Good morning. Three more interesting companies to add to the memory bank from last night, after an enjoyable investor forum courtesy of Equity Development. I took copious notes, but unfortunately an over-zealous tidier-upper had whipped them away from my seat by the time I returned to collect them. Never mind. I liked Matchtech (LON:MTEC), but as with most things, how can I possibly buy now, when the share has already re-rated substantially? If you put a dot on the chart to indiicate when you bought, you wouldn't win any prizes for shrewdness by having a blue dot on today's date.

I also liked the sound of NATURE (LON:NGR), although it didn't jump out at me as great value. Probably priced about right, but a good niche business. The explosion at their Gibraltar facility does however remind investors that handling hazardous materials carries considerable risk. I don't understand how the hapless welder was allowed to do his unauthorised work on Nature's highly explosive facility? When I drew the short straw at Price Waterhouse c.1991, and had to do a stock count on New Year's Eve at Esso Fawley, they didn't let me go anywhere near any tanks until they had put the fear of God into me over the risks. The bottom line was that birds would be eating little pieces of my remains about 30 miles away if I forgot to connect myself to the earthing wire. That was the most miserable New Year's Eve ever. Well, NYE in 1992 was a close run thing, when I had to count oil spill booms on the Isle of Wight, but I'll save that story for another time. Being stuck on the Isle of Wight at any time is enough to induce depression, what a dump!

The third company that we heard from last night was Global Energy Development (LON:GED). It's an American company, producing oil in Colombia, yet (bizarrely) has been Listed on AIM for the past 10 years. I kept getting flashes of JR Ewing in my head, inappropriately. The story sounded pretty good though - they make money from current production, but don't pay a dividend. There is big exploration upside from new oil fields, which they believe coud be worth up to £7 a share, so risk/reward looks…

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