Shell Summary for Feb. 26, 2018

by Stockwatch Business Reporter

The TSX Venture Exchange rose a fraction to 826.87 Monday. Shell graduate and Namibian lithium explorer Desert Lion Energy Inc. (DLI) began trading today. It reached an intraday high of $2.35 before closing at $2 on 303,000 shares. Desert Lion's chief executive officer is Tim Johnston, an engineer and lithium mining consultant in Toronto. The company's chairman and largest shareholder is Adonis Pourolis with 4.6 million shares or 10 per cent. Mr. Pourolis is a resource promoter in England. He is the founder and chairman of an African diamond miner, Petra Diamonds Ltd., which trades on the London Stock Exchange and last closed at 63.55 pence. In connection with the launch of Desert Lion, Mr. Johnston and Mr. Pourolis sold an $8.33-million private placement at $1.82. The private placement investors are up today.

Desert Lion went public through Emprise Capital Corp.'s NEX shell, Camex Energy Corp. The shell rolled back 1 for 12.0258, leaving it with 1,648,000 shares issued, then it issued 44,658,497 shares under its Namibian lithium deal. Emprise Capital is a shell-packaging operation in Vancouver. It typically acquires significant shareholdings in out-of-favour NEX issuers, then it reorganizes them and sells them as shells. Emprise acquired 12.5 million shares of Camex at five cents between 2012 and 2014. (Camex had been a shell long before 2012.) Emprise installed its president, Scott Ackerman, as the president of Camex. In 2014, Emprise sold 10.9 million Camex shares at prices ranging from 3.9 cents to four cents, thereby taking a $116,850 loss and reducing its position to 1.6 million shares. Emprise's remaining shareholdings have now been rolled back to 136,105 shares, and its rollback-adjusted break-even price is now about 61 cents. Its position is up by a total of $189,187 today. We last discussed Emprise in the Shell Summary for Feb. 14, 2018. Having closed a deal for Camex, Emprise is left with five NEX shells in its stable, as well as one capital pool shell, North Bluff Capital Corp. (NBK), which is halted pending a B.C. mining deal. Emprise also plans to list its second and third capital pool shells, ECC Ventures 1 Corp. and ECC Ventures 2 Corp., each with a $200,000 initial public offering at 10 cents.

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