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Agreed - AGM should be in June?
On this one investors taken for mugs and treated with contempt. Our only hope is to take HNL cochran to task at a hopefully in person AGM this year and get firm date for reliet whether market conditions are good, bad, or just plain ugly no excuses
...both doing well. Could be a deal imminent. Soon find out if HALO is a target for either of these buyers.
Seems to me you can't have the industry becoming more confident at the same time as acute extreme difficulty possibly becoming chronic.
Gas looks fairly well positioned atm imo.
The lack of enthusiasm maybe suggests AC might propose a sale or is in the process of agreeing a sale. Or it is all a guise to make PI's feel lucky that the company is surviving so don't push the re-list agenda. SQZ must be getting cash generative so I suppose the outlook is different for them. SQZ are trawling for mega catches in the north sea, HALO are crabbing off Cromer Pier.
the way shell are going at the moment may just write it off and become a shell
He never used to be like this but has gone to ground using pessimistic language and needs digging out. Compare his comment in the letter to the investor group about the upstream sector having suffered extremely acute difficulty in 2020 which is "possibly becoming chronic", with SQZ's comment last month "We believe 2021 will bring new opportunities to grow through acquisition against a more confident industry backdrop"
Thank you for all your efforts trying to resolve this issue with the company. I guess it comes down to the integrity of Andrew Cochran in the end. He must be reasonably wealthy so I can't see this being about milking cash out of the company but without knowing him it is hard to call. Commodity prices are working in our favour so AC's excuses are limited. Hopefully we will get an update in March, failing that we may have to wait until May.
Ghostwriter,
Thanks for your post and update. We can only hope for the futures good news.
ATB
Approaching middle February and unless ghostwriter is keeping responses from Hnl to himself which I doubt more like no response at all give complete lack of respect and integrity from company towards P.I’s and other investors. ...as others stated regards to video very shifty not sure where go from here unless we approach other larger investor institutions to force issue
The link to this video should be added to the definition of shifty in the OED.
BB
For the majority of people looking up and to the right means a person is constructing a picture (. Looking up on to the left usually shows they are remembering a picture). Fits the context of the conversation imho
WS
.this was the interview - 2015 - same year i bought into this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhGYPonsbxI
Wish I'd watched this before - interesting watching the lack of eye contact - looking up to the ceiling - classic signs of you know what...
Lets just say I'm even less confident about seeing any of my money, ever, after looking at him NOT looking at the interviewer when talking about HALO
Stumbled upon this yesterday and responded the the HALO group.
I can't believe this has been suspended since mid 2017!
I can see you can contact HALO on their site - is their any mileage in asking some very forthright questions about Cochran's salary? Or am I just p!ssing in the wind ?
It might help me relieve some anger - what do you think ? :-)
Why cant they just say 'we're not relisting and we're keeping all your money' ?
Sure. You only need the 2019 and 2017 reports, as each has the previous 2 years of salaries.
2019 Annual Report : https://haloil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Halo-2019-annual-report-8.6.20.pdf
2017 Annual Report : https://haloil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Annual_report_2017.pdf
Just search for "remuneration" and you will find the salaries.
And yes, in 2019, Phelps and Valand received GBP 45,000 each. But less was spent on other directors in previous years, different every year. My numbers were only for Cochran, who obviously takes the lion's share. Debatable if the other directors will continue to take salaries in the future. I guess that depends on their relationship with Cochran.
Bottom line is that as long HALO cannot be sold or re-listed for more than about GBP 30 million, it seems Cochran is not really motivated to try to sell the company and instead will likely drain it down for salaries / expenses / perks - all while ignoring shareholders, the true owners of the company.
That's a great suggestion, ie Cochran to buy shares (giving us shareholders the pro-rata cash!) for previous salary payments
and take shares in lieu for salary in the future. I predict he would not do such an honourable thing. But it is a good suggestion to make (to him), to flush out the fact that he is indeed taking us for a ride. He would ignore it, which would just confirm my view of his character, or lack thereof. Snake oil salesmen at least give their chumps some oil.
Yup. Concur. Said the same 7 Dec.
6p looks good now eh?
Maybe if Cochran wants to get our trust he should pay back last three years salary and take shares in lieu. This would show faith in company and maybe other on board do same...I had shares in IOG who did this just a thought
Thanks for the response, I agree with your points, but I have lost all confidence in Cochran. I don't believe he has any intent whatsoever to allow shareholders to commercialise.
In the 2017 Annual Report the Chairman (Cochran) said "As part of the transaction the Company de-listed from the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in September of 2017 in order to be able to complete the transaction in the timeliest and most cost-efficient manner. For the remainder of the year HALO was focused towards closing, then integrating the new portfolio into the Company as well as attending to all remaining post-transactional matters. HALO intends to re-list in 2018 when market conditions are deemed supportive and all requisite external reporting matters are completed." 2018 was a long, long time ago.
According to the Annual Reports, Cochran was paid GBP 224,733 in 2019, GBP 227,167 in 2018, and GBP 174,976 in 2017. I don't know what he has paid himself in 2020 yet, but assuming it's the same as previous years, that's over a million US dollars since the company de-listed.
So the company (which is owned by the shareholders) has given Cochran over a million dollars since de-listing, and precisely zero dollars to the shareholders who are unable to commercialise their shares.
Cochran has an 8.64% equity in the company. I think he has decided that selling the company / re-listing is not as attractive as simply continuing to drawdown a salary. In the former, he is giving away 91.36% of the company to us, the other shareholders. In the latter, he will probably give himself around a quarter of a million pounds every year, no questions asked (or at least no answers given!) for little work. If he continues to give himself that kind of salary until he is 60 (he is 51 now - only another 9 years away - he's done this for 4 years already), then he makes roughly as much cash from salary compared to commercialising his 8.64% equity assuming the company is worth around GBP 30 million today (and worth zero when he retires at 60). Anybody seriously believe HALO is worth GBP 30 million today? Obviously if he continues to give himself salary after age 60 (why not?) it makes the logic of NOT selling /re-listing even more compelling. - to Cochran.
Obviously this assumes there is always cash in the company. At the end of 2019 there was GBP 3.74 million. That would keep him in gravy until Cochran hits 65.
That's what I mean by a pension plan.
I hope I am wrong. But I struggle to have faith where there is no evidence to suggest that the faith is warranted.
Rob - not sure what you mean about donating to his personal pension plan ? As far as I am aware there has been no sale of shares to the market to raise cash since the incorporation of HALO (March 2015). We have bought shares in the Company which was subsequently removed/suspended from trading and we have been waiting nearly 4 years for its return. I agree that Cochrane needs to make a unequivocal statement to his shareholders and market to when the Company will return to trading. I am happy he did not do it last year based on market conditions but I would like to think it is high on his agenda for this year.
Who knows, I like the rest of you would like to enjoy trading my shares in the market sooner rather than later and if he sells the Company like to think that all shareholders would see a return on what we paid for our shares.
Instead of a direct response to the shareholder letter I would like to see a PR addressing those concerns/issues and hopefully some dates that we can take to the bank!!!
Glen
"Contempt" is exactly the right word. Cochran is taking the investors for a ride. I suspect he knows he will never again attract investors after this debacle, so he is draining the company dry and has no interest in interacting with the suckers who donated to his personal pension plan.
Ghostwriter letter was a positive move, but not sure if it will do any good as any information could be possibly construed insider information, and secondly Ghost gave the 30 days to reply if this company had any regard for P.I.s or any investor they would have not waited the full 30 days personally I think the company had scant regard, and I’ll go further contempt for investors we’ll see.....I was prepared to give leeway due to 2020 and covid but not anymore
Hi ghost, thanks for the update and disappointing no explanation has been forthcoming from the board. “Market conditions” the price is reasonably stable at the moment, understandable if we were talking about the first half of 2020.
I will send you over an email with my holdings tomorrow.
Thanks again
Hi all
First time poster on this BB.
I’ve held these shares for close to 10 years and Been stuck in them for the last 4 years because of the de-listing.
Had there been any timeline as to relisting? I stopped following the share updates a couple of years ago after the re-listing consistently failed to materialise.....share Certs now gathering dust in the bottom drawer.
Any opinion on relisting or future of the company would be much appreciated!
Thanks