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Now now, Einbert! Benitz set up JOG and therefore is entitled to a large salary and easy options for the rest of JOG's existence, don't you know? After all, setting up this company wasn't "easy peasy"! And who are you to be criticizing Benitz on an anonymous bulletin board? Now be a good lad and run along and play, and keep your opinions to yourself! ;-P
Thanks for your update Jim but there really is no need for you to explain yourself. You've always made your position clear and should that change then that is your call, but glad to see it hasn't changed.
Surety et al. confirming the rns . it so happens that my daughter and i are in the process of buying houses. it required some disposal of JOG shares. that exercise is finished now. otherwise nothing has changed, whilst disappointed (as is everyone) that the SP is in flat mode my opinion that JOG has a promising future is still held. Am also happy with AB. to me the only significant cloud is the likely incoming leftie govt which may or may not play to the green gallery. i totally support the policy of ensuring the UK has its own energy production whether it's oil/gas/windfarms/nuclear. As none of the green ones are in no position to replace oil/gas for the next 10/15 years it is better to continue to encourage the North sea. and not import at higher cost from outside sources. i am sure the GMB union will have something more to say as well.
Jim,
Would be curious for your view, it's always appreciated - even if you are selling in totality
First NR now JB…
MPO the only way forward is to sell the company as per Dick’s posts.
From Serica's results
The Environmental Statement and draft Field Development Plan for the Buchan project have been submitted, with completion of Serica's acquisition of a 30% interest is expected to occur during February.
The JOG CEO isn't doing any operator ship? Just managing investors and financial strategy?
Time for a new CEO, a real oil man who knows the business of field development.
I do agree, onthe6, that the presentation skills of Benitz are greatly lacking; I don't think I've heard so many "ahhs", "eeeerms" and "ummms" since the last time someone from CNBC asked QuidProJoe to disprove the rumours of his cognitive decline by telling the gathered press corps the day of the week!
I'm not an AB basher and I'm very pleased to see AB get out there and promote the company as DU has previously suggested. His presentation skills are weak but he interviews much better. His personal fortunes may well be enhanced by investing in a presentation skills course - it's a learned skill like much else. I know my old corporate employer, even at my lowly level, would not have let me in front of customers with that level of presentation skill. That said, he's kicked off some valuable communications to a wider investor catchment. He might enlist his co-directors help if they are more comfortable than he with further such efforts.
Dive, you are correct. Sometimes it’s not the most informative or cleverest poster giving the important information. I’m not afraid of being ridiculed, I just ask questions. This is a discussion board.
So if cost overrun is £100m, our share is £1.8m? Am I right? Before anyone yelling down their screens, I’m not suggesting anything, just a figure then our share of it.
AB was never a natural presenter, most of us aren’t. But he does sound beaten. The problem is this is still a long wait until 2026, 2027 for most investors. Let’s hope someone will buy us out.
Interesting that he mentioned investment allowance for any possible development over spend.
Presume Neo/ Serica would pay from their profits eligible for the allowance, and JOG gives them the 9p in the pound back.
Which means the 25 odd million would go a long way in an over-budget situation.
Another new one here https://youtu.be/Sayz-DCNHQ8?si=oK1A49cS5QHYbqVx or this https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/jersey-oil-gas---leveraged-returns-from-north-sea-oil-discovery I suppose there's no point dwelling too much on what might have been but I do wonder where we'd be now if they'd just offered Equinor 80% 3 years ago instead of the 50% equinor turned down, always easy to say in hindsight. I also wonder if not wrapping Verbier up in a parralel Buchan FDP submission might have something to do with the payments triggered to Equinor when the Verbier FDP and first oil happen. I think the 3.5x will be like the aim to leave themselves with 25%-20% and ending up with 20%, and in reality they're expecting more like 3x than 3.5x it doesn't look much like a sellers market to me at the moment. GLA and remaining hopeful of a quick sale.
DO - re " I think it's more a question of what activity is to be undertaken once the Serica farm out is completed and the remaining paperwork is completed (which I highly doubt is CEO activity.) With farmouts and FDP completed, what demanding work do you anticipate needs doing by the JOG team? "
That question requires/deserves a specific answer.
My impression was that Neo would be doing everything once final go-ahead is achieved
I seriously hope it will be a sale soon at a reasonable price. Surely when it comes to that we shareholders should have a say? I dare say 99% of us would prefer a sale. Disagree? 98% then. Have a good weekend break from this site.
Ouch
I consider myself "told".
"Thanks for the lecture on the sheer simplicity of setting up a NS E&P player on a budget of nothing" ??
Perhaps you could point to this "lecture" which talks about "simplicity" of any kind in "setting up a NS E&P player"? I'm not sure where you get this simplistic idea that anyone has suggested this was "easy peasy".
"They will have considered at all times what steps to take that are in shareholders' best interests."
LMAO are we actually talking about AIM here? Could you perhaps point out an AIM company which exemplifies this approach of considering "at all times what steps to take that are in shareholders' best interests"? Would perhaps the activities of Trap Oil's former leadership team, especially towards the end when they took their much reduced salaries immediately in cash, be a good example? It being AIM, I know there'll be no shortage of examples of selfless director behaviour putting the interests of shareholders first.
"Who are we, as keyboard warriors on a blogsite like this, to challenge their decisions"
Shareholders, that's who!
"Names and salaries please."
I believe a (half-hearted) suggestion was actually made in the very next sentence to the one you quote! Salaries....hmmmm... that's an interesting question, I think it's more a question of what activity is to be undertaken once the Serica farm out is completed and the remaining paperwork is completed (which I highly doubt is CEO activity.) With farmouts and FDP completed, what demanding work do you anticipate needs doing by the JOG team?
Perhaps you could try turning the situation on its head for us and suggesting what you think JOG's leaders will need to be doing from 2025 onwards which will justify millions in shareholder cash heading out the door in salaries (and bonuses, no doubt, we've yet to hear about how highly they're going to reward themselves for achieving the farm outs, since apparently that wasn't what they were paid salaries for!) Or perhaps the view is that since Benitz was one of the founders he's entitled to an inflation-busting salary (with bonuses) for life from JOG?
Because my perspective, simplistic as it may be, is that JOG is all or nothing based on the GBA - if Neo and/or Serica decide 'No' at the point of FID, then all JOG shareholders will have left is the cash in the bank, and we all know how well that turned out for investors in Trap Oil.
When Boris had a hundred and fifty seat majority, I suspect AB, RL and other influential shareholders thought that £10 might even have been the low end of expectations but how times have changed (and the dirty word oil is never mentioned).
Timing is all and JOG have taken a bit longer to get their farm outs away than we'd all hoped. But I think it is naive to believe that AB isn't well aware of shareholders attitudes to his position and the skills he's had to import. I think both he and RL would like a sale asap and I suspect that given the cash they have both taken out of the business, they will have a realistic attitude to what JOG's value is now. Three times today's value is nearer £6 than £10.
Thanks for the lecture on the sheer simplicity of setting up a NS E&P player on a budget of nothing and a few years later - despite strong headwinds along the way - getting it to the brink of a pay-out (for those who have been with JOG throughout its journey) of something in the order of 200x its initial market cap.
Easy peasy.
Has everything gone according to plan for JOG since it reversed into the remains of Trapoil in 2015? Of course it hasn't - it never does. People would know this if they had a modicum of understanding of the complexities of establishing and running a business of any merit - never mind one of the most complex it's possible to encounter.
Have mistakes been made along the way? They probably have - it would be a surprise if they hadn't. But has the company achieved what it might realistically have been expected to, given the circumstances. "Not yet" might be the accurate answer, but the company is as well placed as it is realistic to expect it to be, given Greta et al and the low behaviour of the Conservative government - for which I shall never vote again - in mounting the raid it did on the UK O&G industry (all for quick money to spend on the wrong people to win their votes). These low-lifes opened the door for Labour to complete the job of finally killing off the North Sea - and hundreds of thousands of skilled jobs it's spawned not just in the industry itself, but in many industries impacted by its products.
JAB doesn't run the company on his own. There's a team of experienced and enormously capable individuals (led by Les Thomas, an acknowledged industry heavyweight) overseeing all. They will have considered at all times what steps to take that are in shareholders' best interests. Who are we, as keyboard warriors on a blogsite like this, to challenge their decisions when we don't know the facts, or what routes it was open for the Company to choose?
No-one is precluded from taking up their concerns directly with either the chairman, the CEO or any other director. I have made contact directly on many occasions and, whilst my concerns could not always be eased by information it was proper (and legal) to give me, nonetheless my concerns were taken seriously and I always came away feeling my views were valued. Sometimes circumstances I had not taken into account were pointed out to me, enabling me to reassess the situation. Occasionally I have posted info here I felt others might benefit from having.
IMO If Labour introduces "a proper windfall tax", any company making a decision to invest in the NS would have to be insane. With tax @78% and no enhanced reinvestment relief, there'd be nothing in it to make investment worthwhile. Run the DCF numbers if you doubt me. The hope that is that Labour will back down - let's hope it does.
Re: " I think the whole leadership needs sacking to conserve cash, and replacing with someone capable and who knows the industry well"............
Names and salaries please.
Consider also the NEDs and Les Thomas, and multiple heavy hitting shareholders that will protect our interests.
MPO818, I've been saying similar things to people in private for a while now.
I've no objection to paying management for delivering shareholder value, but most of the current market cap simply reflects the money investors have ploughed into the company over the past years.
Regardless of the price people paid for their own holdings, I just don't see how there is any legitimate need for Benitz and the people who were drafted in to do the job he was (apparently) unable to do, now that the farm outs are done. If the company isn't sold quickly, then I think there needs to be a dramatic culling of those who collectively are draining about a million a year in shareholders' cash for their salaries (and, no doubt, we will see Benitz needs a large bonus for delivering at the very bottom of his forecast farm ins, behind schedule and despite the fact that he couldn't actually get the deals over the line himself.)
Buchan looks like a fantastic asset, and hopefully the unions will persuade the numbskulls who lead the gvmt-in-waiting to back down on these punitive NS measures. There's no doubt in my mind that Benitz had a role to play in bringing the company to market, but he's no north sea heavyweight that's for sure, and I don't see what value he adds to the company these days. As I often hear people in the investment world say, nobody's interested in history.
The only bit of JOG history which I think is relevant is that if there's no sale of the company in 2024, then I think the whole leadership needs sacking to conserve cash, and replacing with someone capable and who knows the industry well - perhaps Landsdell could be persuaded out of retirement for a part-time care and maintenance role until the oil revenues start flowing in during 2026. (I always felt that the wrong founder was shown the door when RL left and we were left with Benitz.)
Im sure a bird in the bush, or 10 million in the bank trumps 300k a year.
Whilst AB continues to collect his £300k salary + whatever add on's available and with the knowledge that in 2/3 years time cash will be flooding into the company he (imo) will be in no great hurry to sell the company. In the interview he reiterated there will be circa £25m cash at the next year end and running costs for sitting on their hands is circa £3m pa. Why should he rush?
I hope by now AB is convinced the only way forward is to sell the company. Please don’t be too greedy in your negotiations. Good weekend all.
Talking nonsense EinbertAlstein, did you watch the video -I think you vote for this party? "The Loony Party would issue fifty trillion pounds of quantitative easing and give all voters free lunch and complimentary drinks".