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Hi, Does the company have plans to increase it’s PR over the coming weeks, particularly as we have a new CEO? Some months ago, the company was rightly praised for its communication, offering regular interviews by George Lucan along with frequent twitter updates. Since then it has almost been radio silence. Is this a conscious decision and if so why? Thank you Asked on 1 May 2023
You can expect at least one interview in the next few weeks as we endeavour to advertise our increased flows to the wider market. Thereafter we would expect to be giving a fuller update on Company strategy, by way of online/mediated presentation, likely during June. We are conscious that in the past we have overpromised and underdelivered as regards timelines, so we are reviewing our corporate communications and use of Twitter in order to ensure that any statements can be made with a high level of conviction and so to build a deeper level of trust with shareholders. large and small. Nonetheless we will make use all contemporary forms of communication.

They’ve just added this one and hopefully an answer is about to appear: “We have had a great many questions on the RNS of March 28th, April 7th and April 18th and the status of the temporary and permanent flowlines connecting the new B7T well to the process plant and so to export sales. Rather than repeat all of the questions we have endeavoured to supply a single answer to all as below.”

Some questions have appeared, but no answers yet.

Questions were last answered on Saturday April 1st (at around about 9:30pm), but we’ll find out shortly.

Some months the answers are a day or two late, but they’ll be published here https://www.angusenergy.co.uk/media/investor-questions/ and this Twitter user says Angus have confirmed the update will be tonight https://twitter.com/IntheKnow2023/status/1651891460839546880

The Q&A usually takes place at midnight on the last day of the month.

https://twitter.com/IntheKnow2023/status/1651891460839546880

A lot of criticism, often unfair, is directed at the board. Yet you have to look hard to find another AIM oil and gas company where the interests of shareholders and directors are as closely aligned. There are no large salaries here (George Lucan is on £120,000 - more than most workers, but modest when compared with the pay of other listed company executives) and the directors will only get their big payout if the share price reaches 3p. That said, Angus urgently need to clarify the position with regard to the sidetrack production (I asked a question the other day and I’m sure others have too - hopefully we’ll get some answers in the following days).

Angus published good news on September 9th 2022 and that was a Friday: https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/ANGS/saltfleetby-flow-rates-f82olkinj8quzak.html

I’m sorry to disagree with you Push2, but Paul Forrest acquired his interest in Saltfleetby at almost the same time as Angus.

Saltfleetby is owned by Saltfleetby Energy Limited, previously known as Wingas Storage (UK) Limited. Companies House’s website shows that Gazprom ceased to a person with significant control of Wingas on June 17th 2019 and that Paul Forrest’s Forum Energy Services Limited took control on June 17th 2019 - see https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00953066/filing-history. On June 19th 2019 Angus announced that would be acquiring 51% of Saltfleetby Energy Limited.

So Paul Forrest on appears to have owned 100% of Saltfleetby for about two days. It seems that he was negotiating simultaneously with Gazprom and Angus to bring about the deal he did. I suspect that Gazprom provided him with the £2.5 million that he paid Angus as it’s apparent from Forum’s accounts that it didn’t have such resources.

Why didn’t Angus negotiate directly with Gazprom? Who knows, but Paul Forrest was able to do the deal and he’s received his reward.

Paul Forrest, through his company, now owns 10.46% of Angus. His previous holding was 13.5%.

I don’t understand the criticism of Mr Forrest. He provided Angus with an excellent deal in the form of Saltfleetby, both initially when he paid Angus £2.5 million to take a 51% share and then last year when he sold his remaining 49% share for £14 million in shares and deferred payments. He’s made money out of the deal and wants to cash out, what’s wrong with that? Where would Angus be without Saltfleetby?

Why are Kemexon a “bit of a red herring”? They’re a commodity trader (including oil and gas trading) and they’ve bought almost 10% of Angus over the past several months at a premium to the current share price. Perhaps they recognise an attractive investment when they see one.

To add just a bit more information, Paul Forrest sold his 49% stake in Saltfleetby for £14 million (Gazprom didn’t want to incur the decommissioning costs and seem happy to have persuaded someone to take it off their hands, so looking at Forum’s accounts I’m not even sure Mr Forrest paid anything for it - I assume Gazprom provided him with the £2.5 million he handed over to Angus).

£6.5 million of that £14 million was paid in 560,000,000 shares issued at 1.2p, so selling 107,750,000 of them for 1.8p got him an extra £650,000 or so. He’s previously sold shares at similar and higher prices (from memory a large chunk were previously sold for 2.2p).

So he got £14 million to start with and is making millions more because of the rise in the share price. Why shouldn’t he be happy with that? And if he has other assets to develop, which he’s indicated is the case, why wouldn’t he get on with developing them given how well he’s done with Saltfleetby?

It’s not a mystery why Paul Forrest is selling. He’s been selling shares for months (last Autumn he owned 20% of the company). A few years ago he owned an abandoned gas field that he had to pay Angus £2.5 million to acquire 51% of and he’s now managed to make millions of pounds from it. Why shouldn’t he decide that he’s made enough and cash in his shares? He’s also previously pointed out when selling shares (which was clearly envisaged by the fact that quarterly limits were placed on how many he could sell) that his company has commitments that need funding. The profit he made from selling the rest of his share in Saltfleetby has also likely attracted a tax liability.

It’s also a mistake to assume that he’s simply dumping shares on the market. Companies such as Kemexon have previously been buying them (on occasions for more than 2p) and someone’s probably bought this latest batch, explaining why the transaction’s gone through at a slight premium.

The alternative to Mr Forrest being a large shareholder and selling shares would have been him retaining 49% of Saltfleetby. I think we’re much better off that he sold his stake for shares even though he’s selling lots of those shares.

The interesting question is who has bought the shares?

For whatever reason Paul Forrest needs cash (he’s previously referred to commitments his company has elsewhere and his sale of his stake in Saltfleetby likely resulted in a tax bill), but someone with cash is buying.

Yesterday’s RNS should have been clearer, but Angus’s sidetrack is ‘producing through a temporary connection’. By the summer there will be a permanent connection that will ‘enable full plateau production’.

Angus’s vision has changed somewhat since December 5th 2022. Then it was: “Angus is focused on becoming a leading onshore UK diversified clean energy and energy infrastructure company.”

Now, as ocelot’s just pointed out, “Angus's vision [is] of becoming a significant player in the aggregation, production and storage of gas”.

I suppose that change of vision indicates why someone of Richard Herbert’s experience has been recruited as CE. It’ll be interesting to see what projects they have planned next to realise this aim.

Whilst Paul Forrest has been selling shares in the past, Kemexon has been buying them and is now Angus’ second largest shareholder (after Mr Forrest). That Mr Forrest may want to sell more shares in the future does not mean that the share price will decline or remain roughly where it is. It all depends upon, perhaps encouraged by the expected cash generation and future returns to shareholders that Saltfleetby and the other assets will allow, whether others are willing to buy. There are reasons to think that they will now that the risk of sidetrack failure appears to gone, as production increases and the plant demonstrates that it can handle it, as cash flows in and as further sidetracks/development of the oil assets are announced.

At the risk of repeating myself, it’s also worth noting that he was due £1 million in cash at the end of 2022 but took shares at 1.65p instead. It’s also likely that he has a large tax bill to pay following his sale of Saltfleetby.

Thank you FlagStaffIR, but I suspect the share price is down this morning because there’s uncertainty as to whether the sidetrack is yet exporting gas to the grid.

The reason for that uncertainty is the wording of this morning’s RNS. It follows three previous RNS which referred to export (initially by April 1st, then in the week commencing April 7th, and then in several days), but does not now confirm that export has begun or indicate when it will.

Please could Angus urgently resolve this uncertainty either by confirming that export has started or by stating when it will start.