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Agree,
And once trust in the board goes there is not a lot left. For me the board are enjoying the full benefits and more of the Egypt acquisition and "shareholders" are left with the crumbs. It says a lot about the man (BL). I expected much more. This is his baby but its a public company and you feel like he is trying to claw back a better share... He seems to be potless based on his activities, although he draws a massive salary.
On close inspection Egypt is not as great as I thought either..
The currency is held in Egypt - can we get it out?
And The Egyptian government take 60 percent of UOG's cut. Which is a colossal amount. So for 3000 bopd we get about 1300. When you are paying salaries like we are. That wont go that far.
Superb post fbjr.
Superb post fbrj, very accurate and well detailed.
Like you say, all we have is the SP which keeps getting knocked down purely from the BOD's actions regardless of all the progress made.
I'll stand by my 10:51 interpretation of how this has progressed and the company's opinion of us PI's.
When we went back to AIM at the start of 2019 the reason was "cost and administrative savings for the Company”
Makes me wonder....
Brent price heading up nicely.
The fundamentals have not changed.
Expecting the 'dark doubting forces', to move on soon.
This BoD have proven that they are not lifestyle Directors, like many others that can be found on Aim.
Check out their backgrounds.
Keep an eye on that Egypt activity. $$$$$$$s
C.
Great post fbrj
I think what has irritated ppl is the huge increases in remuneration, much of it in cash and yet BL and JL did not put a penny up towards the cost of exercising at least some of the warrants. So, for example, BL would have effectively sold 3m shares (say at 4.5p) to raise £140,000 to obtain the funding to exercise his warrants - leaving him with the balance of shares of 6.75m shares worth some £300,000. Although my comments relate to BL they apply equally to JL.
For those who haven't read the detail of the annual report a new remuneration policy was adopted during the year. BL's base salary (US$'000):
2019 - 155
2020 - 207
2021 - 305 (expressed as 250 Euros in AR)
Cash 2020 bonuses (US$'000)
2019 - 79 (2020 AR report discloses this as deferred 2019 bonus - no mention of this in 2019 AR)
2020 - 97
Also, in 2020 the board awarded themselves over 35m new share options, exercisable between 3-4p (this is treble the amount of options they held at the start of the year).
Under the new remuneration policy the executive directors are now eligible for 100% bonuses of base salary, if various (undisclosed) targets are met. For 2020, 40% was paid as a bonus.
As a shareholder one performance target I have is the SP performance over 2020. As we all know it actually dropped from approx 3.5p to 3p. and probably explains the 40% level of bonus.
I think we all recognise that Egypt has turned out well and the board should be given credit for executing the acquisition. However, it should also be recognised that ongoing results here are not in the gift of the UOG board; OUG is a minority partner and beholden to Kuwait Energy.
We will now never know of course but I suspect that if BL had put his hand in his pocket for say £25-30k (out of 2020 cash compensation of approx £300k gross) towards the £140,000 needed the SP would not have been trashed by 10%+. On the face of it, it leaves me wondering why he did not want to buy more shares at 1.42p?
Thornback: re your 10:51 post... hardly.
We're talking about the board selling a few shares in order to buy more back at a price they are entitled to as part of a previous remuneration package.
If your post was true then I'd be telling myself to go fcuk myself. Even for me that is something...
JTDOLAN and HalfSovereign you are too kind. I don't profess to being right all the time but I am glad that I have made people think a bit.
I still can't get my head around where all the sells keep coming from in to any good news and I am taken a back by the mgt actions of recent days.
It's a shame Larkin doesn't care as much about the Sp as he does that team of prima donnas over the Pennines.
BL can be trusted! he’s a stand up genuine down to earth true blue !!!
Man Utd supporter he can be forgiven for that....
I don't see Levi's questions/queries as criticisms HS but I know it's just your wording.
Bobby, I believe there is still more growth to come here and that's why I'm not selling, but my strategy has changed.
There are 3 points that niggle me which have all been worded as positives yet have had a negative effect on the SP and all been of BL's doing.
1. Forward selling warrants.
2. Salaries shown in different currencies.
3. RKH shares aquisition and subsequent SP disappointment.
Each to their own but at the end of the day trust in the BOD is a big deal to me.
Let us know if you find something with the fundamentals as strong as this company.
Or have a management team with the experience and credentials that we have here
The potential in Jamaica for anyone here with a half decent holding can be life changing
In UOG we trust!
Yes Levi has been right with his criticism all along.
At the moment I am keeping an eye on the Middle East with Israel .
If that overspills then investments in Egypt and everywhere else around there could get a bit iffy.
Levi has been bang on from the start, sorry for shat I gave you bro. Either way, I'm out at a not bad profit - Larkers is full of it. All the best.
When people are selling over such trivia things that happen all the time and flapping, teddy bears out the cot...It’s time to load up...it’s an opportunity. Nothing fundamentally has changed...the drill bit is still turning, production rising, revenues rising as we speak. Thanks for the top up
Bobby things look good now, but if egypt wells start getting drained and production wanes, will Brian take a 50% salary cut? We have much higher running costs now so I expect a good standard of behaviour ( not being seen currently ) to justify his salary.
This could easily look very different.
And remember the Egyptian govt take about 60% of UOGs BOPD production as part of the agreement. Its not quite as great as it looks.
I accept all you say, as I can see you feel strongly about it. My final word is that I just don't understand (perhaps my mindset is too pragmatic) why you would remain a holder when that's how you feel? It seems to me to be a contradiction, but as I say that may be my pragmatism talking....
Gregpeck that is how I now see this .
It has become another typical aim share that has now too much self interest and no interest in shareholders .
We will never get them away from the trough now .
Because its your company as a shareholder. He may have set it up but he is just a custodian and has a very small amount of shares that he has picked up for basically nothing.
So as a shareholder you could look to get rid of Brian and pals if you think they are basically not running the company for shareholders.
Personally I could have lived with him buying the warrants - BUT its the forward selling I dont like. Tells you he is potless. Despite all the salary etc. And a potless CEO will do this again. He is looking like a chancer now.
PUT SOME OF YOUR MONEY IN BRIAN .
Thats the message from me. Stop taking advantage of shareholders, you are taking the pee now.
spot on!!
All part of Brians dream plan to buy Man United suck UOG absolutely dry to put in a MUFC takeover offer
The end result is holding a larger % of UOG shares than before. In BL's case that's 2.5%. ...I'm not going to argue the other salary points as that is very subjective and there will be different opinions on this. I'm a great believer in focusing on what the BOD delivers to me as a shareholder over time, rather than what they get paid for doing so....Ultimately, if shareholders take umbrage then they can vote with their feet by selling and investing elsewhere. The bit that always confuses me is that people don't sell, but instead remain holders of the shares but then sit there moaning about the situation? If you feel that bad about why remain a shareholder?
But your are not invested in a football team for a financial return. You buy stocks for a financial return, not directly an emotional rollercoaster. If the BOD are siphoning off large chunks of shareholder value and enriching themselves your return, or potential return is being eroded.
Im all for fairness and I was pretty strong in supporting the payrises, but this is like having the cake with the cherry on the top. I see too much greed now. And the final straw is forward selling the warrants to line their fat wallets. They wont put their hands in their pocket for any equity, they want it all for nothing. Their hefty salaries are paying for them to do a job, this is shabby behaviour. End of.
I see the potential here but I am very very disappointed / underwhelmed with the BOD. Really leaves a bad taste.
Makes me think they are all about their wallets, and as I said before, that tends to end badly.
Ha! What abuse? So, it seems to me that you are mainly sounding off about the sp, even though you feel the company itself is in a good position operationally. I get that, I just think that the collective sounding off just creates an echo chamber of moaning which permeates beyond to others. Not sure what the point is in generating that ongoing negativity, when ultimately it's the performance of the company's assets that will be the driver of value....?
bobby it's undervalued, drilling is going great and they have just brought an exploration well in that opens up a new area but the same selling pattern continues unabated. Ask yourself why instead of criticising me. The sp was already well below what it should be and the mgt have just made it worse. I will say no more and take my leave for now before the abuse starts.
Ok, let's try this from another angle....I get that you and others have taken the Warrant issue badly....But aside from that emotive point, what's your view of the fundamentals position here? To use an analogy, I may not like the salaries/pay pack of the footballers at the team I support, but ultimately I don't know it matters that much if they win trophies. My question to you, is do you believe the fundamentals of UOG's business are there to "win trophies"? Is there a reason that this weeks news affects that in a fundamental way?