Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
I agree Jimzi. AP has had a significant amount of skin in the game tied up in this for a long time and will want to see a return, sooner rather than later. It's so refreshing to have a forward looking CEO who is willing to embrace and accept the rapidly changing energy landscape and get Chariot ahead of the curve. He's indicating that whilst we still have significant oil assets, the market is rapidly moving to transition (gas) and renewables and that is where the company is now headed. LB was an old oil man without vision or flexibility, trying to eek out living off a rapidly diminishing market. AP has also experienced shareholder revolt at another of his investments, so will be well aware of the importance of adding value to shareholders, as well as the owners. I also like his assessment of the African market. He is correct in stating that the African continent will have the highest population growth by some measure over the next 30 years and they will all need energy. They have the contacts and relationships to lever off in place. Who knows, we could soon be into solar and batteries before we know it. Personally I'd feel better about that. Ideally I would like to see a proper farm out with a major rather than a finance deal with investors. To really get this going we need third party confirmation and the confidence that comes with that. Not easy in todays market but hopefully the resource upgrade will be the tipping point for an exciting breakthrough. Go AP, you can do it!
Never chase bad money with good. Never put friends and family into high risk stock. Don’t try to catch a falling knife. Chariot needs to prove itself with results before it’s worth going anywhere near. Too many false promises, blind alleys and hope piled upon hope. Lixus needs to prove genuine progress and market approval.
I sincerely hope you do get a reply as I have an embarrassing amount still invested here. It does seem though as if the wheels have fallen off. If Morocco was coming good, I very much doubt if Bottomley would have exited. As for shareholder comms, that’s been a company policy for a very long time and clearly not just a Bottomley thing. If we don’t see anything new at the AGM, this will probably confirm our worst fears; a lifestyle company with little hope of transformation. We live in hope. I’d rather live in certainty.
If he was pushed, it wAs probably because he went through all the potential opportunities and didn’t convert any. If he chose to leave it would probably be because he could see this was going nowhere, given the lack of market appetite. Either way, not good outcomes if accurate. One has to wonder as well as crashing our SP, how much of our money/value he walked away with. I don’t see this as good news as it would indicate there is very little if anything in the pipeline. If there was, he wouldn’t have left and they wouldn’t have pushed him (yet). Agree he should have been taken out a few years back. We didn’t need a steady pair of hands, we needed a deal maker. I can understand why they chose him, in reaction to the previous CEO, who seemed to be at the more dodgy end of deal making. The pendulum swung too far the other way. Lixus is obviously not as attractive or interesting as has been made out. If it was, I think there would be less talk about now looking for new opportunities. If they are going to get rid of LB, they should also consider the head of the geo team who has been equally unsuccessful and damaging to the SP. AP must be fuming. He has a lot riding on this. Let’s hope this spurs some action rather than a decision to treat this as a ‘lifestyle’ business. Agree with Jinx. LBs decisions weren’t his alone. The board needs to step up and look after their stakeholders. It’s basically **** or bust time, rather than kick the can down the road.
Never the best news when a CEO is asked to step down. Obviously something not that great happened behind the scenes, a lost deal, unclear strategy, etc. Let’s hope we can now get this show back on the road. AP needs this, his other interests don’t seem to be doing that well.
Reading between the lines, we are no further to partnering than we were at the beginning of the year. LBs big statement on the Malcy show was all hope and counting chickens before they hatch. He’s probably now bending over backwards to answer and ever increasing list of extra work to further derisk the project to a lukewarm bidder. We need a deal maker, not a COO. Very disappointing after all this time.
Not sure what LB is up to. He seemed to indicate very positively that a partnership deal was just around the corner on Malcy's blog some time back. He's either let the fish get off the hook, or it was an effort to raise the SP before one of his dilutions. Either way, not impressive. Oh to be a fly on the boardroom wall and get a glimpse of what they are really up to.
On 14 Jan at 16.13 minutes in, during his interview with Malcy, LB stated "We will be announcing partnering in the short-term". That's a pretty bold statement, bordering on market sensitive tbh imho. Was this for real or was he trying to bump the price to kick our financial time bomb further down the street with another PI shafting raise? The market didn't blink an iota. There's confidence for you.
Presenting under the title of: Appraisal/Exploration Farmin Opportunity Offshore Morocco, Duncan Wallace, Chariot Oil and Gas. Would suggest they are still nowhere near hooking up with a partner. Makes the LB statement in the Malcy show look increasingly dodgy.
If I ran this business and saw these sort of comments, I'd certainly respond to them immediately, like most organisations do these days. Chariot clearly doesn't care one iota for their shareholders. I fear the sad truth is they realised they may be sitting on a pile of rubbish some time ago and have elected to eek as much of a living off the back of shareholders hard earned cash as possible. If the assets were that good, we would anticipate greater farm in activity (I appreciate this is a difficult market, but CHAR has had years) and probably would have got shot of Bottomley a few years back in favour of a deal maker. Right now he is useful just sitting in his chair and keeping quiet......If the is not the case, please talk to us Mr Bottomley, a bit of news right now would be welcome, given the fanfare and slam dunk talk you were giving us when Lixus fell into your lap.
Agree. Very little to suggest this is anything other than a lifestyle scam. The only ray of hope was to see ENI farming in. Apart from that, the rest has been smoke and mirrors and orchestrated pre-raise pumps, with a little help from friends. ILet's be honest, if Lixus was that good, it either would have been snapped up eons ago or never abandoned in the first place.
I've been here for many years and have seen all the shenanigans. I'm very sorry to say that yet again LB has nothing for us and is just playing the lifestyle game. The chairmam AP is doing very badly on his other investments, so is more than happy to take a nice salary from this one. A lot of criticism has been aimed at LB, quite rightly so, but the man who pulls the strings is in reality the one to watch. Just look at his other investments.... utter rubbish, so he needs a steady income. Char is perfect for that. Just find a dead beat play that looks credible (Anchois) and pump it up for a couple of years whilst taking a nice salary and write losses off against other failures. I hate to admit it, but I'm pretty sure i've been done, as have we all. AP is the one to watch, not just LB.
The video release seems a lot more positive than the recent RNS
https://t.co/pSEKcf3kYP