The latest Investing Matters Podcast with Jean Roche, Co-Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Investment Trust has just been released. Listen here.
I can't see much on the horizon with a realistic prospect of reversing this depressing trend downwards. Over the years, the bits of news that were surefire touchpapers to the SP failed to do anything - eg Mokopone licence, increased production targets being achieved, Eskom contracts award. Only the rocketing V price in 2018. So, it's a question of waiting for that again on the commodity cycle I think.
Lots of things becoming clear. Why did the market attribute no value to BE .. because there still is none. Why did directors sell....because they knew this was going to underperform. I'm even questioning whether the "MCAP less than NAV" comment needs re-evaluating - when you have plant that is so clearly struggling to reach downgraded run rates you cannot value the asset as highly. We have all lauded FM for the deal, but maybe we overpaid!
I wonder whether Duferco are smiling knowing they offloaded this just in time.
Just my opinion and I'm sure it's lots more positive on the various telegram groups.
@bg I don't think they believe BMN can deliver it. They probably have reasonable grounds for taking this view given the track record over the last few years.
Whether a split off for BE is in investors interests depends on the detail of any deal. I confess I'm not holding my breath. ATM would have near doubled the MCAP if it had stayed within BMN, but we PIs in fact got a very small slice of the pie.
Can't help feel it will be the same - especially if(as it seems) BE still has little in the way of concrete deals agreed (and if they had these agreed surely it would have merited an RNS to inform the market)
Not wild about a buyout yet....every one I have been involved in has ended with PIs being stuffed, whilst CEO, Directors and Board get large "golden handcuff" salaries for "advisory roles"...
Glen P has form here with MARL some years ago.
Obviously absolutely delighted that they have secured funding for this and looks quite a big project at £7m.....but I had naively hoped this RNS might actually say work completed or near completion. The project was announced (at least) by March 2019 :
Bushveld Minerals (LON:BMN) is to expand vanadium battery development in South Africa to a 1Mw mini-grid that will supply its nearby Vametco mine. The mini-grid will combine 1Mwh of solar photovoltaic generation and 4Mwh energy storage using vanadium redox battery (VRFB) technology and supply power directly into Vametco’s internal distribution network. Bushveld has also started to process vanadium for use as an electrolyte in the batteries.
This almost raise more questions about the project than it answers for me! I can't be bothered at present to trawl back through all the previous RNSs but this has been a stated aim for many years and I'm surprised that it appears that it was an unfunded pipe dream until now ?
Correct me please if I'm wrong, Explains for sure why there have been no updates on progress - it wasn't even funded.
@CJ - I'd like to understand more about this , because it doesn't make sense to me, although I agree the disconnect is huge - it has been for some time and is growing wider.
A market (even a really fixed and bent one as AIM is) moves up when there is an excess of buyers and down when there is an excess of sellers.
The MMs are required as I understand it to fill trades up to the size of the market (30,000 here if I recall).
They cannot refuse to do so. If people were clamoring to buy , then the price would rise. In actual fact , there are large sellers and the excess in sales has not been mopped up by buyers at a higher price.
I don't understand how crooked MMs could work a system that overwhelmed a long period of buys outweighing sells.
I now entirely support (and would vote for) the creation of a new BOD and new CEO. The current approach of apparently complete dependency on SA whilst Eskom F around is destroying any competitive advantage that the company enjoyed and we need a new vision. The list of failures is endless - I accept that some are outside the control of BMN (SA politics, V price) but to fail even to deliver your OWN minigrid on time is a PR disaster of Ratneresque proportions.
100% agree Beginnerman.
I'm a fool for holding these long term and over £400K down on the value at peak (and don't anyone patronise me by saying it isn't a loss until you sell) and increasingly worried that the BOD are not able to deliver on their vision - do they REALLY think that comms have been ok as one earlier poster said?.
And I agree entirely with you - it's ok to defend your investment , but there comes a point when you risk influencing others who may make a bad investment decision based on the overly positive information here.
Balance was lost a long time ago as some aggressively "called out" negativity and it may be a good thing that some of the Uber-positives left to wallow in their euphoria on other groups .
In fact those who have been cautious or even negative about this share have been proved exactly correct. I hold on because I have become too attached to the vision, but do think that in another 5-10 years this technology will be playing an important role in energy storage for renewables.
I cannot but help feel that the fact that the small start-up company (ATM) spun out of BMN has a valuation (79m) at near parity with it's "parent" company (119m)speaks volumes about how badly this has gone over the last year or two.
G2BH - yes, mine too.
But China is aggressively securing vital mineral assets all over Africa.
My point is that we have nothing in the valuation for the RESOURCE ITSELF which is a bit crazy when you consider that in the face of a global mineral squeeze.
What I just do not get about the situation we find ourselves in - unloved, unwanted and massively undervalued with an MCAP of £114m - is that we have the ownership of and rights to one of (if not THE) largest known high quality Vanadium deposits in the world. Vanadium shortages are going to be a reality and yet no-one in the West is doing anything about securing supply.
The situation we are in is like valuing a gold miner sitting on JORC proven gold deposits on the value of it's mining infrastructure ( we are valued less than NAV)
When is the world going to get real.... The US could buy the whole shooting match for a billion or two..........and watch out , because the Chinese might just try first.
Wow. Just back from morning out and it's interesting the response of those that only post uber-positive things about the share. I said:
So, I might argue the price of vanadium and even estimated profitability is (counterintuitively) irrelevant (THE MARKET CLEARLY AGREES WITH THIS AS THE SP IS NEAR TWO YEAR LOWS DESPITE CALCULATED PROFITABILITY) in determining the SP right now (I.E. WHILST THERE IS THE LARGE SELLER). We've been there so many times over the past few years (WITH LARGE AND PERSISTENT SELLERS)
CAPS inserted for those that appear unable to read between the lines to understand my view. This is being sold off by probably Duferco. That is also Pdubs view from many of his posts - unless he's done an about turn. And I stand by what I said : The calculated profit doesn't matter right now. The WEIGHT OF SELLING overwhelms the effect of any good numbers.
Makes not a bit of difference to the SP, Pdub, what the company are making. The plain fact is that there are too many shares being sold by holders who do not believe the company has the future you believe in (and I rather forlornly now hope for) . This exceeds the number of investors keen to buy in to and be part of the story.
So, I might argue the price of vanadium and even estimated profitability is (counterintuitively) irrelevant in determining the SP right now. We've been there so many times over the past few years.
Join the club Zitty.
The communication is shockingly poor and I have little confidence in FM or MN turning this around despite their comments that they hear shareholder frustration and would do something about it.
We continue to be a simple junior mining operator doing a bit better than breakeven with slowly increasing productivity in the eyes of the market.