If you'd invested in: Equatorial Palm Oil and DiamondCorp

published 31 March 2017

If only...

Equatorial Palm Oil (Aim: PAL) produces crude palm oil from its two estates in Liberia. It is 60% owned by the Malaysian agricultural giant, KLK, and has recently started planting again after a two-year land development moratorium; it is also building a palm oil mill. In the year to 30 September it made a pre-tax loss of $1.276m, down from $1.391m the previous year. Since listing in 2009, the share price has fallen by more than 70%, but in the last year it has rallied by more than 140%.

Be glad you didn't

DiamondCorp (Aim: DCP) is a diamond producer operating the Lace mine in South Africa. The company says it is "focused on maximising shareholder value" through development of its "high-margin diamond production assets". It listed on Aim in early 2007 and shortly after peaked at just over 100p. Since then, it's been downhill all the way. The shares now stand at 0.5p, a loss of more than 99%.

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Ben studied modern languages at London University's Queen Mary College. After dabbling unhappily in local government finance for a while, he went to work for The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. The launch of the paper's website, scotsman.com, in the early years of the dotcom craze, saw Ben move online to manage the Business and Motors channels before becoming deputy editor with responsibility for all aspects of online production for The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News websites, along with the papers' Edinburgh Festivals website.

Ben joined MoneyWeek as website editor in 2008, just as the Great Financial Crisis was brewing. He has written extensively for the website and magazine, with a particular emphasis on alternative finance and fintech, including blockchain and bitcoin.

As an early adopter of bitcoin, Ben bought when the price was under $200, but went on to spend it all on foolish fripperies.