History
A former assisted-living owner that tried cable TV in Bulgaria, then flipped Arkansas shale leases into Ohio and West Virginia gas wells, kept its listing through repeated related-party share purchases.
2001-2006: From eldercare to oil and a Bulgarian detour
The company, then called Greenbriar, had spent the mid-1990s building an assisted-living and real-estate business. In October 2001 it settled a control dispute with major shareholder LSOF Pooled Equity by buying back its stake for $4M cash plus 11 of its 24 assisted-living properties. That ended the litigation but left a smaller business.
In September 2003 it made its first move into oil and gas, paying roughly $1.2M for Gaywood Oil and Gas, which held 110 East Texas leases and about 40 producing wells. The seller was a trust benefiting the family of related party Gene Phillips.
A larger bet followed in October 2004. In a related-party stock swap, the company issued preferred stock to the Finley/Phillips group for indirect control of CableTEL, Bulgaria's largest cable-TV and telecom operator. In October 2005 SEC accounting staff overruled the company's accounting for the deal, forcing a restatement that cut reported 2004 total assets from $50.5M to $16.9M. In June 2006 the deal was unwound. The Finley/Phillips group took CableTEL back, the company received a $1.5M break-up fee and cancelled the preferred stock, and CEO Ron Finley resigned.
2006-2008: Delisting threat and the Phillips rescue
The unwinding left a shrunken oil and real-estate portfolio. In August 2006 AMEX warned the renamed CabelTel International that it fell below minimum shareholders' equity standards. In October 2007 it moved to delist the company outright, citing missed milestones, including failure to raise $2.1M in equity and to close a promised Fayetteville Shale mineral-rights purchase. The company appealed.
In January 2008 it acquired about 1,712 net acres in Arkansas from Eurenergy Arkansas LLC, using a $4,000-per-acre note, with options on more acreage. In February it announced that URC Energy, owned by Gene Phillips, would buy 950,000 new shares at $3 each ($2.85M). The purchase closed in March, roughly doubling shares outstanding from 986,939 to 1,936,939. URC held just over 49%, and Phillips-affiliated holders about 69% in total, a deemed change of control. It cured the equity shortfall and the delisting appeal was cancelled. Existing shareholders were heavily diluted.
2008: The shale flip and Mountaineer State
In May 2008, four months after buying the leases, the company sold all its Fayetteville Shale acreage to XTO Energy. That was the original 1,712 net acres plus 2,398 more from exercised options. It received about $16.4M cash and booked a $14.5M after-tax gain.
In September it used that money to win a bankruptcy-court bid for Carl E. Smith Inc. and its affiliates: 94 producing and 121 non-producing gas wells across 20,000 acres in Ohio and West Virginia. It paid about $13.9M cash plus deferred payments. The acquired business became Mountaineer State Energy, and the parent became New Concept Energy.
2009-2026: Another listing squeeze and repeat insider funding
The record is quiet for the following decade. In April 2018 the company again fell short of listing standards, this time on NYSE American, with just $0.6M in stockholders' equity and losses in three of the last four years. In June it arranged a fix: Realty Advisors, a related party that shared an officer with the company, agreed to buy 3 million new shares for $4.5M. The deal closed in December 2018 after shareholder and NYSE approval, giving Realty Advisors 59.6% and a deemed change of control. Proceeds were earmarked for overdue payables and the first of a four-well drilling program. Shares on issue rose from about 2.0 million to about 5.1 million.
The relief was partial. In December 2019 NYSE flagged the company again: equity had grown to $2.4M but still fell short of the minimum, with losses in three of the last four years. By then the company described itself simply as an Ohio and West Virginia oil and gas operator.
In April 2026 Realty Advisors agreed to buy 2 million more shares at $1.00 or more per share, again structured as a deemed change of control and pending shareholder and NYSE approval. At that date the company was a small Ohio and West Virginia gas producer, with the deal not yet completed.
Written from the 17 story beats below (2001 to 14 Apr 2026), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.