Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
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Have always respected your views on here, dick but as you clearly dislike being 'ripped off' by the BoD in their selfish and extravagant LTIP awards, etc, (which I largely agree with, I have to say) why don't you sell your shares and reinvest elsewhere to ease your frustration?
Unless, of course, it's difficult to find better value / such financial utilisation potential elsewhere right now. If the latter's squandered via a share BB after all this, I'll be annoyed as anybody, though! - sasa.
That was 5yrs ago and nothing since
I think you guys will find this board did the BKR deal, arguably a better deal than anything aa has pulled off
Sasa,
AA is a deal maker through and through. He’s not going to rock up and offer £5 a share as the first offer is he? Instead he made a very lowball offer and then quickly upped it. At that point our BOD should have engaged in conversation to see if a deal could have been reached. To not even discuss this with AA then a deal was never going to happen and head burying in sand comes to mind. Surely our BOD have a price they think it’s worth - why not discuss with AA and tell him that. If he couldn’t come back with the goods then all bets are off. To not even ask the question is not acting in our interests and Mr Market probably will view it the same.
You don’t go into negotiations with your best offer.
Our board then had the opportunity to counter attack and just couldn’t be bothered- that says a lot.
This whole episode has shown that they are not dynamic, no deals will be done despite MF continually saying we are open for business. Time for a change at the top to replace the ageing board.
Totally agree Sasa . I can understand some people dissapointment , but as you say we don not fully know what went on behind closed doors. As posted before my view is they are awaiting north eiggs results. Also as posted before why aren't some posters which are aggrieved not venting their anger at BP. For me they did not help with their recent antics. British Petrol my a......s. .
sasa,
Agree with what you have said, my gripe is our board have shot themselves in both feet, once by lack of historic M&A action, secondly when a opportunity comes along to be either acquiror or acquiree they appears to make no effort in progressing either, even though they instigated one of the options.
As I mentioned, to help put some context and clarity behind today's RNS's, would like to see a statement from ACW before 8am tomorrow to fully explain his (the boards) actions, especially, if they did or did not engage in meaningfully discussions and more so clear plan forward, not the same old same old .... blah blah rubbish the past 5 years they have been churning out.
aimo & dyor
The Kistos offer was indeed derisory, GeneralL and deserved to be rejected, accordingly.
What's the point of engaging earnestly with someone so undervaluing our Co? Would the disgruntled shareholders on here now been happier if our BoD had agreed to it this afternoon?
Had a realistic offer been made (ref: starting with a '5' again, as quite a few on here agreed recently) would have likely made all the difference about engagement on Serica's part - it would certainly have been difficult not to accept that, if put to shareholders but AA wouldn't, or more likely couldn't, run to that.
Am very surprised to see all the animosity now being aimed at our BoD by quite a few holders who'd previously railed against such an inadequate offer being remotely serious for acquiring our company and, anyway, how do we know they didn't engage usefully before turning it down again? We only have AA's views on that - possibly out of pique on his part?
Wish some of you on here would make your mind up... sasa.
dick,
"Not to enter into serious dialogue on a potential transaction that might well have been of benefit to both parties smacked to me of a sense of entitlement and enlightened self-interest in equal measure...."
Exactly imo
"The kistos offer was derisory ..." we all know that...
Firstly, will the market see it like that.
Secondly, failure of our board to engage is another matter entirely.
aimo & dyor
Newkotb as you are aware BlackRock will certainly look at their investment closely.Fwiw my view is they will wait until North Eigg results. Either way like the rest of us we would be looking at a decent return from this level which have been bolstered by gas prices due to human thugs and lack of planning from hmg who feel fit to st....b their leader in the back inmv
But wasn’t even negotiated…..
The kistos offer was derisory
Likes of BlackRock are not the type of investors to be made fun of .... wouldn't be surprised if they or JPM start to make waves as they like us see clear value here, failure to engage, really, they have come across boards like ours before. Inaction is not part of their agenda when you have best part of ~£50m tide-up in a company that just point blank refused to engage in the best interest of the shareholders.
ACW at al could well be fighting for their jobs sooner than they think.
aimo & dyor
Well said Dick - I’m sure that there are other people out their with larger holdings than me who might want force a meeting. Let’s hope so.
upomega,
A deal to increase to cash element would of still ensured exposure (0.4 of a kistos share) & any upside to NE .... CASH would of been returned to shareholders. For our board not to engage is tantamount to putting your two fingers up to us shareholders.
We need a statement from ACW before 8am tomorrow to fully explain his (the boards) actions and more so clear plan forward, not the same old same old .... blah blah rubbish the past 5 years they have been churning out.
PS. BETTER NOT BE SHARE BUYBACKS EITHER.
aimo & dyor
Lol Newk. Is it possible to call an EGM on the back of all this? To not even enter into any discussion tells everyone all they need to know about their ambition.
Sh want a main market listing, grow, acquire additional businesses etc. Not going to happen now.
What is more worrying that not one other Company came in to bid. God knows what’s going to happen to the SP tomorrow.
why not direct your anger at BP what a disloyal joke they have become inmv
I agree with much of what you say, chinch. The way SQZ's directors have represented our company during this unusual period is notable. The panic evident in potentially having to cede full control of all that money - thus making it that much more difficult to help themselves to millions of pounds of our money - was there in spades. Not to enter into serious dialogue on a potential transaction that might well have been of benefit to both parties smacked to me of a sense of entitlement and enlightened self-interest in equal measure.
Expect the gravy train to continue - worst of all with a decision being made to use a pile of our cash to buy SQZ shares in the market, which seldom seems to benefit the share price, but doesn't half reduce cash balances.
I'll be voting againt the re-appointment of the 3 senior exec directors when the next accounts are up for approval. Better candidates are out there. Alternatively, if a few others feel as strrongly as I and some others evidently do about our directors' greed and arrogance when it comes to the custody of our money, it only takes 5% to call a GM. The resolutions put forward might not be approved but it would certainly send out a strong message.
dyor
wheres your patience until seeing nrth eigg through
good post jlite
Jlite they have had 5 years to do any deal - the outcome today shows everyone and the market that they are not interested.
I don't agree with this personally. I think the plan is, and has always been, to see what happens with North Eigg. If that comes in, then they will have the cash to immediately move to appraisal and development. A very nice place to be. If it doesn't come in, then they will at least get the tax rebate of 90 odd % of the spend. Only then will the board think about M&A. And even then, I would be surprised if they manage to land one in this environment. I am happy to give them that time.
The KIST bid was very opportunistic IMO, use our cash to scale up. Without this cash, they would not be able to raise enough to buy SQZ so a hostile bid was unlikely to succeed.
Now, if Eigg fails, they could wait a few months and then make a serious go for KIST using their financial firepower. Or find something else they prefer. Or return the cash to shareholders. I give them 1 year to decide otherwise I will join the use it or leave crowd.
JL
chinch, was writing my post so didn't see yours ..... are we twins separated at birth !
For the record, fully agree and I'm probably far from alone too.
aimo & dyor
Chinch
Maybe they awaiting north Eigg results before entering into any meaningful discussions with anyone. Everyone knows the value here at the moment. So my guess is that either way matters will come to a conclusion once north eigg is out of the way. Fwiw i am happy to hold for the dividend and wait to see what happens after north Eigg. I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a duster discussions would resume with Kisto's.inmv and inmho
I don't entirely disagree with this analysis . The question to me is why we did not make another counter offer for KIST? That's the thing that seems more surprising. Ultimately I doubt any counter offer would have been accepted, but the optics of non-engagement are poor. As you say, it would be one thing if both sides simply couldn't agree after giving it their best, but it looks like our BoD simply did not engage (if the KIST RNS is to be believed). I think it would have been wise to at least give the impression of engaging to demonstrate interest in growing through acquisition . They must be aware that this is a sore point about shareholders, so to take this approach pokes that sore spot again.