Well, right now we’re in that period as you can see in this quarter. And we’re taking a very close look at how a slow quarter affects valuation on potential acquisitions. So to me it’s just opportunity. I feel like we have great opportunity. I feel like the business is operating at a very high level. And this is going to be a good ride. I’m very much looking forward to what the next three or four years brings.
Greg Gibas: Make sense. Appreciate your thoughts. Thanks Greg.
Operator: Thank you very much. Our last question comes from Sy Jacobs of Jacobs Asset Management. Sy, your line is live.
Sy Jacobs: Hey, Greg. How are you?
Greg Roberts : Hello Sy. How are you?
Sy Jacobs: I’m doing well. Thanks. So I just wanted you to run a little more with that last point about M&A and then kind of tie it to the buyback. last quarter you sounded pretty optimistic that there were some attractive live things in your M&A pipeline. I think you might even have mentioned one of them being an option to raise a minority stake to a higher level and then organic things? And then business was slowing at that time and you have mentioned the dynamic where like asking prices are sometimes too high when business is good and sellers become more motivated when business is bad. If you can give us an update on where your pipeline looks like in that regard? And then tie it to the fact that I couldn’t help but notice that, you bought back stock at an average price that indicated, it happened right at the end of the quarter, because it’s the only time the stock was trading below 30, so you kind of knew how the quarter was going, and you bought stock there now the stocks lower?
And so just kind of juxtapose look even lower stock price where you were — then where you were eager to buy it versus maybe even more attractive opportunities to do a creative M&A?
Greg Roberts : Yes. I’ll focus on what I talked about before. We have we have disclosed and we have a contractual option to increase our stake in Silver Gold Bull, the company in Calgary that that is a very well-run company, the founders are great. We appreciate all they do. We think they run a really good business. We have an option window that opens to take a controlling majority ownership. I believe it opens in December. I believe it’s open for eight months, it’s very specifically defined as to as to how that investment would be made and at what valuation. We’re assessing the performance of that business today we understand that we negotiated this option to give us the flexibility to take advantage of the increased ownership, when we felt it was the — the right deal at the right time related to all of our other options you just mentioned and that one’s you know it’s — it’s pretty baked.
We’re going to continue to look at the window of — of exercising we’re going to continue to look at the economics of that deal and we’re going to continue to look at the economics of all the deals we’re looking at including the buyback. As you can imagine, as our share price reflects our performance or it reflects the sentiment of our shareholders, and the price goes lower, buybacks become more attractive because I believe the stock is on sale. I have in my head, and I always have in my head, what A-Mark is worth. I’m a trader by nature. I have a very good idea what I think the bid side is and what the ask side is. And one of the benefits of being public is that there are supply and demand imbalances just like silver and gold where our stock becomes on sale.
So as I look at that and I look at what I think my ask price is, I can have a very clear picture of what I think the return on investment is if I buy stock at 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, and it goes into my internal calculations as to where each dollar of capital should be deployed. So if I thought the stock was a great deal at 28 or 29, I think the stock is a better deal at 27. And we will act accordingly. As it relates to M&A and acquisitions, I tell people that A-Mark gets priced every hour during trading sessions, five days a week. The value of A-Mark is what it is. Right now, it’s trading at a certain multiple. Our balance sheet is huge. Our tangible net worth is huge. Our book value is $600 million approximately. I tell people, I can’t buy you if I buy A-Mark at a certain price.
And unfortunately, when I say I want to buy you, I don’t always get the response that I want. You know, other people, I have to live with A-Mark being priced every day, and I’ve become very accustomed to that. It doesn’t bother me at all. But as it relates to what I’m going to pay on an acquisition, as I tell people, the deal has to make sense. Otherwise, why am I going to buy you if I can just buy back A-Mark stock and buy myself, which I have a great deal of confidence and control over. So when those discussions happen in a slowing environment and somebody thinks their business is worth X and I tell them now it’s worth 70% of X, two things are going to happen. I’m either going to be right or I’m going to be wrong. And sometimes it takes a little while for the seller to get their arms around what their business is worth.
And so deals that may have looked good four, five, six months ago, they have to be re-priced today. It’s just the way the markets work. But I’m very patient. I mean, I have deals that we’ve looked at four or five times over the last three or four years. Some of them we act on, and some of them we’re very patient, and we will not act unless we get them at the right price. So I am responsible for your money, and I take that responsibility very seriously and I feel like we’ve made very good decisions how we invest your money, and we’re going to continue to do that.
Sy Jacobs: Great. I agree, Greg. Just one little definitional thing. Is it disclosed or can you disclose specifically or generally this option you have to go to majority ownership in silver gold bulls or whatever it’s called in Calgary? Can you say roughly how many millions of dollars that would be cash or whether there would be stock involved? I’m just trying to put it in context of you spent $5 million buying back the stock, your cash still built by $9 million this quarter? I forgot what the number was, $50 million, $40 some odd million in cash. What’s the scope of that possible delay?
