Member Info for Ben18

You should give POG your contact details! They are going to need some creative thinking.

I don't see the problem with Gazprom Bank as they can, if they wish, take security in Russia against future sales of gold sitting in Russia. The problem will be with the refinancing of the Eurobond in November if this situation persists.

To simplify that RNS. It is now illegal for a UK PLC to sell gold to a sanctioned Russian bank (that includes the Central Bank). In Russia, it is illegal NOT to sell gold to a Russian bank approved for bullion dealing. Reading between the lines, there is not currently a Russian bullion bank that it isn't sanctioned. Therefore, PLC has no currently legal means to sell its gold output.

Does POG still have a BOD? In their total silence and absence, here is my guess to your questions and a couple of my own :
i) Yes, why not?
ii) No. All the gold is refined in Russia and has to be sold to the Central Bank.
iii) The Central Bank will pay the operating company in dollars (or equivalents) so the operating company should be awash with cash.
iv) The big question. Can PLC upstream any of this cash from the operating company in Russia? Probably not.
v) What does PLC now do about redeeming the U$500m bond in November 2022

If there still is a Board of Directors at POG, they should have requested a suspension of the listing. They have so many questions that they need to answer before an orderly share market is possible

You can imagine all you like that there is a share lock-in period on conversion. But this would certainly not be standard market terms for non-insider holders.

Very unusual to convert shares at a large premium to spot. But not a good sign. The shares can be sold as POG is still trades well whereas there is no tradeable market for the convertibles

Well keep the faith fro another decade. But if you want to see how it is actually done, look at AIM's other Thor. Thor Explorations pours first gold today.

Board update. It seems that market has not been impressed by the new Board line-up. My view is that the Board CV's show good technical and industry expertise but are clearly weak on finance and corporate governance. What stands out is the lack of previous listed company Board experience. It very much looks as if experienced candidates took one look at controlling shareholders who sack Boards without notice and - still - explanation and gave a quick no.

It also looks, based on activity here, that everyone has lost interest in this company. I think I agree so in the words of Dragon's Den "I'm out".

StoneFold, the history of JKX over the last decade is a classic Case Study on the different results that investors get from a strong vs a weak Board.

As a former shareholder, I like the valuation underpinnings and the recent operating and legal news is continuing in the right direction (although still under the sacked Board's plan). The stock should be pushing into the 70's but we are at 34, down almost 40% from the AGM. The question I am struggling with is what the appropriate governance discount should be for the controlling presence on the shareholder register of two Ukrainian oligarchs who have shown themselves capable of activity that is either incredibly stupid or wilfully destructive. A 50% governance discount feels about right so we are in buy territory but there doesn't appear to be any hurry as the selling pressure from existing shareholders keeps coming.

"Solid BoD appointments"? After the last highly successful Board, who took the share price from 10p to 55p, was sacked with warning or explanation by the two Ukrainian oligarchs, any "solid" director would not even look at this company. What you will obviously get is the appointment of cronies of the two oligarchs. So the question is what is the agenda of the two oligarchs that requires the removal of a strong and successful Board - and doesn't care about the now 20p per share hit?

My understanding is that POG is a premium listed company which means that it should have posted its Annual Report for 2018 by no later than the end of March. Where is it? Is there a problem? Last year (a different) Board signed off on 27th March.

It woz the rise in the iron price from the low $60's to $74/t wot did it! Mr Xi is responsible after abandoning attempts to curtail Chinese borrowing.

Guys. This is seriously good new!. IRC has consistently demonstrated that it is completely unable to service $240m of debt and probably couldn't support half that. Yet a Russian bank has been dumb enough (they often are) to take it off our hands! Note the corporate guarantee is released on "operational conditions". It would be nice to know precisely what that means but what it doesn't appear to be is "financial conditions". So as long as they can get the mine to work we should be shot of IRC. With the iron ore price heading south, IRC is going to struggle big time financially. Hambro senior being appointed as IRC's new chairman is of course another terrible corporate governance event but I simply don't care as we have a path out. Stock should up to sharply on this news. Now PM has to deliver on the autoclaves.

Madsuh. I double checked the last announcement on the refinancing. The company is optimistic on signing the final deal with the bank by mid-December (no guarantees mind). Clearly progress on achieving this is highly price sensitive so would prevent the Directors buying shares. Having said this, I agree with your underlying sentiment. PM and Hambro took big profits out of POG at the top. Now they have negligible shareholdings despite claiming to have supported the 2016 deal with their own money - that share block has become the CABS/Selvin mystery. Time they put some of those profits back into the game.

May be I missed it. My impression was that the refinancing was subject to completion/signing of definitive documentation. The shareholders vote will only take place once the bank has signed fully and finally. Until this deal is announced as fully signed off by the bank the directors will not be able to buy shares.

They may do neither. If you look at New Barrick, there are a number of Randgold assets in Africa that do not fit the size/quality profile of the new group. One obvious way of handling this is to inject them into Acacia possibly at the same time as selling Tanzania to the Chinese (who are better able to "deal" with that country's big man President).

Madsuh. I doubt whether the Director's are allowed to buy shares until the IRC loan refinancing deal is completed. Istabraq, what I think is hanging over us is the mistrust in The City of the motives of Rakishev and whoever is behind CABS/Slevin who together control the company.

The RNS doesn't address the "almost 100%" probability of a deal with the Chinese. i would hope - and I expect - that the new Management of ABX will get rid of our directionless Board and management.

KVZR. Focus on the guarantee release and the greatly extended maturity, not the interest rate.

The only reason for holding POG is "bottom fishing" a bombed out share price. For me, the refinancing of this loan is one of the two BIG events that I was looking for to make this trade worthwhile. it is completely unrealistic to think that the IRC guarantee would be lifted in one go but the suggested profile I see is pretty good. I hope that IRC sign the definitive deal before the Russian bank realises it's making a mistake! POG's share price should be doing better on this news but we still have a large institutional overhang trying to exit after the divisive June AGM. Patience required all around.