Member Info for dropside

If the Chinese buyers don't pay as per contract then Aftan remains our asset.

The break-in at the Louvre is a mystery. The French Crown Jewels will be impossible to sell, and will most likely be broken up for the jewels. However the original diamonds, whilst large, are not good quality by modern standards, according to an expert I heard interviewed. They cannot be cut as we would want now. In fact, we can find much better diamonds on the beach.

Instead of breaking into the Louvre and having the whole French police force and secret service looking for them they could simply have bought shares in Kazera at 1.4p a go

I guess they had to buy them when they did, will be in a close period now within the 30 days up to the trading update.

Very true, hope the UK government is listening to these arguments.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2025/sep/02/oil-and-gas-imports-are-a-problem-labour-should-rethink-its-north-sea-stance

Getting the CPO plant up in 2013 and running was I think driven by the JV partner and this lot didn't have a lot to do with it. Other than the second year (when it paid a dividend and Lincoln said we could think of it as an annuity lol!), the business has never made money whatever the CPO price. The production level doesn't fill the plant. They have competition for palm oil and the claimed USPs have fallen by the wayside. The nursery was a big part of the IPO, increasing local productivity and increasing croppers loyalty to DKL. Never hear of it now. Likewise their own production areas. Never heard of since. Guitry, never mentioned. Business plan looks broken and no ideas forthcoming. Let's talk about the weather.

So it's on to Cashews a more complicated crop to process and its taken years to get to where they are. The cavalry is always just round the corner, new shelling machines due to arrive next week blah blah.

Debt has grown uncomfortably high but somewhere in this could be a decent business, with new dynamic management.

Just a thought...I've seen lots of pictures from other companies of directors looking at gold samples in Africa, production units overseas etc but Dekel, never a picture of any of them in Cote D'Ivoire. Correct me if I am wrong please but I seriously suspect none of them have even been there!!

That's a fair point Zebbo, a JV would bring extra resources and operational experience to run the operation and may already have equipment. On balance may be worth foregoing 100% revenue.

BM looks highly prospective for revenue generation, a great result on an area they picked up for a song not so long ago. Not sure I like the idea of sharing revenue though! If the business case is strong enough and the RoC worth it, then a placing need not be at a discount, could even be a premium, and they may find a positive reaction from shareholders for this. Or maybe not! Anyway would be interested to see what others think.

Also a simple way in to a Main Market listing

Needs a company statement. Most of this is on the back of media reports and insiders talking so its a false market. 37% price fall should trigger an RNS anyway, expect the NOMAD to be pushing.

Thanks. Will be interesting to see how Dowgate Wealth react, Lawrence Hulse of Dowgate spoke highly of Jon Divers in December. I guess there was a cultural mis-match between Jon's logistics/business expectations and the legal practice culture. Maybe all the counting of paper clips and restricting the coffee machine became a bit much. Jon Divers has done a great job cutting costs particularly building leases and perhaps now the heavy lifting has been done they can afford to pivot back to a more legal focus? If he goes, It will be crucial what happens with Kevin McNair, seriously good CFO and they need to try to keep him whatever happens at CEO level.

Yet more debt taken on. Wouldn't touch this company with a barge pole now.

Who is regularly buying one share at a time? The Geoffrey Boycott of investing, taking them in singles!

The thing with the order wins is they are net of the order bank consumption, so even more impressive. In the half year the order bank has increased 26m while the order bank was being consumed by 26m so the order wins must have been 26+26 = 52m in a 6 month period. That is a very impressive run rate.

I took some encouragement from this line in the PMI report issued yesterday:

Rates charged by sub-contractors increased at the fastest pace since September 2023, despite

a robust and accelerated improvement in availability.

I was just thinking that in all the DKL RNSs I have seen and all the interviews, I don't recall ever hearing of any of the directors actually visiting Cote D'Ivoire. Or have I missed something, happy to be proved wrong? Directors of other companies like to be photographed, samples in hand visiting the overseas mine or factory, or stand next to the drill or truck with local workers. Stand to be corrected but has there been one photograph?

If i was a director, I may not be an expert in process machinery (actually I am but never mind) , but I would be out regularly seeing the issues and what needed to be unblocked. When Oltremare were failing I would have been camped out in their factory every day, drinking from their Lavazza machine and being a nuisance until they performed just to get rid of me.

Where is the energy from this board of directors?

I sometimes wonder if they have not fancied flying out to Abidjan at all!

HarChris

"the poor performance so far won't be for lack of trying."

I really wish I could believe that, I really do.

I bought in the IPO float in 2013 and sold out a few months ago though I did trade it a fair bit too so my loss was real and painful but not as big as it could have been. It was a good story back in 2013, setting up a new facility in Cote d'Ivoire, on time to budget (no doubt the then Asian co-owners made sure of that) and a 1m plants a year nursery to revolutionise productiveness in the area. Don't hear much about the nursery these days, nor the RPSO certification, nor Guitry, nor the company owned plantations that were going to tie production, nor the fertiliser programme... Plant has never run above about 30,000 tonnes a year, about half capacity with an endless list of excuses and jam tomorrow.

Cashews are years behind and there is not been any realistic explanation or honest forecast along the way, frequently implication was 'imminent'. The next news will always be much better. Shareholders have been taken for fools.

With the assets they have this, objectively, is not expensive but the debt has crept up and is a material risk. With a new set of directors this could be a good investment but the board now needs clearing out. 10 years of failure, but directors fared alright with salary, share issues and buying out related party assets. Certainly not going to waste any more time on this, the current directors have no credibility whatever. If even Rugs has (nearly) had enough that tells a story.

Good luck all.

Nice update from Taylor Wimpey today, following the positive message from Persimmon yesterday. Have we now seen the low point of the cycle?

https://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/corporate/investors/results-and-reports

I agree, most of the drop happened before the announcement., it now looks in retrospect.

Really saddened by that news Diggit, I am so sorry to hear of your loss.