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Skibba, it did destroy the share price because investors don't want to invest in a company that they can't be certain will exist in 12 months' time. With no buyers and IIs/PIs scrambling to get out for other reasons, there was no support.
But I agree, that wasn't the only reason. Mojapelo then decided to give the SP another massive kicking by declaring that the company would split in two, with BE being "carved out". Despite the uncertainty he must have known that would cause, the idiot has never bothered to clarify that decision since.
I'm always pleased to see the SP rise above $40, but as I'm sure you realise that was only for a couple of months of that year and therefore no good to BMN in terms of paying off the loan. Maybe you should have praised me for being an optimist for once.
Night Pdub.
Pdub, BMN had a VRFB sitting with Eskom for god knows how long. So much for proof of concept.
Skibba, I've provided my statement. It's obvious the loan was not repayable unless the V price hit $50-60 all year round, which it didn't. I have no idea what guarantees Mojapelo gave to Orion or whether they thought the loan was ever truly repayable, but the fact is it wasn't, it was never likely to be and that has destroyed the share price.
If you think that's good business, fine, but shareholders have been sold down the river by a terrible deal. Mojapelo likes to witter on about lack of dilution, but the effect of that deal has been more disastrous than any dilution.
Perhaps you can tell me Skibba. Under what circumstances do you think that loan was repayable bearing in mind V prices have been far higher than expected over the past 12 months? Orion would get their money no matter what. If needed they would just take over the company and flog their assets.
Btw, I haven't called for Mojapelo's head for years, only in the last week actually. I have lost all confidence in him, what others think is their business.
Pdub, in all your positivity you forgot to mention that V prices are at a two-year low with no sign of picking up. As I'm sure you must be aware, record sales mean nothing as sales do not equal profits. Your positivity will not make Mojapelo run the business better.
P.S. nothing wrong with hindsight. That's how you figure out whether a CEO is good or a clown.
@Skibba
Why do I think that BMN could not pay back the loan? Because were it not for the Ukraine war substantially elevating V prices, the company would have been barely profitable (or worse) and therefore unable to pay the loan back. Despite those high prices, BMN still had to renegotiate the loan. High prices that were completely unforeseen by BMN. So yeah, the initial deal was clearly done on a hope and a prayer despite Mojapelo's best intentions and the whole debacle has been a very amateur miscalculation on his part. Of course all loanees will do their due diligence, doesn't stop firms going bust though does it?
Let's give a more realistic prediction for 2023 and beyond:
According to reports, V price likely to be flat for the remainder of the year as China struggles to kickstart heavily depressed steel sector.
Load shedding reduction impact at Vanchem completely unknowable as despite mitigating factors SA suffering worst ever load shedding at up to 16 hours a day.
Dollar Rand - nobody seems capable of demonstrating the real impact on the bottom line. Likely to have a paltry effect on paltry profits.
BELCO electrolyte plant - nothing to talk about until we know how much of the plant is owned by BMN amidst laughable lack of comms from management. With BE's track record, this is bound to disappoint.
Minigrid will have no impact on Vanchem and little at Vametco - it's just a pointless project to demonstrate something that will never be rolled out in a basket case country like SA.
Refinancing of debt - saved BMN from self-inflicted disaster but Orion will flog of all their shares just like all the other IIs did, depressing the SP for 12 months if and when it ever gets back to 6p.
Lemur coal project. Should have been sold years ago - has been left to rot and hard to believe anyone will touch coal in this environment.
Profits? Nobody knows. Fingers crossed, eh?
Another tough year, with Mojapelo hiding under his desk for most of it, popping up to announce underwhelming news (or worse), as always.
Long-term. Despite the mess Mojapelo has made running the business, continued uptake of VRFBs will hopefully lead to sustainably higher prices. Could reach a very positive inflection point if married to China steel industry picking up pace, especially if we see a resolution to war in Ukraine.
On the negative side, will be 2-3 years before BMN hits Mojapelo's floundeirng target of 5,400 mtV - he knows that 8,000 mtV is a pipe dream that's at least 5 years away, but wont' say it.
@Skibba
HarChris's post wasn't taken out of context at all - here it is: "It would be a genuinely serious situation now if he hadn’t pulled off the recent refinancing but now he has we he have ~$55m of cash and cash equivalents to smooth this out and wait for the vanadium dynamics to play out in our favour."
Clear as day. As I said, the initial loan was never repayable and Mojapelo recklessly gambled with the company's future in a high V price environment. Not sure how anyone can have confidence in him after that, but I get the impression a lot of investors would rather lose all their money than be wrong.
Ultimately, I hope I'm the one who's proved wrong.
I agree Skibba, some of his points are sound, but he was the one who said BMN "would be a genuinely serious situation now" were it not for Mojapelo renegotiating Orion's loan.
Even he clearly agrees that the original deal was a disaster and the logical conclusion is therefore that Mojapelo is responsible for the car crash SP.
Instead of admitting that and fronting up, he lost his rag and pretended to block me. No worries, but not the behaviour of someone who you claim to be sound and without a narrative.
To add, a more productive use of shareholder animosity would be to figure out how shareholders can collectively unite to have him removed from the board at the upcoming AGM.
Although HarChris shat the bed last week, we should refrain from blaming investors for the SP debacle. Yes, they are often disingenuous and only present one side of the story, but ultimately Fortune Mojapelo is to blame for the terrible state the SP is in.
Shareholders have the right to be hostile for as long as Mojapelo sits doing nothing while the SP burns to the ground, but the focus should squarely be on him and him alone.
They will sell as soon as they get the chance, dragging the SP down for years. There comes a point when even the staunchest of supporters has to admit Mojapelo is no longer fit to front BMN. The loan debacle proves he's clueless and overseeing a car crash here.
I take no pleasure in saying that, but the company needs a CEO with vision, transparency and communication skills. He has none of those things and his business decisions are now highly questionable.
Mojapelo has driven out every single institutional investor and I expect Orion will do exactly the same and cash in their chips assuming Mojapelo is capable of leading the SP back to 6p. Or maybe he will just bung them more cash and renegotiate their CLN down to 2p.
At what point do people have to get their head out the sand and ask whether he is really fit to run this company?
If Fast Markets is effectively the same as Investing.com for the EU, why would Investing.com's US price be questioned? We know BMN sells premium products to the US, but that's not Ferro Vanadium and BMN won't disclose what the premium is on what products.
However, now that we agree that Investing.com is accurate in the EU at least, their prices in EU reflect:
April 01 - $38.75
May 01 -$34.25
Jun 01 - $31.75
Albeit 6 days into June and it's still $31.75, that's a downtrend.
I get my prices for China and EU from Vanadiumprice.com and they're showing a downtrend too. Honestly, the BS here is f**king embarrassing. Who do you think you're kidding exactly?
@Pdub - well I go by the only public published source for prices, Investing.com.
March 01 - $42.05
April 01 - $38.25
May 01 - $34.65
June 01 - $34.55
That's a downtrend and it's exactly the same scenario for China and EU.
Asian Metal doesn't even give a price. Maybe BMN should publish an accurate daily price, but they seem to want to hide everything from investors.
Yes, brasi, it may not be accurate - but it's all we have to go on and unless someone can prove the figure is higher, they shouldn't lie about the numbers.