Member Info for CrustyPete

But MAX what examples did they give of the alternative offers that they have explored? NONE!! Do we actually believe that these alternative avenues were explored? Or do we believe that it was worth a few hours of grilling to get us to accept the "low ball" offer of our "Cornerstone Investor"?

It was suggested that I was accusing the BoD of taking bribes. "Oh how dare you!! I demand an apology!" BH bleated with his feigned disgust..... So I duly apologised; in fact I was trying to suggest that our cornerstone investor has undue influence over the BoD: "NO" they say we explored any number of alternatives. Oh really, with who and what were they? I didn't get any details? So do I actually believe it? Or maybe our "Cornerstone Investor" made sure that any alternatives were duly sent packing.

The problem is fellow shareholders we will never know, because there is zero transparency and so the BoD know that they can get away with just about anything.

I also suggested that anyone that was at the last AGM in Dublin would have sold up there and then if they had then believed that, 14 months later, we would have no Licenses over Ruvuma, that we would not have sorted out KN1, that we would not have drilled C1 and that, as a consequence, we would now be forced to sell out for 50% of our prime asset for a paltry $40 million..... (by next March btw). They chose not to offer an explanation, no apology, no explanation, preferred to avoid the question by claiming that I had insulted their dignity with my "aspersions". But also , of course because the 70 or so questions that we sent them had been superceded by subsequent events. Hey, how fecking convenient!! So did they get taken to task on their mis-management? No, they had "managed" to arrange something of a diversion. Just a pity that they hadn't devoted as much energy to managing the company over the last 14 months. Just as well indeed that we didn't have an AGM in May eh? No surprise that JB was up until all hours to get the Farm Out concluded. Just think what he would have had to answer if he hadn't managed it!

So, how do we find ourselves where we are BoD? Whatever happens with the Farm-Out do we trust them to after Kiliwani and Nyuni? Do remember we are still the operator of these assets. The Zubairs cannot currently take over operations there. Well not immediately. When they get the chance to buy the @ 10p in the pound we will probably sell out again; and probably because it is all in minority shareholders longer term best interests :0)

Basically they cannot get Ruvuma to monetisation without the Zubs, hence we are sellin out to them! BH says that this will be his last AGM (if I understood him correctly?)...... What a fantastic way to go out! Out a high BH, well done. Great job.

Keith P. Sorry, good attempt but no banana. The reality is that the AEX BoD have succeeded in managing the shareholders out of 90% of the value of our Ruvuma assets.

cont'd

Tom the Jugged Hare is a good pub and, if you are interested great food (probably need to book) BUT it will NOT have the football on....

The only places that will have the football on in the Victoria area are not that great but depends on your priorities :0)

That may well be true Drewky but the fact that tomorrow is AGM day would have no bearing on that whatsoever....

Typically any sensitive information issued at the AGM is simultaneously released to the market - that includes such things as the AGM Presentation....

I couldn't have said it better myself vike.... see you tomorrow?

I wouldn't argue with that one iota Dunders and the answer is still TPDC..... though whether, in Tanzania, they are as efficient as to provide and report on such things monthly I could not be sure. Though as production reports and incoices as sent in monthly I would see no reason why not. Though with Kiliwani I suggest that there will have been innumerable conversations about whether or not, and if so, what solutions might be economic or not as the case may be and so any additional approval may not have been straightforward....

I am of the belief that the Remediation work programme for Kiliwani is still awaiting sign-off from the TPDC; though there has been more than one suggested work programme submitted for approval which may suggest that some of these have been rejected for whatever reasons....Though that is pure supposition on my part.

The Tanzanian Govt and Energy Ministry do not oversee "day to day" operational activities on existing licenses nor the extension of those licenses. Ministry involvement is required only for Development License approval.

That is the case for the KN1 Remediation work programme anyway; or at least that is my understanding.....

"before the development licence can be granted we need to drill C-1" is NOT a fact only an opinion, conversely I would suggest that "before we drill C1 we need the Development License". Moreover the JB has already been quoted as saying that our drilling obligations for the Ruvuma PSA have already been satisfied and even if not, conceding a proportion of KN1 is hardly an issue with it not producing at present. If the TPDC were so keen on backing in to KN1 ypu might have expected them to sign off on the Remediation work there by now... Even if you do not accept that AEX have met their drilling obigations for Ruvuma PSA how do you believe the AEX BoD are going to be able to fund a C1 drill without a Farm-Out or other fund raise and how on earth are they going to get that funding without a License in place? And I would argue without a Development license in place?

I would agree CP. Quite right on the License and farm-out - what is the asset worth without a license and what is it worth with one? That should be binary yes? All on or all off? But it isn't is it? NO license = £7 million? With license £100 million? But what would we get if we sold it? Your guess is as good as mine.

Look at Aminex; how much is Ruvuma worth now? £83 million minus the value of Kilwani and Nyuni - Lindi license now long gone (without forking out a fortune to buy it back and no guarantee of that) and apparently worth ZERO as the sp has not changed as a consequence. So how much Kiliwani and Nyuni? £20 million max? Hence someone (the market?) still ascribes a value to the Ruvuma appraisal area and Ntorya Development area of circa £63 million even though we currently do not have a current license over the region....

Funny old world eh?

Consolidation is different from dilution of course BD, unless, as was the case for Solo, that Consolidation was exercised purely so as to reduce the number of shares in issue to facilitate ongoing dilution!!

In hindsight without the recent Consolidation Solo would now have great difficulty having a material dilution - and this was the case with BHR. And without the ability to "dilute" and with no meaningful income the BoD at BHR could not raise capital and therefore could not maintain the company as a going concern. QED the company had to be closed.

I am not sure I totally agree with that assessment CP, your assertion that there is none of Ruvuma in the MC doesn't hold water in my view. I would suggest that most of the current sp is Ruvuma..... HH is an unknown quantity until the Flow Test results and was recently valued at only £2m in 2017 and to my knowledge nothing has happened since to increase it's value; and what is H1 worth? Until H1 IPO bugger all, is the answer.... As for IOW, it may have the greatest potential of all of our assets outside of Tanzania but even so, right now it has a value of £000 millions.

That effectively means that of our current MC of £12 million at the very best these non Ruvuma, non Kiliwani assets comprise 50% of our NAV and I would suggest quite a bit less.

I would agree that without licenses we could sell them for bugger all but there is an element of value applied for the (goodwill) possibility of an extension and approval being concluded in coming months.

Just my view.

Woody you may as well flip a coin. Will we get Ruvuma license extensions and 25 yr Development License or not? If you think the answer is NO then your prediction will be about right; if you think the answer is YES then I think the upside is considerable....

It is easy for me to say this as my holding is now so inconsequential that the answer doesn't really matter. But, for what it is worth I believe the answer is YES. How low will the sp go? That depends on how long to takes to get that answer..... When will that be and will HH flow tests and Helium 1 IPO come first? If only I knew.....

Which is precisely why Kejoglo has been doing all he can to undermine the shareprice and, in so doing, all existing shareholders so that he can achieve a more favourable entry price.....

I will admit to not always being an unquestioning supporter of the Solo BoD and reduced my holding considerably at the point of the last dilution; that said I have always been a shareholder over that period and my comments have never been designed to fleece everyone else for my own gain as Kejoglo's comments have so obviously been intended to do.

And now he even has the effrontery to admit it..... or is it just that he is too stupid to actually realise what he has just done?!

And GL, how is the Market Cap of a company not related to the sp? If the sp drops 25% so too does the MC, all things being equal. What are the BoD going to do? Issue more shares? And at times like 2008, 2002, 1990, 1987 or 1973 (and many more smaller ones in between) this happens across the board and has nothing to do with the respective performance of individual BoD's.

Back in 2008 I was working for a major Global Wealth Management Company and both the team that I was working with and I personally had a fantastic year but because of the 2008 crash none of us got bonuses and in January 2009 we ALL got made redundant.....

This is why I do not think you can make performance related pay dependent on factors way beyond the BoD's control.

Well as I said earlier I do not think sp is a suitable measure to base performance against as the BoD have no control of such things a Global Markets, POO or Gas; and even if so they ought to be waiting until a years end before basing any Salary rise on an sp criteria..... so 2.19 at the beginning of the year Dec 31st 2016 and 3.09 on December 31st really does not merit a more than pro rata rise in the salary bill of $1.2 million in 2016 vs $1.95 in 2017.

And as irish pointed out only this morning and others have done so in the past the rises in 2017 were sanctioned on the basis of benchmarking the BoD's salaries against those of the market and nothing to do with performance. The performance based pay scheme is meant to be introduced this year but that can only be done if the BoD have introduced both a scheme and the scrutiny necessary to implement it.

So far this year their "performance" is non existent and the shareprice movement is minus 25% so by any criteria a justifiable performance payment looks a long way off.

I quite agree irish though, whilst they might well have been able to find a comparator for sp decline (personally I do not think this ought to be the measurement of performance), I doubt they would find one that has had not one single achievement to report on in over 10 months.

So yes they will trot out that the "salary increases were to bring the BoD into line with the market" and that was for 2017 BUT we are now into 2018 and so far they have delivered ZERO, hence my focus on the need for an annual performance review (with clear and measurable performance criteria) and performance related pay scheme... No Performance , No Pay!

whoops, meant to say

....about the upgrade in resources to 1.87 TCF whilst hoping that no-one realises that the resources have been there all the time and it was only the post NT2 New Basin Model and the subsequent CPR by RPS that has established this; moreover that we no longer even have a license over these assets which effectively renders them worthless.

Just to point out that even the 25 yr Development License, CPR, and IO Commercialisation study were all underway in September 2017, now 10 months ago. What on earth have the BoD been doing since? What on earth now justifies the huge salary increases, the increase in senior management and NED members (Aaron Le Blanc,Brain Cassidy, Al-Ghaithi, Bell)? And all this at a time when our KN1 income has fallen off a cliff and the BoD have done nothing to correct it?

That brings me back to page 17 of the ARA under "Corporate Governance"

- A performance evaluation of the Board, its Committees and its Directors was not undertaken during the year.
- As noted in the Directors’ Remuneration Report, the Board intends to put in place a scheme during 2018 to enable part of the Executive Directors’ remuneration to be performance related.
- The Company does not have at least two independent non-executive directors as defined by provision B1.2 of the Code.

Well I am not surprised that there was no "performance evaluation" during the 2017; that evaluation would hardly be flattering with disappointment of the NT2 drill, no NT3 drill, failure of KN1 remediation and the consequential decline in the financial position. The only positive would be the Dev License application... everything else has been delivered by third parties at shareholders expense. All this now forcing us into the hands of our cornerstone investor with a consequential dilution of our hard earned assets....

And what would 2018 look like?!? So far in 2018 they have delivered NOTHING...."performance? What performance? That 2018 performance related pay scheme will be interesting won't it? If their pay was to be dependent on performance I hope that they have chosen NOT to take any pay this year!

Finally that "Independent Director" is now a necessity - we have one Zubair entity, ARA, holding 29.9% of AEX shares and now are looking to "Farm-Out" to another in Eclipse Investments; is that BoD now operating in the interests of all shareholders? Is Aminex still in control of our shareholder assets? (even when we eventually get our license over Ruvuma back again)....

These, above all other questions on our list, are the issue that I want answers to. Vike let's discuss this further over lunch on Wednesday.

Ha, vike you make a very good point!! :0)

Though I suspect that they will make as much as is possible about the upgrade in resources to 1.87 TCF

It may also be none of those.