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Forums > [ hoorenbeek ] > Topic: [ hoorenbeek ] Update

Feb 24th, 09:48 Limer Fredriksson	[ hoorenbeek ] Update
	Dear Investors: First of all, we would like to say that this is a special post due to the recent events and the decision of setting a salary for the management. Do not expect this kind of post often. We think that all your doubts about the future of [ hoorenbeek ] will be cleared when reading what follows: We have to make clear that one thing are dividends and another salaries. It doesn't matter how many shares of a company an employee has. His/Her salary is in concept of the work done and the dividends will come out of what is left after paying all expenses, including salaries of the management, designers and employees. If [ hoorenbeek ]'s management had decided NOT to get a salary paid on BENEFIT of investors for some months -which, in our opinion, has never been really appreciated- doesn't mean that this has to be a constant. For the company's growth just as it is developing now, it is necessary to work and dedicate LOTS of daily (and nightly) hours to it and it's ABSOLUTELY valid and fair to get a fixed salary paid (which not depends on the company's profits) for that work. Furthermore, our experience shows that even when giving good dividends and not getting our salaries paid, shares never kept stable at more than L$1.3. So, if in spite of our sacrifice, shares didn't increase in value proportional to the real company growth, neither we believe that they should go down for not giving dividends for a while. And if shares didn't kept stable at a higher price or if they go down from now on, it is because of the great quantity of "trash investors" inside SLCapex. These investors are, for example, the ones who buy L$10.000 of shares at L$1 and when shares are about L$1.4 they sell them at L$1.1 to win L$1000. This makes the share price to go down all the time, damaging the serious investors who appoint for a long/medium term business. These "trash investors" are the ones we do NOT want in [ hoorenbeek ]. Neither we want investors that think everything is about getting a dividend every month. This is NOT how investing works. Do you buy USD10k in Google shares to expect getting a dividend paid every year to recoup your investment? If so, you have no idea what this game is about. Please go play the stock market with other's company shares. Most of these issues are out of our hands. We need the serious investors to take this people out of the company by buying their shares and not selling back at low prices. To end the salary subject, we would like to make clear that salaries will continue to be paid to Pilgrim Nordwind and Ansor Hoorenbeek until a sum of L$400k -initially- is reached for each one. It is then when the dividend matter will be reviewed. This is not a random or capricious decision. In the last months, many times we had to dedicate more hours to SL than to our RL jobs and, little by little, [ hoorenbeek ] has been becoming our main occupation. You can get proof of this yourself by coming to the shop and seeing the quality of the presented products, the customer care and the periodicity of our releases. We have doubts about any of our investors to be prone to work for more than 10 hours a day for U$D800. Certainly, we cannot, and consider unfair the incoming complains for dividends without noticing the efforts made by us. The value of a company is not only given by the money issued on dividends, but also for what it produces, for it's public image, brand, customer base, assets, long term value and many others elements. Do you want [ hoorenbeek ]'s value? Go to SLMen (one of the most respected Men's fashion blog) and take a look at this: "...These "All Stars" from Hoorenbeek are, for now, and in my humble opinion, the best "Converse like" shoes on the grid..." Behold the ONREZ/EFA prize we won and realize that we won among many GREAT companies making products in SL. This prize was based on sales, and even when the other participants made women's products we won anyway. THIS is value. Consider also, that when we first got involved in SLCapex, there were none of the several rules that are now being imposed, like sheets or weekly posts. Even when at that time we were clear with the SLCapex management and told them we were only committing to the existing rules, we are now making efforts to do what they are asking for, even when we didn't commit to it. Please also notice that unlike many other companies in SLCapex our trading has NEVER been halted. About our plans for the future, we believe they are clear. We want to be the best on SL. It is our desire to win more prizes; we want to generate more high quality products. And that is what we are going to do. In the next months you will see, on a weekly basis, the quantity and quality of the products being released for sale. This rhythm will remain for a long time. Once our image in the SL men's market is consolidated, [ hoorenbeek ] Woman will be released (a project that is already being developed). Our goal is growth, and we really believe that we are going through the right path. If you have doubts about this or any other matters, speak to us. Do not fall in the wrong ways of gossip and exchanging assumptions with other shareholders. Ask US. WE have the REAL information. It has happened several times lately that we find an investor in the shop, standing there for hours and when we ask him/her if there is something we can do to help or have any questions, says no. We don't understand these kinds of things. An open doors policy have always been kept, and that is not going to change. Do you want to know something? Contact us and ask. But also consider that sometimes we can't reply instantly. This is not because we have secrets or denial. It is because we are VERY BUSY making the company successful. So, see what we've done so far and trust us. To finish, we would like to state that we consider the behavior of Strongman Shelford (a person that for us lost all credibility and respect) absolutely out of place. The posting of personal data on this forum, as if a crime is being committed to justify this, is ridiculous and UNSAFE for anyone here. If the SLCapex management wants to keep us in this game, they should take action accordingly by removing the post IMMEDIATELY, AND ensuring the privacy and safety for all the participants. This is PARAMOUNT AND URGENT. We didn't break any rule and made no crime. If you have doubts about this, we remind you of this link: http://www.slcapex.com/content/disclosure Despite of our company being real (and you can easily get proof of it), SLCapex is a game we decided to play. We don't say this in a contemptuous way nor we underestimate SLCapex, but don't forget about it. It is a GAME we all CHOOSE to play. If we get late presenting a balance sheet or posting an update, this it is getting late IN THE GAME. Sometimes we need to set priorities and it is then when we choose not to be late in what is NOT a game. If there is something you have to consider always it's the next thing: We can be late in the game, but we'll never be late in what makes our company REALLY grow, because unlike SLCapex, [ hoorenbeek ] IS NOT a game. Comments and questions will be replied when possible. Best wishes, Pilgrim Nordwind & Ansor Hoorenbeek [ hoorenbeek ] CEO's
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Feb 24th, 21:05 William Rustamova	Re: [ hoorenbeek ] Update
	Mr. Fredriksson As an investor, I don't see anything wrong with you getting paid. If you don't pay dividends .. thats OK too. When you sell stock in your company, what happens to that stock is not for you to control. You can buy it back, sell more, promote it .. but on any stock exchange in the world stocks are bought and sold by investors and traders. In real life if your company is sucessful and you continue to access capital from stock markets, you will encounter short sellers, hedge funds and unfriendly analysts too. My advice is to ignore your share price and the market and build your company. The market will eventually reward your effort.
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Feb 26th, 04:18 Fujiwara Food	Re: [ hoorenbeek ] Update
	Don't blame the shareflippers, if you want stockprice stability, consider buybacks instead of dividends. This will influence the price directly and there will be less shares to flip afterwards :)
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Feb 26th, 05:00 Dezmond Martinek	Re: [ hoorenbeek ] Update
	The share price dropped because dividends went from around 4 cents to nothing. This is a result of the company CEO's converting what was dividends into salaries. Where before they got 3 cents out of every 4 paid out now they are getting 4 and investors.. the ones who financed this are getting zero. People who invested expecting a return in a viable company where suddenly robbed of that return with now warning. I myself dumped every last share and have no intention of buying a single HBK share in the future. In addition to the salary decision HBK continues to miss deadlines for shareholder communications required to remain listed on CAPEX. This puts shareholders at risk. The risk may have been worth it for the return before but now that there is no return it is my opinion that HBK is a risky and poor investment. Also whats to stop the CEO's from giving themselves a raise as soon as the additional dividends are available. Really this was a bad mistake. You had a growing asset pool in your stake in the company. All those shares owned would have been worth 2-3 L each if you had stuck to a fair distribution. A secondary offering would have worked in the future as well. Now ... well good luck with that. On top of that people who put faith in this company got burned because they where asuming the dividend policy would remain intact for the existance of the company when they bought these shares and as they have not the share price will not recover. Best of luck Dezmond Martinek
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Feb 26th, 06:07 Enky Nakamura	Re: [ hoorenbeek ] Update
	both Dezmond and William opinions up to some extend are valid but business condition in sl are different and considering the high level of fraud the behaviour of the CEO vs his shareholders is not correct. Investors here are very sensible, considering the risk involved, and the decision of the ceo to prevent a short term ROI for his shareholders is not the best considering that risks here in sl are much much more compared to RL. I liquidated too my HBK position, more time in the market means more risk you are accepting to take and i dont want to take risk for zero dividends considering that there is not enough buyers here to push consistently up the stock price, so without dividends most of capex stocks here are a bad investment, forget about price appreciation in a so small market. Dividends are fundamental here to substain prices, and hbk CEO is not considering this, and so, to my eyes, he is bit unrespectful to his shareholders that partially financed his project. AS i already said last week, a yield of 1% monthly is not impossible to pay, it is more or less 50k lindens in dividends each month but Limer refuse to lissen....his reasons are right BUT incompatible with sl economy, it is not enough big to substain real life wages for now except for few, try to understand it Mr Limer. Good Luck to HBK shareholders CYA
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Feb 26th, 06:54 William Rustamova	Re: [ hoorenbeek ] Update
	I think that HBK is on a learning curve here and should be allowed to discover how markets react to a companys actions. I don't think it is right for the company's key content creators to work in under "digital sweatshop" conditions and the decision to pay wages is being properly accounted for in their financial filings. They should find a good cheap textbook on accounting and learn how to create a balance sheet. They are not the only company that has not filed one yet. One CEO did not even know what one was. These markets are a learning experience. The market has responded to the companys decisions and it is reflected in the share price. What concerns me a bit is a hint of a threat to "take all the marbles and go home" in the update. In my opinion, Second Life and other virtual world are not a game when you borrow, or sell shares to use other people's money. There is an implied contract and a digital record of those deals, even if as yet there are no protocols and legal documents to protect shareholders, depositors and lenders. Theft of property at the minimum could result in seizure of digital assets, and suspension of accounts in Second Life and other virtual worlds and third party websites such as stock markets. There is still a long digital trail of evidence and people who may have commited criminal acts in the past or still owe people money like Ginko may still yet be brought to justice or have to pay restitution as the rules and laws of the digital economy evolve. The United States and other countries that such as Sweden that currently host these virtual worlds such as Second Life and Entropia face a huge competion fron China which has launched massive investments into virtual worlds. American laws for virtual stock fraud or theft might be far more lenient than those of China, but the USA has the intelligence capability to find a virtual criminal or terrorist.
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Feb 26th, 07:24 William Rustamova	Re: [ hoorenbeek ] Update
	I would like to add to the last post, that in my opinion, once shareholder and depositor and other rights are legally established, there will likely be an exponential increase in capital investment and development. Real life banks are still looking closely at establishing operations and some of their people are reading and following these discussions as well as asking questions.
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Feb 27th, 12:29 Hellge Schnyder	Re: [ hoorenbeek ] Update
	Maybe you forget that some of the "trash investors" has bought the IPO shares, too. And you forget that noone can ask the CEO about any news because of enough fraud in the past, noone can guarantee me that your infos are right so some investors dont ask the CEO but rather search for infos in independent souces. Dont want to say that you arent respectably but you can agree to me that there were enough CEO which has made nice announcements and from one day to another they were delisted and all of the shareholder money was gone. Also you forget that the whole risk is by the shareholders. When you ever crash with your company or decide to leave SL i guess that you never will refund us, isnt it so? Its for me a simple deal: We (the investors) give you our money to start and rise your business and you let us participate from your earnings. Why should anyone make a long term investment when only the Company earns everything? Companys without dividends have more "trash investors" than some with monthly dividends. It could be a good way to make a specific rate in % for salarys and dividends from the net profit. When the business is working good all gets more and when the business goes bad all gets less.
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