Expert: Steven Taylor - 8/20/2009

Question
I found that my grandma bought shares in Forbes Lake Mining Corporation.  Do you know how I can find out if they are good shares or not?

Answer
Tim, the current value would depend on how many shares your grandmother originally had in Forbes Lake.

The Company did a 1 for 3 reverse split and became Westore, then Westore was acquired by Bison Petroleum on the basis of 1 Bison for every 13 Westore. Already, every 39 shares of Forbes Lake would be only 1 share of Bison.

In 1987, Bison changed its name to United Bison and did a 1 for 100 reverse stock split immediately followed by a 100 for 1 forward split. The reason for the two splits was they had a lot of shareholder with under 100 shares. If a shareholder had less than 100 shares of Bison, the reverse split would move them to less than 1 new share of United Bison, and they would receive cash in lieu of the new shares. The 100 for 1 forward split would then make all the other shareholders whole again. If your grandmother had less than 100 Bison, then she would have been wiped out by the 1 for 100 reverse and likely received a small check for her shares in 1987.

If you grandmother had more than 3900 Forbes Lake (assuming there were no other share consolidations I am unaware of), then she should have had more than 100 United Bison. In that case, the changes continue. There were several other name changes and consolidations before the company became KHD Humboldt Wedag International, a multinational equipment and engineering design firm which trades on the NYSE for about $9 a share.

If you think your grandmother had enough Forbes Lake to have any KHD today, you need to contact their current transfer agent, Mellon Investor Services at www.melloninvestor.com. You might contact them just to confirm the above information, as well as the off-chance your grandmother actually owned more Forbes Lake than you know about - it does happen from time to time where people will buy more or have other certificates they forget about.