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So for the so called LTH, if your really in this for the long term and actually have an interest and belief in the gas cavern project then your in this until the gas starts flowing because you can guarantee this morningâs intuitional investors are here for dividends not a few penny raise in SP so complaining about a 10% drop in the last 6 days or speculating about a 5p price in 6 months is just wasting a lot of peoples reading time. Remember owning 1pc of something is better than owning 10pc of SFA. But if a company with no money was the best bidder for H&W then John and Arun have taken on a huge challenge/risk and I just hope it doesnât actually deter resources from or have a long term negative effect on the original targets at Islandmagee.
I have to say I am not surprised at this morningâs activities given Infrastatas recent ducks and dives â I am more surprised in some of the shareholders shock and anger â maybe you need to go to Specsavers if you didnât see this coming or maybe you need to calm down and accept this is only a sign of things to come. It really isnât hard to dig up information from the internet and come to realistic conclusions. Infrastata had to take a loan for the deposit of a shipyard that has been losing money for years and of course with 70 workers and a vast leasehold area was always going to have a large monthly cash burn (I agree with others this is probably half a million every month). So as smart as JW seems where was he ever going to get finance to purchase assets that cannot really be used anywhere else (I donât think any bank could repossess 2 big yellow cranes and put them on Gumtree if mortgage payments werenât kept up to date). Coupled with the fact that H&W has no secured contracts (this is why it went into administration) and potential profit-making work (i.e. the naval stuff) is years away means that any revenue the docks make would probably just to clear overheads and keep the place alive until the day that Islandmagee is actually approved and needs some steelwork made. So is seems the only way the rest of purchase money was ever going to be secured for the shipyard was to offer equity to someone (and obviously that deal was handshaked in the city last Friday â hence the SP dip, press leak, RNS and placing since). What I really donât understand from some SH posters on here/Twitter (and try not put me in the same negative club as JR the ex-executive) but this is clearly not going to be the end of share dilution. H&W obviously is not going to add cash to the IF bank account anytime soon â if anything it is going to need more handouts and Islandmagee is going to need millions if not tens of millions to actually develop whenever the marine licences actually come through (maybe saving the local shipyard jobs will help accelerate the latter). Again, where is John Wood going to convince any institutional lender to give him extreme amounts of money to continuously dissolve salt underground for a couple of years before eventually putting gas in it and turning potential into revenueu for repayments. As I said before I think the technology is brilliant and I hope the environmentalists realise this too and back off so this can get going but I can see years and years of more share issues and dilution ahead because without it the original project just cannot be achieved.
Disappointing day maybe for long timers but very opportunistic afternoon for new openers like me :) As with others here I have full faith in the gas cavern concept and that finance for construction can easily be secured and revenue from operation can more easily flow than the gas in and out of the pipes. However, I will reiterate that Iâm investing in this for Islandmagee (like most of the original SHs) and continue to be wary of the shipyard subsidiary â yes it should reduce costs/speed up construction (why rent Larne quayside when you can your own one for logistics) but I am not holding out hope that Harland and Wolff will make any money for his new owners. Yes politicians (or ex H&W Chairmen) might propose pipe dreams of building all navy vessels in all UK yards but no ship or even part of 1 has been built in Belfast since 2003 and it seems Defence Contracts progress slower than Brexit so I hope JW concentrates his new steelworking and welding crew on getting IM up and running so we can all get returns out to start spending :)
Leesadee, to clarify Sundays banter â âHypersaline brine is salty water that contains high concentrations of dissolved salts and whose saline levels are higher than ocean waterâ. Therefore, I will correct my statement from âsalty waterâ to âvery salty waterâ but anyone will remember from GSCE science â high concentrations of particles will naturally diffuse (especially in a tidal lough area) so yes we will all wait on the official environmental reports but I can only assume (and hope also) that it will pose no significant danger to marine life or that Infrastrata will take appropriate precautionary measures. I do think the local âenvironmentalistsâ need to realise that neither shareholders nor the BoD are out to purposely cause damage to either the land or water around Islandmagee and if there was a high risk of this (or evidence from previous gas storage cavern projects) then JW would not have ever got this far in the development and licence process. In light of our upcoming election I believe that just like the âLeavers v Remainersâ or âOrange v Greenâ that the Protestors will continue to only see their one-sided viewpoint of the project and shout more of their Toxic trashtalk (but sure isnât that part of the craic in debating â the truth and best result will prevail).
I know I may have been doubtful recently but I have my reasons and research so could the following please clarify from their own R&R:
JR: I am assuming the prior project INFA was involved in your refereeing to is Woodburn forest. Now you may not have as much experience in Dendrology as you do in wangling consultant reports but can you explain how knocked down trees are meant to regrow in 3 years by themselves because I have a very fertile back garden and I am struggling to get the Fir growing big enough for Christmas for 9 years now.
LD: Your messages on here are quite toned down compared to Twitter e.g. environmental concerns V toxic waste - can you explain what is toxic about putting salty water into saltwater and why the government departments aren't as concerned about the local fish as you are (I would love to know what the Ballylumford power station pollution levels are in comparison to Infrastatas seemingly safe plans - has anyone any evidence of good or bad experiences from similar salt cavern storage projects around the world or is it just as case of make it sound as bad as possible in the hope that it goes away?). Also if there was no "need" for this project then why would Vitol be willing to secure an offtake agreement? A big energy company is not going to just store gas for the craic if there was not going to be a demand in the market?
Yes Sherlock Radders99 I have only joined this recently and not (yet) own any INFA shares but apparently one can buy some without being part of a chat board - however, as my previous investments hadn't been so successful I thought I would give the latter a try to get a feel for this company from like minded individuals :) I don't think anyone's posts on here are motivated to lower SP (no more than the few extremely optimistic posters whose aim is somewhat obviously trying to raise SP for their potentially their own short term gain). Personally I believe the energy storage market future is huge whether that be gas, solar, hydro (good to see Swansea Tidal Bay project might be going ahead again so that is something else to look at investing in) but my fear of throwing hard earned money into JW is that it end up in HW - which further detective work on Google shows that the Navy projects are a slim chance and the FRSU (which is basically a converted LNG tanker) would probably come from the far east (where the local shipyard machinery probably all ended many years ago when Belfast stopped building boats). Dawski you made some good points and yes all should run smooth if funding and licences pull through in line with schedule but MrT I think that the EU cash should be kept for pushing ahead with IM and not sidetracked for the H&W Acquisition. And just one correction to make JR - by the RNS the ÂŁ500k is a NON-refundable deposit and would go straight to the creditors or probably just the administrators back pocket for their prolonged time on this takeover - similarly the remaining ÂŁ5.5m balance cannot be used for wages or running costs of the yard so my concern remains - where is the money coming from to run this place! Anyways, still looking forward to some sort of progress in the next 24 hours - I've no doubt JW can get big financiers for IM once all the ducks are in a row - until those waters start warming I will hold back from jumping in.
It's been intriguing researching back through the past few weeks of Share Discussion for Infrastrata on here - the gas storage project I find very interesting and potentially very worthwhile investing in. However, I see it as still very early stage and therefore could be a very long and potentially risky commitment, 1 - because even if the marine license is secured soon there is still seems to be a serious amount of design, planning and team building to take place - as well as management working with the local community - all of which takes time and money and none of which Infa seem to have much of left, which leads onto 2 - their recent investment/divestment into Harland and Wolff might seem like a smart move for the long run (reduce IM capex) but in the short term looks to be a complete cash burner which will only work against the development speed and ability of principal to stay afloat (excuse the pun). Infrastrata have had to borrow every penny it has needed (on less than favourable terms) to purchase a shipyard that hasn't built a ship in 16 years but more to the point hasn't turned a real profit in 6 years (apart from 2 periods where it seemed to only make money because it was carrying out rig dry docks for it's parent company - which no longer is there for hand-downs). So I find it hard to believe some posters on here that claim that H&W contracts could be soon bringing in revenue and profit over and above their own operating costs (all those workers that gained their claim to fame protesting at the gates need to put bread on the table while waiting to make steelwork for gas carvern drilling components). I'm not trying to be pessimistic regarding the share price but has anyone else any realistic opinions on the viability of Infa with its newly adopted child that needs fed? I'm more than happy to take a punt on anything but I like my share buys to last longer than Brexit extensions and just like BJ I don't think JW is going to meet his yard backstop date this week... and then what?