BVI Company News

British Virgin Islands-registered electronics manufacturer, Bonso Electronics International Inc. announced that President and Chief Executive George O’Leary will retire and chairman Anthony So will reclaim the titles and continue as chairman of the board.

O’Leary will not stand for election to the board at the next shareholders meeting. being also a director, he spent about 15 years with Bonso and served as president and CEO since January 2005.

A BVI-registered 26-year old Bonso Electronics Limited was established to build the largest manufacturer of electronic weighing scales and balances in the world. The trend of innovative product development at Bonso started with manufacturing one of 1st electronic bathroom scales in the world that make use of sophisticated strain gauge load cell technology. Due to this product, Bonso is well-recognized in the scale and balance industry.

Adopting full vertical integration of Bonso’s production and marketing facilities, the company has successfully been transformed from a typical OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) company to an international corporation with both ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) and OBM (Original Brand Manufacturer) business. The acquisition of Korona Haushaltswaren GmbH & Co. KG of Germany in 2001 and of Gram Precision Inc. of Canada in 2002 has strengthened this vertical integration. So, Bonso Electronics Limited is successfully fulfilling its goal set 20 years ago.

Bonso’s production is centered at their 600,000 square foot manufacturing plant in Shenzen, China that employs around 3,000 workers, while headquarters is situated in Hong Kong.

In 1989 Bonso Electronics was officially listed in the USA, and its common stock is traded in NASDAQ National Market System.

According to the company’s annual report, in 2005 (ended on March, 31) the company reported income USD 3.34 million while in 2004 it was USD 2.27 million and in 2003 the company worked with USD 1.64 million loss. So, the dynamics is very positive.

In August, Bonso announced that its Board of Directors had approved a USD 0.05 per common share cash dividend, payable to shareholders of record on September 30, 2006 to be paid on or before October 31, 2006. Although the company considers year 2005 to be not very successful, it   has had a good rebound in sales of scale products during the year and decided to provide its loyal shareholders with recognition for their support. Company’s dividend policy remains contingent on performance. In accordance with the closing price on August 25, 2006 (USD 3.65 per share), the forthcoming dividend would represent an annual yield of about 1.37%.

On September 30, 2006, US Congress unexpectedly approved a bill that would make it illegal for banks and credit-card companies to make payments to online gambling sites.

After US Congress passed laws to shut down Internet gambling, which would wipe out US revenue and more than USD 7 billion of market value, shares of PartyGaming Plc, 888 Holdings Plc, Sportingbet Plc and other companies plummeted.

September 30 can be considered a US crackdown on online gaming, as this was the day when legislation to prevent credit-card companies from collecting payments for bets was approved.
Yesterday PartyGaming Plc and 888 Holdings Plc announced plans to halt business with US residents. Because of the new legislation the companies that were trying to get into the US market have to back out.

The USA considers gambling on the Internet, which has become a $12 billion-a-year business, to be illegal.

Gibraltar-based, PartyGaming Plc is the world’s biggest Internet poker company that last year more than 80% of its sales got from the USA. The company is going to continue pushing into markets outside the United States where poker and casinos have not been made illegal. Actually, poker and casinos have not been made illegal in the USA either, but it is impossible to collect payments there. Basically, the payment system for Internet gambling has been shut down.

888 Holdings Plc is going to work with the rest of the world, most of which is quite sensible in terms of regulation.

President Bush is expected to sign the legislation into law during the next two weeks. Most analysts do not doubt that he will definitely approve it.

Because of this legislation, the shares of the leading companies in this industry are plunging.

Shares of PartyGaming slid 59% to 43.5 pence in London, and reached a record low of 40.25 pence.
The world’s largest online casino, 888, slid 48% to 76 pence.
Sportingbet tumbled 69% to 58 pence.
The shares of World Gaming Plc slid 76%.
Empire Online Ltd. (including online gambling brand Club Dice) fell 25%, to 50 pence.
Leisure & Gaming Plc (including brand VIPsports) lost 64% 13.75 pence.
Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG slid 25% to 15.60 euros.
A UK provider of money transfers for Internet gaming companies, NETeller Plc, fell  61% to 140 pence.
A Toronto-based maker of software for gambling Web sites, Excapsa Software Inc., slid 66% to 15 pence.
A British Virgin Islands-based Playtech Ltd. that develops gaming software tumbled 52% to 120 pence.

Analyst Paul Leyland at Arbuthnot Securities expressed his opinion that Playtech is relatively well positioned. According to his suggestion, Playtech is the only company for which  redeployment is easy.

In the previous blog post we discussed the fact of Brazmin’s selling its gold project interests in the Tocantinzinho gold project in Brazil. Now BrazMin Corp. has concentrated its resources on several projects in the Tapajos District, including the major São Jorge Project (on the São Jorge Project results for the 2nd quarter BrazMin has reported some weeks ago). Currently this district is the principal area of company activities and achievements.

The BVI registered company has just provided an updated report on its Agua Branca Gold Project (“Agua Branca” or the “Project”), which is located within the Tapajos District. Geological mapping, channel sampling and airborne geophysical surveys commenced on the Project in July 2006. The results have been received for 384 samples from a total of 141 channels, distributed in five target areas: Camarao Hill, Serra da Abelha, Ouro Branco, Mata o Velho and Vila Sul. The main exploration target is Camarao Hill. The new diamond drill program at Agua Branca, is said to commence in October, 2006.

The BrazMin’s exploration programs are being managed by the Company’s President and CEO Mr. Tony Ransom and by Brazmin’s VP Exploration Mr. Paulo Ilidio de Brito. Both of them are qualified persons, the first one carrying responsibility for the technical side of the release, the second one having conducted geological mapping and sampling at Agua Branca.

It was stated by Tony Ransom that now, after completing the title conversion, the company is planning to move forward with prospecitve gold targets at Agua Branca.