actually managing to pay down their debt- the $230M refinance with CSFB has been paid down to about $189M, and they've managed to strip out some of the preffered share classes. They turned a profit in the last two quarters (barely), but looking back over 3 and 4 quarters, they're losing money- part of that is from paying off debt, part from the Steamboat/Three Peaks SNAFU (cost them $5.4M to get Three Peaks out of the picture).

I'd like to say they're headed in the right direction, and if you're willing to wait picking up some shares at 30 cents could be good in the long term. Unfortunately, there's a huge risk they'll do a pre-packaged bankruptcy in the next couple of years, which would wipe your shares right out. I wouldn't invest in them.