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I am sure there are other scenarios, but at the risk of oversimplification, I think that the only material reason why creeping takeovers have been made possible is because the management, starting from NM, have been fixated with obtaining a full price to sell the company and screwing the majors up, rather than looking at engaging them at the levels that the market conditions would imply.
After so many years I think we are all more than ripe for a sale at a realistic level and eager to move on.
In the ideal world that does not exist, I would love to see a statement from SOLG to invite suitors to show bids with a deadline, price starting low, simple and transparent. Overnight the real value of the buying interest would show and we would rerate 100-200%.
Crazy times......
You can be sure Italian that Bob is wooing bidders, but...
Having seen what happened at Noront, who wants to be a stalking horse...?
And I'm certain that with so much vested interest Sangha is seeking the highest price and/or the best deal fir shareholders because he had 153 million shares at stake.
But if the Board is booted, that goes out the window.
And has everyone forgotten Scott stating clearly in a presentation that he had met with BHP to build bridges and was due to meet Newmont in the same conference?
A complete contrast to when Mather managed to poss off BHPAND NCM AND CGP all in the same year!!!
The Italian - please can you elaborate on your point at 12:08. I just don't get it.
It's Mather's fault for wanting a fair value from the project? Really? That's ridonkulous.
So your view is that everyone should be a trader, just nicking that bit in the middle and moving on? I simply find that staggering.
These folks put decades of their lives, their whole careers, into a discover like Cascabel, and yet you expect them just to flip it to the first major they come to?
Nick Mather has every right to demand fair payment and as an investor you should be supportive of that. Creeping takeovers can happen in any situation where one investor funds the company in a situation that another can't or won't or buys stock on the market quicker than another.
After all, there's a special resolution to allow the SolGold Canada shares to be allocated to a single investor to allow them to do just that.
The point is a warning to shareholders to be careful who you are trusting. We know who wants to squash PIs and smaller IIs into the dirt and we must do what we can to ensure control isn't conceded to them.
I think it easier to skip to the point here ... there is no engaging with super majors. They don't engage... they just tell the minnow what they want and then expect it. That's why Bob and his bat exists... as mining industry is rife with likes of BHP and co riding all over the minnows and creeping their way to maxmium ownership aka GGP and Newcrest... the former ended up with just 30% of the total asset. Since then, they've been diluted down to nearer 15% (in real terms) due to Wyloo dilution. Eg,..they still have 30% but bulk of shareholders own less of that 30%.
This is the way... when you have zero cash generation then what do you expect... the super majors to make it easy for you to make it had for them? Of course not. But when you have options such as royalty streams... well.. that changes the game plan entirely and really niggles these big guys.
So hats off to NM and team for the year long due diligence that it took for Franco to sign up. Osisko is another story but the idea of engaging with super majors at this time or in the past is pointless unless you want to go the GGP route and just hive off 70% of the asset for peanuts.
@Bozi, it's all good and dandy to want to make more money rather than less money after investing capital, time and effort into it.
However, we did not sell in 2017 when we reached 48p because NM wanted "multiples of the current price" and we haven't sold now that 48p is actually a multiple of the current price.
While I have entrusted my investment with SOLG's management and I want to see their stated strategy through without disruptions, I think we have pushed our luck too far.
In fairness to NM... covid and the woes that followed the mining sector came at the wrong time for SOLG. The fallout from that has made life more difficult for Maxit and co. But as seen by NCM, OZ minerals and a few others... deal are being done and at fair market prices.
I think Mather's biggest issue is that he genuinely (and still does) believe that there are at least 5 to 6 if not more Alpala style resources sitting in our folio waiting to be drilled. He didn't want to see that potential go for 'free' as it would had SOLG been sold in entirety.
Scott and co took opposite approach, moth balled exploration in favour of conserving cash and reduced the company to zombie status as well as burning through $70m in process. A huge failure to understand the value of growth and shareholder accretive strategies. The cost savings are pointless if you next fund raise is done at 7p. Huge mis calculation his part or Bob's and heads need to and have rolled.
8.5m traded
Fortissimo - not sure I agree with "covid and the woes that followed the mining sector" point.
There was actually a decent commodity/mining 'bubble' mid-2020/2021.
Look at the increases in GDXJ over that period - above pre-covid levels.
Also coincided with a period of super-cheap money. Indeed, some posters were highlighting SOLG needed to fund/monetise in that window. Rather than dither. Then Ukraine/inflation, then Ecuador political issues, and we're now here.
Can't hold onto concessions doing nothing forever.
Some should have been JVd or spun out to progress.
Yes NM and others may want to keep as long as possible or keep for a 'full SOLG' sale. However, who is going to pay a premium for unexplored concessions? Arguably very few, highlighted by the lack of progress during the grassroots JV/sale process a few years ago.
You make a lot of good points Italian.
He certainly does, Red! Switched on that Italian! LOL!
And now it seems the FLOOD GATES have opened in the reverse to what we have experienced these past few months? Just look at that buying!!!!!
Incroyable....
However...290 of the last 326 (90%) trades are Autotrades...
Fascinating and disturbing...
Maybe Bob has unleashed the Terminator Bots...
And maybe things are coming to the boil building up to the first bid, now Scott has said PFS3 EARLY in Q1...
Heres hoping...
TheItalian - how are you blaming Mather for you not selling in 2017? It was a simple case of riding the discovery euphoria or believing in the long term strategy.
It just so happens that the long term strategy has become unfeasible due to funding challenges and also a lack of shareholder appetite to become a Latam major mining company.
I didn't sell either by the way but that's nobody's fault but my own.
You can't very well go retrospectively analysing any decision that you did or didn't make. Shares go up and shares go down. We'd all love the power of hindsight or better still an almanac of major metal discoveries between now and 2050.
Similarly, we can't guarantee that the company will sell the asset for a higher valuation.
But you can't go through life worrying about ruffling feathers or pushing our luck. It's a lack of ambition in recent years that has helped put us in this position, a lack of appetite from investors and other stakeholders to see the job through.
Bozi, I don't blame NM for not selling. He was the CEO and I was just an investor, he made his decisions and I made mine.
But I exchanged opinions with him at the time and I know that we could have sold at levels I was happy with at that time (imagine now!).
I have no issue with trying to maximize shareholder returns of course, but one needs to be able to support it with the sufficient leverage, which we have strategically and tactically lagging, and that is why I think greed and hubris may have created an avoidable damage to investors.
You don't need to agree, that's fine, I am just explaining my angle.
We have lagged....
Very strong into the close!
Hi Italian. So are you saying Solg could have sold itself for 40-50p a share back in 2017, according to what Mather told you? Sorry haven't had a chance to read all the messages today.
In hindsight that would have been good compared to where we find ourselves today... And there are now probably double the number of shares in issue at least.
I feel that the SP really does need to start moving north and soon... Back when it was 20-30p I think most of us would have felt disappointed with a takeover at 50-60p. Now that would represent a 7x return on the current SP it feels somewhat unrealistic to expect even if there were competing bids.
Rcgl2,
Share price will reflect the asset value on any offer. It's not about multiples of where we are today or tomorrow... it's simpy about what someone pays for ENSA or entire business. Tier1 assets do not go for under market value.
So if the market value is $2bln based on xy and z risk, then sobeit... $2bln it is.
Doesn't matter whether the so is 7p today or 20p tomorrow... the end price is based on the asset not on an illiquid market place.
So, instead of flogging the company fast and smart, solg wants to disapply the pre-emption rights so that they can issue more shares and dilute us? Hence, we are being asked to choose between BHP dilution and the BOD's dilution! It doesn't appear that Scott is in a hurry to sell the company. They want to issue more shares. Perhaps if he had looked after shareholders value, there would have been no need to beg for our votes because they would have earned our support. We will still be here next year the way things are looking.
We'll see.
SOLG isnt with what we think whether 20p or €1...
It's worth what the final bidder will pay...
And Sangha got Wyloo to pay 110c for a company that was12c in the previous year...
We can but dream...
And we only need two determined bidders...
Isnt worth...
Has anyone considered that with a more robust PFS that we might want to issue more equity as part of the financing in order to construct Cascabel.
I have voted for all resolutions.
Nobody (unless they’re very stupid) thinks this motley crew can construct a tier one mine.
We’ve been diluted to a fifth our value in eighteen months. You’d have to be three sheets to the wind to vote to let them print more confetti shares and dilute us further
Agreed 1984 ….. even Darryl has stated Nick wanted this sold.
It’s something we’ve all known for a very long time. The only questions are
1) Can they do it
2) How much
3) Can we or will we hang on to some of the other assets
Hopefully a corner turned today but we’ll see
You couldn't make it up .
Slug the most unintelligent poster on here backed up by DBW the most wrong poster on here.
Doesn't believe we can construct Cascabel with buying in the expertise of a civil engineering company.
Which by the way is what BHP and other majors do.
That's why these two clowns should not be taken seriously.
They make Laural and Hardy look smart.