List of market's shrinking violets just keeps growing

It is just one month after this column launched the Crap Cap 60 Index (R-CC60) in celebration of the growing list of still solvent companies with market capitalisations of less than $1 million.

In response to Standard & Poor's planned reweighting of its share indices on March 20, Reflux is putting the final touches its the planned launch of the R-CC80.

The launch of the R-CC60 was so successful that Reflux managed to polish off a litre of spumante under a fig tree in the Domain - without any help.

Now, thanks to slumps in the share prices of companies such as Augur Resources, Zingmobile Group and Capital Intelligence, Reflux yesterday found at least 80 stocks in the sub-$1 million market cap club.

So much so, this column is now looking for a bottle of McWilliam's dry sherry and a more upmarket location for the R-CC80 launch. Possibly the park opposite Star City casino and Reflux newsrooms.

Despite being kicked out of the S&P All Ordinaries index, some former market heavyweights still have reason to celebrate.

The Allco Max Securities and Mortgage Trust has shot up into the top 10 of the R-CC 80, with its market cap sinking to $352,879 this week after it reported a $105 million half-year loss last week.

The Multiplex Prime Property Fund - worth $282 million when it listed in 2006 - has also joined the R-CC80, thanks to its dismal performance. It reported a $38 million half-year loss and is worth a measly $563,529. Then there is the Macquarie-listed toll road company BrisConnections.

Other CC-80 heavyweights include the Perth fashion designer Costarella Design, Mooter Media and the bowling alley operator cum Chinese wine distributor Public Holdings.

AMAZING MOMENTS IN TAKEOVERS

The reverberations on financial markets have failed to derail the planned takeover of the loan shark Amazing Loans by Investment Evolution Global Holdings.

In the climax of possibly the first reverse takeover-demerger-takeover in Australian corporate history, Investment Evolution appeared to be nearing the 90 per cent acceptance level that would allow it to assume full control of Amazing.

The deal comes a year after Amazing acquired a company which also happened to be called Investment Evolution from its founder and Amazing's former chief executive, Paul Mathieson, in return for allowing him to assume a larger stake in the Liverpool-founded loan shark.

After writing down $111 million in intangible assets linked to the Investment Evolution acquisition, Amazing sold the business back to Mathieson for $417,000 in August.

Then in October, Investment Evolution launched its scrip takeover bid for Amazing - which had Mathieson as a major shareholder thanks to the earlier reverse takeover. All along Amazing continued to pay consultancy fees to its founder, Mathieson, who resigned as its chief executive last year.

The Amazing takeover comes amid signs Investment Evolution is planning an assault on the US financial market, to fill the vacuum left by the retreat and/or collapse of former titans such as Citigroup, Bank of America and Lehman Brothers.

The group has already rebranded itself Investment Evolution Global Corporation. Sadly, the website's blurb on Mathieson - who has "a strong ASX company research background" - fails to mention his time at Amazing, which has accumulated $143 million of losses as a public company.

BUSINESS AND PLEASURE

Investment Evolution's new US headquarters also appears to share the same street address as another business continuing to thrive throughout the downturn.

The group provides no phone number for its new Honolulu office. Its address - 1687 Kapiolani Boulevard - is the same as the respected "love boutique" Backseat Betty's.

If Investment Evolution ever gets the same rave reviews as its fellow tenant, it is sure to gain a strong foothold in the Honolulu loan sharking sector.

On the Honolulu Citysearch website one reviewer said he had a "field day" in the sex toy and lingerie superstore with his wife. "Guys! I'm telling you, take your wife or girl friend with you! You will not regret it!," the reviewer said. Another happy customer said the store offered him his "best late night retail buying experience".

"My wife couldn't stop looking around and we bought a skimpy set of sheer lingerie and some flavoured massage lotion and heading back to the hotel and you fill in the rest," he gushed.

Investment Evolution, which has the rights to use the Amazing Loans brand outside Australia, plans to establish two more branches in Los Angeles and Las Vegas this year. It ultimately plans to have "bank" branches in 50 US states.

NEW BANK ON THE BLOCK

Investment Evolution's plans to conquer the US banking sector could face stiff competition. The Communist Party appears to be jockeying for the establishment of a bank for the people. In a threat to the Capitalistic Imperialistic Pig (CIP) Index, the Communist Party of Australia recently created a poster calling for the creation of the "People's Bank".

The poster includes a poem which suggests if people make a collective stand they could "own those banks of marble". The poem goes on to suggest people could "share those vaults of silver that we have sweated for". Wall Street shuddered as news started to leak on the drafting of the poster made available through the Communist Party of Australia's website.

"It's a bank that does banking," reasoned a party operative, noting it would do away with the fancypants financial engineering that got the global banking system into the mess it's in.

Shares in Citigroup, which is already under the threat of being nationalised by the Communist Obama administration, fell to an all-time low of US97c a share on Thursday night.

However, the Communist Party appears to have had a few policy shifts since the Bolsheviks did away with the Romanovs and Soviet troops raised the red flag over the Reichstag.

Signalling a possible shift away from central planning - the policy of making goods no one wants - the Communist Party of Australia is pushing the idea that people should be given more money to buy things they need. "We don't want to see people suffering," a party central committee member, Anne Pha, said.

In another shock, the party is also pushing the idea that the People's Bank should help lend money to the ailing business sector. Business sector? As for a tally on the membership of the Communist Party in Australia, Ms Pha, who also edits the party's The Guardian newspaper, told Reflux: "We don't divulge that."