Member Info for crudehope

Lostallfaith, give me some credit...I don't need any hand holding or prompting to recall the dark days!

Lostallfaith, you ask me what James has built? I generally talk from my own long termer perspective so here goes.
Under his stewardship he extricated us from the disastrous Indonesia campaign with cash payment & future contingency payments. He consolidated the share base, instigated a small but important revenue stream from Italian assets, brought in Continental Partners & the whole warrant financing scheme, built a competent team, got us out of Italy and into the much more promising Morocco with bigger prospects and far less red tape & great tax breaks. He partnered us with Schlumberger and bought in OGIF & then instigated seismic and ariel graviometry surveys - In short, he positioned us for success as a well funded and well partnered O&G with some very promising prospective acreage.
Before James took the helm in a boardroom coup back in October 2012 poor old previous incumbent, Gerry Orbell ('Merry Ordeal') had almost bankrupted us...the last straw that broke the camel's back was back-to-back placings with Astin Finance & that false promise of finance for Strombone, haplesley announced at the 2012 AGM! We were almost finished and investors drowning in shares that seemed to promise death by dilution! James literally saved the day...that is what I have seen and bow I have been affected by his tenure. I do appreciate that is not obviously how more recent shareholders view it & I sympathise with their plight & sincerely hope nobody here loses money.

In summary, I have every reason to keep faith and support James as CEO of our Company.

Charisma, no one is worse than TRP! Or no company more unlucky!

As for James staying on as leader...absolutely he should. He built this thing from the ruins of Merry Ordeal & Astin Finance & he should stay & finish what he started. He is ably supported by Chairman Simon Davies & investment Bankers & M&A specialists Rothchilds. He has built a good working relationship with in-country cornerstone shareholders OGIF & partners Schlumberger...now is not the time for a new face. You never know, we may need his 'Pallly' (Paal) relationship with Sclum to be at it's best in a possible combined asset sale! He is a deal-maker...let him deal I say.

Seaton, your 14:56 post is therefore duly recommended by me.....

Crude

Drule, I don't think there is any point in asking - they are just not allowed to speculate. They are in a marketing process which could take another 5 months - the SP looks to be heading only one way for now - south. But the company could right now be processing the details of an offer or offers so best let them get on with it I say.

Well said Maldini - if it gets shorted to 5p I'm in for 200,000 more shares!

Esmerelda, a well reasoned post & one I would not gainsay! But the market doesn't have access to the Rothchilds data room...therein hopefully lie some buried treasure that 'Mr Market' doesn't & cannot understand. The very secret nature of the whole process naturally handicaps the poor bloody AIM punter......

Ziggy, we know nothing but surely no harm in speculating. I'll be happy whatever happens so long as it is a decisive move that allows all shareholders hope to recoup their capital. I am a long termer and it's not so bad for me...I'm talking about many others who stand to lose life-changing amounts they cannot afford! I still firmly believe in a possitive outcome.

Green dragon, I am not being ridiculous. Your idea still requires capital...where & how are you going to get it? We are already in debt so acquiring more debt could be prohibitively expensive and may also require diluting the share base. It would also be a very slow and drawn out process to eventually put 4 wells on stream. Then when you have production what happens next? I just hope they can get a good enough price for the whole kit and caboodle with maybe royalty payments in the future...because if not what happens next?

Lossgain, why only ban AIM shorting? Shorting is a necessary market function that can expose weakness. Anyway, I wasnt talking about shorts, I was referring to the lax regulation on the AIM that can turn investors into mere punters who lose vast amounts they cannot afford to...blurring the lines between investing & gambling.

Soundingoff, I know we have suspended drilling but in reality we would never gamble our cash reserves to drill TE-11. If that were to happen we would have to monetise the Horst.

Jack, "pawning the family silver"...why not? If a buyer could be found that would pay a reasonable price for a neatly wrapped up consession. But don't get hung up on the company stating profits will be returned to shareholders - situations & circumstances change & have changed...its now all about doing the right thing by shareholders. But I do think James has had enough & would prefer a sale with future contingent payments. I prefer to sell the Horst and carry on drilling....we only need one reasonable sized discovery but would have cash for many more wells than the recent so called three well campaign! I am not prepared to 'flog it' for peanuts..........

Soundingoff, the only way we could conceivably drill TE11 is if we were to sell the horst package, thereby avoiding dilution whilst paying off our debts. This could raise considerable funds for a multi-well, multi-rig, campaign. I personally pay no heed to Jones & his dilution theory as we all know who he was...Neptunes - in different clothing and seemingly different ethnicity and almost certainly younger. Suffice to say James will never dilute shareholders out of existence...when the answer is staring the BOD in its face!

Lyndon, best advise I've had this month!

Cheers, Crude

Jones, I have never once reported a shaungreen post & I care less about your ethnicity or age. You are the epitome of 'fake news'!

Good night,

Crude

Jones, apart from your alias, which we all accept...you are making very little sense. I honestly do not understand what you are saying?. What you say about a SIPP drawdown is ridiculous! I am not in 'Drawdown'.............

Rollonsummer, if that is what you think why do you even bother to look? This is a LSE chat forum...the fact you post nothing of interest still doesn't seem to inform your opinion of other folk, who do try to keep the discussion alive & kicking! My advice to you is before you criticize...post something with content that you would be happy to read on this board! Otherwise, your inane critical comments are pretty much worthless..........................

Jones (Neptunes)...the other reasons are not anyone else's business & not related to Sound Energy. The simple truth is he lost faith in our CEO. There were other extenuating circumstances that are personal to Darren & are not relevant to your earlier post. He sold at around 76p and did very well: I was very pleased for him...........

N4apound, define "throw in the towel"...if you mean accept defeat you are appealing to the wrong person. I believe we have options & I am not about to concede we have lost or have losses! We have no idea what the value of our East Moroccan licenses are but we do know the Horst concession has value. I say sell & drill on but that's just maybe one option. Another option could involve future contingency payments and a total company sale. But short of selling at these ridiculous prices there is nothing for it but to hope Rothchilds, James & Simon can come up with an acceptable offer or plan b! But you will never find me throwing in the towel...I'm not nearly punch-drunk enough!

Jones, you are well off the mark re my mate Darren. He never had a "close relationship" with James but one of the factors that led to him to selling his quite considerable holding was something James said in reply to the question of how much Sound equity are Continental Partners in control of. I think Jame's answer of around 40% took into account Continental...& 'friends'. But that figure was never under the direct control of Marco & mates. It was everyone that Marco had pulled in and thus couldn't be considered wholly Continental. Darren took exception to that answer but there were other factors that forced him to sell, one being a declining share price. Suffice to say Darren is a highly principled guy that I count as a dear friend and he did very well from his sell-out of Sound shares. Basically, he lost faith & sold up before any complications could arise from his exotic trading arrangements.......

Lossgain, thanks for the heads up...could I prevail on you to supply the link?

Diver...seems like you have a case of the 'bends'...too many dissolved gas bubbles have affected your brain! The only person who is "going under" is you Diver!!

Listening to radio 4 just now the talk was about how the big 5 gambling companies want to donate 1% of their profits (around £100 million) to the Government to help problem gambling. But nowhere do I ever read or hear about the vast losses incurred on the AIM by people who just cant afford such catastrophic wipeouts! Its always the pokeys or the nags that get mentioned but never the lax regulation that ultimately leads folk to lose their shirts on the AIM! I guess the Government are more than happy for start-ups & junior companies to be financed, no matter the cost to the often hapless, but more often than not, innocent folk who just don't see the whole picture and are disadvantaged at every stage. There have been numerous examples of 'cash boxes' providing lifestyle CEO jobs...I am not including Sound as they genuinely believed & probably still believe in East Morocco and that's fair enough - but what I am saying is sooner or later the spotlight of problem gambling needs to be shone over the AIM!