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I find it hard to believe that anyone else than the Teichmann Group will buy the rump and take it private. I’m simply waiting for that announcement so that the shares I have can to be of “negligible value” and I can set my loss against tax.
Is no news good news?
I know that only too well - I’ve sunk over £200k into that hole since 2013. Pure hubris on my part.
FINALLY: BlueRock Diamonds PLC ('BlueRock' or the 'Company')
Board Changes
BlueRock Diamonds PLC, the AIM listed diamond producer, which owns and operates the Kareevlei Diamond Mine ('Kareevlei') in the Kimberley region of South Africa, announces that Mike Houston has stepped down from his Board position with immediate effect and it is anticipated that David Facey will step down from the Board later this week. Additionally, Victor Dingle has joined the Board as Chief Executive Officer ('CEO') and Rob Croll has become the new Non-executive Chairman with immediate effect.
Victor is an experienced executive having served as Chief Financial Officer ('CFO') of a number of public and private companies in sub-Saharan Africa. Victor is currently CEO and CFO of the Teichmann Group, a diverse group of companies with expertise in multi-disciplined construction services, mining, and agriculture and the Company's largest shareholder. Victor has previously served as CFO of MTO Forestry Proprietary Limited, Dangote Cement Limited and Lafarge Cement.
Rob, who joined the board in June 2021 as an Independent Non-executive Director, is an experienced mining engineer. Based in South Africa, he is has held various senior executive and consulting positions and gained significant exposure to the financial markets. He was previously the Lead Independent Non-Executive Director of Resource Generation Limited and brings with him a strong independent technical and commercial perspective to BlueRock's current operation at Kareevlei and future investments.
Rob Croll, Non-executive Chairman said, "This is an exciting new phase for the Company having endured several difficult years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and extreme weather conditions that delayed the commissioning of the new transformational 1Mtpa plant and the opening up of the Main Pit to optimise its economic depth potential. The high-level review completed in June/July this year has provided a clear but challenging path to optimising production, which in turn will enable us to take advantage of the robust diamond market dynamics. I look forward to updating shareholders of progress on these developments.
"I would like to thank Mike for his time and vision and wish him every success for the future. I look forward to working closely with our major shareholder, Teichmann, as well as our new CEO, Victor, as we focus on building value for stakeholders and shareholders alike."
Finally, from the recent RNS: As explained in the Circular, as the resolutions have been passed, it is the intention of Michael Houston, David Facey and Tim Leslie to resign as directors, subject to suitable replacements being identified. A further announcement regarding progress in respect of these board changes will be made in due course.
I’ve been a shareholder since 2013 and all I’ve done is throw money into a deep hole. Sure, we’ve got great quality diamonds but the problem has always been with the management of the mine. It’s gone from bad to real bad and now doesn’t exist in any recognisable form. Remember, a fish rots from the head down. Our only hope is the present cash raising exercise is successful even though it leaves small shareholders like me severely diluted. I’ve forgotten how many rights issues we’ve had since being on the Plus market but it certainly doesn’t show up the board and particularly the FD in a good light. Personally I think that at 7p it’s a good punt but only if Teichmann is more involved in everyday decision making. We can only hope.
If ever there was a meme stock………..
At 0909 this morning I received this message: You have successfully registered for BLUEROCK DIAMONDS PLC - Q2 Investor Update which will start at 14th Jul 2022 at 11:00am BST. At 0914 the Investor Update was cancelled!
Hi SR. I wonder whether you have had a chance to look at the Annual Report for y/e 31/12/21.
I couldn’t help noticing that Mike Houston received fees of £79,167 v ££59,500 in the previous year and David Facey received £81,000 v £59,000. One might ask why considering the state of the company and its precarious financial situation. Nice work if you can get it.
Spot on. I refer you back to my post of June 1st.
Who in their right mind would lend a penny to this shambles of s**t? The sad thing is that we know that the quality of the stones is superb and that there are plenty of them. What we also know is that the management of the mine is shocking or nonexistent. When the company goes pop somebody is going to pick it up for a song. Once again the long suffering shareholders are the only people to get screwed.
Alrosa, Russia’s state-controlled firm which is under American sanctions, is a big producer of tiny diamonds known as melee, which surround a big stone on a ring. “That will ultimately be a potential challenge for retailers who use a lot of melee,” Cleaver said. “Jewellery designers are very innovative and very good at working with what they’ve got.”
With all the good news about Bluerock on Twitter why is our SP in free fall? Time for a change in the boardroom I think, especially the FD.
Surely that means that Teichmann didn’t follow their money in the last placing. This is from the BRD home page: Change in voting rights is due to dilution as a result of a new share issue announced on 31 March 2022.
Previous voting rights were 3,641,271 equating to 25.79%.
It looks as though according to today’s RNS that Teichmann hasn’t actioned their CLNs. Neither has BinVic apparently.
One has to wonder what the hell is going on: the Q1 production update was good, so why the fall in the SP. Maybe because current production is not meeting targets or perhaps a falling out between Teichmann and the BRD board after the last fund raise which diluted Teichmann’s shareholding or perhaps talking down the SP results in a lowball offer for the company. Take your pick.
And pay the consultancy fees of £579,000 to BinVic!
So 8 days later and the content of the BRD has still not been amended. If the management cannot get this right what hope is there that they can get anything right. I now am convinced that the present board is out of their depth and needs to be replaced by full-time committed professional board. The sooner the better.
Following their cash raising exercise announced on the 31st March, the company said:
Admission to Trading on AIM and Total Voting Rights Application will be made for the Placing Shares and the Subscription Shares, which will rank pari passu, with the existing Ordinary Shares, to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). It is expected that Admission will become effective, and dealings will commence on or around 5 April 2022.
Following the issue of the Placing Shares and the Subscription Shares, the issued share capital of the Company will consist of 21,776,755 Ordinary Shares. No shares were held in treasury at the date of this announcement. The total current voting rights in the Company are therefore 21,776,755.
I note that the Bluerock homepage has not updated the issued share capital to 21,776,775 as it was legally obliged to do, neither has it listed any new significant shareholders. So who took up the rights issue? I feel shareholders have been treated as mushrooms: kept in the dark and fed with a diet of s**t.
Maybe I’ve got this wrong but after every good RNS announcement, within a week it is followed by bad news.