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Not sure what's happened to the formatting of that below post, but you get the idea!

hi boris - the auditors definitely check on the related party transactions and these are noted in the full year accounts. they will also check on the prices paid for goods to ensure they are fair and not under or overstated. tgr benefits from the private businesses in terms of specialist equipment provided by haritmay and sales for graphite through pranagraf. while the intercompany sales might be a large % of revenues now, i would be very surprised if pranagraf will be a major buyer once the tonnages start increasing to nameplate capacity. the relationship has been useful as the company has scaled, but they will certainly be seeking larger buyers to get through volumes above 10,000tpa.

i don't believe those indian businesses have anywhere near the same substance as tgr, so i do feel we are getting ourselves into a bit of a tizz about the whole thing. ultimately, we are shareholders in the key asset of the group.

just in terms of pranagraf, the prospectus details three "projects" which are owned by this company - 1) patalanga project, 2) specialty graphite project, and 3) tgmrc. patalanga is an operating business which produces the groups flame ******ant composite - carboflamex. the specialty graphite project and tgmrc are either only in their infancy or not operating at scale - so i don't believe we are missing out on much value there as it currently stands.

the original price agreed for the acquisition of tsg/pranagraf was £2.0m (refer patalganga spa in the prospectus) and this was to be paid for by the issue of 10.0m shares after tgr went public. however, they obviously had issues with the reserve bank of india and hence the delay in getting this completed.

there's a lot of information in the original prospectus and i would encourage all serious investors here to read it in detail.

Alright so I've been through the prospectus and the Concert Party is: Shishir & close family, Hemant & close family, and Tirupati Carbon & Chemicals ("TCCPL"). At listing, they held 43.02% of the company.

Per the latest RNS, the Concert Party has been diluted to ~26% due to the various equity raises since late 2020.

If anyone wants to cross check, the prospectus is easy to find if you give it a google.

It’s defined in the original prospectus, so best to check there.

You're right that the current SP is more sentiment driven than anything else right now. I'm sure the two mines are currently busy churning out steady tonnages, but unfortunately that's the day-to-day work we don't see as private investors.

If you take a step back and think about what TGR currently has in terms of production and potential production (i.e. Suni in Mozambique) I do scratch my head at the current valuation. If you take the latest balance sheet, the current market cap is a third of net asset value, which implies no value for the suni assets and no future cashflow generation for the business.

Personally, I think the shares are oversold and we could be in for a sizeable re-rate if the company starts to turn a profit and generate FCF. Just need some good news and a bit of volume - feels like small caps are dead at the moment.

Agree with the comments below. I believe Hermant was/is quite involved with the Indian companies (Pranagraf, etc.) so perhaps they agreed that he would focus there and reduce the Poddar representation on the board of TGR Plc.

We now have a much better balance on the board with the majority NED's. Hopefully they can also strengthen further this year.

How are the Poddar’s going to take the company private? Even at 10p, the business still has a market cap of £13M and the family (named as the concert party) only holds around 26% of the outstanding shares. Therefore, they would need to cough up at least £9.5M AND shareholders would need to vote for it.

There’s more chance of shareholders working together to get a new board than a take private transaction by the family.

Agree with you there HC.

Just on another junior miner - have you seen the gains in HE1 since last Wednesday? It's currently up 6x on an announcement of a potential Helium/Hydrogen play. They don't even know if it's viable yet and the market cap is currently over £40M...

And here we are languishing at a £13M market cap with two producing mines and another world class asset in Mozambique recently acquired. The mind boggles.

That being said, it does demonstrate how much faith has been lost by investors in TGR. At the current market cap, the Suni assets have essentially been discounted to zero and we are trading below book value. Any signs of profit and higher production numbers and we will be due a decent re-rate.

I actually think think TGR are well placed given their low cost of production. Time will tell though and hopefully they put the recent raise to good use. Given the major development work is now finished in Madagascar, this is the year for the business to show what it is capable of (or not) in terms of steady state production and sales.

GLA.

Interesting if you take a look at the import/export data for TGR itself: https://www.trademo.com/companies/tirupati-graphite-plc/40464231

Obviously Pranagraf is a large buyer but what struck me was the increase in shipments during November. Hopefully this bodes well for the next trading update and that they can keep the momentum up.

The delay in the VAT rebates certainly hasn't helped matters and I would hope that these can be collected this year.

I agree with you re: the share price and I don't see the Poddar's as being malicious in their intent for the company. They want TGR to succeed but the last twelve months has seen a litany of management errors and they need to regroup ASAP and start delivering.

They've got more cash now than they've had since mid 2022, so we just need 2024 to be a year of steady production and no major missteps. I feel like they stretched themselves with the Suni acquisition and I'd like to see a period of consolidation and focus on Madagascar. Cashflow generation is key and this should be their number one priority.

Time will tell and GLA.

Agree with you Gallmat - it would be helpful if Shishir did a media round to provide an update on the use of the equity.

After paying the January coupon on the CLN's (~£166k) the business will be left with net proceeds of £879k, which is in addition to any cash on hand prior to the raise. Assuming they already had ~£100k in the bank, then they have roughly £1.0M to ramp up operations and get things going. What they do with that money is key and I'm not going to make any decisions on my position until there's more clarity on that.

I hope Shishir has learnt a valuable lesson from this and that he's smarter with his financing decisions going forward.

I'm sticking it out given it's a long term hold for me and I don't have a huge position. If they can sweat this £1.0M and get production up to 1,500tpm, then the outlook will be completely different and the SP will react accordingly.

Also, in terms of dilution I don't mind future equity raises once output has stabilised at that higher level and if it's used for further increasing production. They just need to get over this working capital bottleneck and get the business to a level where it is profitable (above 1,200tpm) which the £1.0M will obviously help with.

Took some time to digest the placing this morning and my thoughts are as follows:

1. I'm glad they've bitten the bullet on the placing but it took far too long and should've been done last year when the SP was 30p+. Shishir should've considered the risk of the BAT consideration shares being issued into a low liquidity stock, and made a play to raise equity before they hit the market. I've said it before, but having a competent CFO could have helped to prevent this issue.

2. With near term working capital sorted, they have to hit 1,500t per month this year and sustain it. I suspect the reason they chose to raise now is that the ex-China market is growing and they have to be able to take advantage of this. If they tried to keep managing within their resources there is no way they could meet the increased demand from Western graphite consumers.

3. If this raise unlocks 18,000tpa then the business should be profitable after tax and can reinvest for CAPEX and new PCU's. They have some tax losses to carry forward so this will also help with free cashflow over the next few years.

I'm going to continue to hold and might open a smaller trading position, as this has the potential to be an inflection point for the business. However, if they burn through this cash without a meaningful increase in production then I'll have to reconsider my investment thesis.

100% agree and I was just about to say the same thing. Hard to see the company taking the full amount now and I expect this will be progressively drawn as and when required. They might only use a small amount initially but then keep the facility available for CAPEX in Mozambique or to increase production in Madagascar.

I think he realised that holding through the second half of last year wasn't going to generate him a positive return (largely due to the tight liquidity and BAT consideration shares) so he sold out and is now sitting on the sidelines waiting for updates.

He mentioned on Twitter recently that he has substantially reduced his holdings and is now more focused on 3-5 short to medium term holds (Avacta aside).

Once TGR starts to move he will definitely buy back in. From his Twitter posts, he remains bullish on the company but not the near term technicals/SP momentum.

Genghis - I really don’t think most on here have blinkered thinking. Many understand the risks involved and have done their research. If you think TGR is a terrible company then why waste more energy on this board?

While Shishir hasn’t made the best decisions in terms of corporate governance this year (I.e. the CLN interest payment) he has overseen the construction of two producing graphite mines in three years which are now on the cusp of a turning point in terms of production and cashflow. In addition, TGR have acquired Suni which adds a significant amount of reserves and includes battery grade flakes. So it’s not all doom and gloom.

This was never going to be a linear journey upwards and the Poddar’s will need to learn along the way. Things could all blow up or it could be a massive success; however for me I believe there is value in the assets which is above my average (18p) so therefore I feel comfortable holding as I do think the whole business (including Suni) is worth more than £20M.

Just my thought process and I do appreciate that many holders have an average higher than that. For what it’s worth, I think the business will be successful and there is huge potential here longer term.

Well said HarChris and I fully agree with your points below.

The business is doing its best to grow within current resources but it's clear that some dilution will come along the way. However, if that dilution results in more production and more profits/free cashflow, then that is more than justified in my books.

I've seen many companies dilute themselves into oblivion and this is clearly not happening here (arguably to the detriment of the business this year).

Key for me going forward is seeing how the Cost of Production evolves as volumes ramp up (i.e. will they achieve an improvement in gross margin back to ~40%). The third party of valuation of the Suni assets is also important as this will determine the state of the balance sheet going forward and what the new NAV per share is.

Lastly, news on a debt facility would obviously be welcome and hopefully this can be secured in Q1. I fully expect this to be convertible and can live with that if it gets us to a consistent 30,000tpa.

GLA and hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Downward pressure? There have been nine trades today for a whopping total of £5,843.54.

The volume has dried up and I can't see the SP going anywhere unless we get a Christmas RNS. Time to knock off for the holidays I think!

I was also invested above 100p with my first tranche, but luckily I sold at breakeven and waited until recently to buy back in. I'm happy with my current average of 18p and believe the company will be worth far more in time.

The company is only starting to get going now, so in my view it's not the time to be selling but to be taking advantage of the valuation disconnect.

While the SP was up at 140p previously, the two mining sites are far more developed today than they were back then. Plus we've got the Mozambique assets as well, which I would argue are worth the current market cap on their own.

All IMO and GLA.