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Kels, sorry I was getting slightly mixed up between your post and Ezhiks – I quite agree that you did not say he had been gifted the shares.
I agree that he believed that he thought Azer would be a success but as I have said repeatedly, I think that one of the things that nobody could have predicted about Azer was how poor the datasets for the wells turned out to be and how much worse condition they were in than originally predicted.
I do think that he made a mistake by putting all of Zen’s eggs in the one Azer basket and underestimated how difficult and expensive the Azerbaijan authorities were going to be to a company that they knew were effectively a captive audience. However, I would say that this lesson has clearly been learned and is why they are buying in existing production assets in multiple jurisdictions at the moment.
As to the purchases, if you look at the figures I put out earlier you will see that he bought 30% of his shareholding (17 million) since December 29th 2019 as opposed to the other 70% (44 million) since September 2017.
In terms of cash you are not far wrong in that he spent 85% of his money prior to this year and 15% in the first 6 months of 2020. This is obviously because the share price has fallen due to lack of success in Azer. However, even in cash terms there only a small difference in the amount purchased – on a pro-rata basis over the six half year periods starting Aug 2017 he previously spent on average £270,000 per half year and in the first 6 months of this year he had spent £230,758 until May so this is still 85% of what he had spent on average in the rest of the time.
What I am trying to say is that the only reason he spent 85% of his money before we were in Africa is because we have only been in Africa for 6 months. The average spend is still almost the same. Does that make sense?
MG if you read my post I didn’t suggest he has been gifted most of his shares and I didn’t say he had stopped buying in the last 6 months when they backed away from azer. I said if he was honest he would look back and say he was more than a tad naive/deluded about how certain he was that we would succeed in azer, and also around how much of his own wealth he continued to throw at it (I should know as I did the same!) I estimate 90% of his financial commitment into buying shares was done before the start of this year and therefore based on success at azer. I also said he was proud and he’s going to throw everything at this to try and turn things around and save his reputation . I personally think he’s showing a similar naivety in dealing with the Congolese authorities but time will tell . GL one and all
Kelsbells - As I think you may have read in my post on May 26th I went through all of the RNS releases relating to directors dealings for AC. It took a while but has now given me an excel sheet which I can refer to for easy answers to his share purchases.
We know AC owns 52,184,115 shares. He bought 41,778,954 of them between the 27th September 2017 and the 7th August 2019. These cost him a total of £1,351,155. He also transferred away or sold 3,160,000 during this time period.
Between the 27th December 2019 and he 4th May 2020 he purchased a further 17,501,155 shares and paid a further £230,758 for these. He transferred 1,500,000 away in this time period.
So the idea that AC stopped buying shares after Zenith decided to focus on Africa instead of Azerbaijan is not correct – he has bought £230,758 worth of shares in the last 7 months, which is pretty much the same rate at which he has always bought.
Secondly the idea that he is being gifted shares and not paying for them is also nonsense. Taking shares instead of salary still costs you and most of his purchases have been for cash anyway. By the rational that some here have offered everybody ‘s employer buys their shares in any company because their wages pay for the purchases. It’s just nonsensical.
The long and the short of it is that AC has handed over £1.5 million of his own money (salary sacrifice, placings and on-market purchases) to acquire his 52 million shareholding in Zenith. This is a damned site more than most small cap CEO’s hold in their companies and is a massive statement of faith in what is coming next for Zenith.
Carlosan. I have just read your message, and apologies for apparently ignoring it. I am happy for you if you remain confident here, I sincerely hope that it pays off. Kelsbels has pretty much answered in a way that I would agree. I think that we have both had conversations with, and met with Andrea over the past couple of years and I would agree that he is proud or some might say stubborn, or even over confident. He told me on a couple of occasions that he was 'underwhelmed' at the performance of operations in the field but he was 'confident' that the situation would change. Hence him buying stock, and me keeping invested. Don't forget though, that much of his shareholding is from shares allocated from remuneration and the rest bought from salary, all paid by Zen, i.e. you and I, and his remuneration has definitely not been small or reflective of the performance of the company. He is a likeable chap, has always been supportive and courteous in any conversation or correspondence which said a great deal to me. He lost his way with Azer and I too believe that the admission of failure is not in his vocabulary and I am sure that he is determined to prove himself. However, a caveat to that is, all the time he is doing this, his personal wealth is increasing and his pension pot is growing, therefore the word 'success' is somewhat subjective and dependant upon from which viewpoint one takes.. I am waiting for something more tangible and proof of concept before putting any money here again.