Member Info for addicknt

Patrm, Nick not Nigel.

The most valuable skills we need around the boardroom table are those of corporate finance and M&A and Twigger and Ingo have those in spades.
I cannot see Keith wanting to be permanent ceo.

DBW, indeed. I think they'd have been drawn on the issue. One the one hand it was very (too) generous on our behalf - in as much as we were giving them far too big a slice of the cake, but on the other hand they clearly believe better value was to be had by waiting for a bid of some description.
As for Irwin, he's always been worth listening to - he knows much more than we do.

rcgl, not all of us felt that way! Some of us could see the situation for what it was.
But you are right about the prospects. We own something extraordinary, which eventually will come good. I suspect there are many shareholders, me included, you've held this share purely as a result of the asset base and have been indifferent to the management. It's one of the advantages of owning something which has its future in the ground and is less dependent upon management.

DBW, I think there were a number of reasons CGP weren't interested in our offer, price being one of them.
I still consider the bid to be a turning point for us. It was ill-conceived, expensive, time consuming and bound to fail. It demonstrated poor judgement on behalf of our board and exposed us to a counter attack which led directly to the removal of a board which was in Mather's pocket and who would have undoubtedly supported him over the past few weeks. People will have differing opinions as to whether this is a good thing.
This is not to say the conflict with BHP/NCM would not have happened anyway, but that the bid threw open the divisions and made the direction of travel all too plain to see. It played directly into their hands. What happened yesterday was an un-intended consequence of a board decision that probably gave no consideration to this outcome.

Effective control has been in the hands of BHP and NCM since the day they were invited to become shareholders. The agm emphasised this fact and today was final confirmation.
Ultimately they will decide how they want to slice and dice the company.
The task of our board is to maximise the value and they must be prepared to be creative and tough.

iceberg, despite our occasional clash of swords and your observation of the "two bit story", I've always thought you post some good stuff and I hope you'll continue to do so. And well done for taking your profit.

DBW, to repeat my earlier post, at a corporate level we can't be "diluted out of sight" without attracting a bid. However, our interest in Alpala will be diluted massively if we enter a jv, which is why I wouldn't want to see one.

It can't be easy when your entire belief system is trashed. The past few months have been difficult for him and he's still very much in the denial phase of grief.

I'll say one thing, it would be great to have a period when the only announcements we get relate to drilling results and the PFS. The corporate stuff can come later.

Good summary, RK.

Colonel, the flaw in your argument relates to the percentage which can be held by any one entity without being forced to make a mandatory bid (or a deemed concert party).
Given that it's 29.99%, a placing with BHP and or NCM would not raise enough money to achieve very much. For the sake of argument they could be issued with shares which takes their holding up to the limit i.e another 17%, which would only raise about £120m, or twice the number if NCM were also involved. This is not sufficient to take this to production as an independent entity, particularly given their animosity to debt.

Jerry, you may be right but I'd say that if that was the case the chairman was merely doing his job and reflecting the views of important shareholders. It doesn't necessarily mean there was any disharmony at board level.
But you are right about future board meetings, this type of arrangement is rarely comfortable and is often short-lived.

jerry, I don't think the acrimony lay within the boardroom - it was external.

TBTT, the reaction so far appears to have been a shrug of the shoulders.

there you go then, the rumour was true and Reuters didn't publish a "two bit" story.

I don't think Mather is stumbling into anything...he's cannier than that. I believe he was working on a plan and the events of the agm have forced him to accelerate matters. And the leak hasn't helped.

Yes, that really would be interesting.
This is obviously pure speculation, but my feeling is that we're going to see some form of monetization event. Whether it's a full sale (that's not top of my list), or the sale of alpala, are options. One completely left-of-field thought is that we sell Alpala to BHP and NM does a deal with someone else to take the rest private, with him at the helm...Barrick or the Chinese perhaps.

DBW, absolutely. If the only thing happening related to Mathers position, we would have had something yesterday - following the press leak our broker would have pushed for a clarification. There must be other things going on simultaneously.

Bozi, I'm sure there would have been plenty of conversations between the various parties prior to the agm. Equally I'm sure those conversations have continued subsequently, albeit seemingly unsuccessfully.