Proposed Directors of Tirupati Graphite explain why they have requisitioned an GM. Watch the video here.
Nige,
Wasn't planning on it. I do live quite a distance from London and am not expecting any big reveals tomorrow, I did vote but expect it to pass quite easily given the amount of share the board hold etc. I don't tend to attend AGM's either as they tend to be a formality too. Hopefully get RNS on the result of the meeting around lunch time tomorrow.
Are you planning on going? Or anyone else? Mr Karam seems like a friendly guy from the correspondence I've had with him.
Regards,
Ed.
Wilbury,
I wouldn't call things as moving slow, Mr Karam came in and almost immediately completed the acquisition in Angola with pretty immediate drilling, now ongoing. Slow is SRSP for example that have been delisted for 4 years and still talking about completing an acquisition in Angola about 20 months on from the effective date, that is slow. Mr Karam with the activity in Angola and sale of the mining assets is cracking on. Pretty uniquely funding for a small cap during this time too. Active not only on the core assets in Angola but also the non-core Canegrass and Mt Weld. So certainly not my definition of slow.
Regards,
Ed.
Careful,
Yes I sure can. It was because of your mention of the Q&A that I sent in questions and received a polite reply thanking me for submitting the questions. So maybe the elusive Q&A will eventually materialize. If it happens after the JV some of my questions will be null and void though.
Regards,
Ed.
Wilbury,
Mr Karam isn't going to work wonders, he already has! The company is now on its second development well on Tobias since he entered and TO-13 has been reported as a cornerstone well for the EPS. Under old management the mining licences were stalled and required significant funding to bring them to at least indicated reserve or mine development stage. Now thanks to Mt Karam we're within sight of revenues and on the trail for more production. Its then little wonder that the share price has increased from 0.2p. Also Mr Karam has arranged funding at a huge PREMIUM to the current share price, old management didn't come even close to that. Old management did allow some of us to accumulate millions in the 0.2s so not all bad though. Since Mr Karam has come in this company has been transformed operationally and in terms of future upside which is now off the chart when it comes to Angola. So if you think nothing has changed perhaps look elsewhere, for those that hold the stock everything has changed including a 120% increase in share price.
Regards,
Ed.
Good morning guys and gals,
Mike,
Very true, on completion of TO-14 we're looking at two pretty much back to back flow tests courtesy of Sonangol. As you suggest results likely to be transformational when taken in context of Mr Karam's comments in the finals. Once they are on a clear path to first production and revenues the transition will be complete. It doesn't stop there, from licences applied for and acquisition trail this company is pretty unrecognizable now. I agree, once both wells are tested I hope he gets more active on social media as a number of companies are using investor meets company, and obviously proactive etc to get the message out there, he could also do an LSE interview too. Let the market know how undervalued we are. 2024 shaping up to be a big year, 297mmbbls of prospective to look for too and that's if we don't land an interest in KON-15.
Nige,
Yeah agree, new name, fill out the management a little more and promote like heck.
Regards,
Ed.
Hi Guys,
Yes from 23rd onwards I make it given the 40-50 days quoted by CRCL. So yes hopefully an extra Christmas present for everyone or a new year party (fingers crossed).
Mike,
Yeah that is possible. On the last updates we didn't get a TD expected for either well, we just got TD achieved after TO-13 was finished. This well may be shallower, we'll find out when completed again too I'd imagine. As we know anticlines certainly aren't flat. I'd imagine that the Binga will also be around 100-120m again at this location so there shouldn't be many surprises down there. It could be a more or less fractured limestone compared to TO-13 as porosity ranges from 4-14%, but that would be speculative. So I'd imagine we'll like be somewhere around the company estimates again.
I hope the results of the TO-14 will be the catalyst for the next level of share price progression. But I still get the feeling we're overlooked. Volumes of trading remain low, not necessarily a bad thing before news, less speculators in the price. I think CRCL will still have to shake off its history, progress will do that as will Mr Karam getting out there and promoting us as a new O&G company. Success will bring in the investors though so he just has to keep doing what he's doing and the share price will eventually follow. AIM shares thrive off news and we've plenty of that due, lets see what happens to the volume on the result of TO-13 and TO-14 and the subsequent flow tests. Trading volume may improve a lot then, especially if we have more development wells planned for next year in the update. It does remain very exciting as you say though given the results of TO-13, more of the same would be super. Mr Karam's comments in the finals were very confident of the importance of TO-13 result to the future of the company.
Regards,
Ed.
Good morning Sienna,
The AGM is in London on the 22nd of December. There is a GM on the 8th December, so not long to get votes in for that, for the approval of the sale of Mambare. Hopefully that gets passed and they'll then move towards the completion of sale, likely imo in Q1 (if vote passed). Lots of news due, its almost a month since TO-14 spud, how time flies.
Regards,
Ed.
Nige,
It sure is, hard to say which update will come first. We certainly should hear about the meeting on the 8th on the result of those resolutions at the GM. Then there's a lot of news to come from Angola and Australia, gonna be an action packed 4-5 weeks.
Regards,
Ed.
Actually those three cornerstone investors Mr Zhou, Extraction SRL, and the Apex Vendors hold around 50% of the shares. So we're well packed with large holders. Perhaps the align holding will eventually find its way into long term investors hands too.
Compare the above to TRP for example whose only significant holder is their CEO at 6.7%.
Regards,
Ed.
Sienna,
That's exactly what they're doing right now! They still do have Canegrass for the pegmatites and Mr Weld for the REE's. I guess why they're getting rid of the Ni is that they're capital intensive at this stage so majority of funding has to go towards Tobias into 2024 (both Wowo gap and Mambare would imo need much more drilling as well as mine funding). That's why I'm voting for disposal. Money put to better use on Tobias. With Tobias as a possible cash contributor next year and the spend on Mt Weld in particular to be quite low they can sustain both easily imo. Once at an advanced enough stage they may be safer demerging Canegrass though. Some oil and gas companies do have an energy mix, CHAR for example is in natural gas but also getting into hydrogen.
CRCL has a clear focus on oil and gas and rightly so. Mr Karam is looking to grow CRCL likely into at least a mid cap company. I can't think of a mid cap London listed oil and gas company that also has mining assets. So imo the best strategy is focus on Angola due to its massive potential. Get Canegrass up through RC drilling, Scoping study, DFS etc if the grades warrant that. Then before they need mine funding demerge and either retain or distribute those shares to shareholders. Because by then we'll either have additional discoveries in Angola or have acquired offshore reserves and production with debt imo, but lets see. I'd rather see an offshore acquisition in Angola rather than a mine funded in Australia, its the company's core area. They can only have so many fingers in so many pies. If Mr Karam wants to turn it into some sort of multi asset, multi commodity conglomerate then by all means, but we do need to remain realistic.
Nige,
He's not doing too bad so far, better than most AIM oil and gas companies for sure.
"During the course of the year, the Company overhauled both its shareholder base through the introduction of several cornerstone investors, as well as reducing and ultimately paying off the historic debt position in the Company, which dated back to 2018. This was accomplished through the introduction of Yan Zhou, now a board member, and the investments he led into Corcel in October and then December 2022, with this group currently holding a 10.57% interest. Subsequently, Extraction SRL (a company 45% owned by Corcel's Chairman), agreed to invest over GBP1 million in several tranches, and ultimately acquired a 19.15% interest in the Company, and finally the vendors of APEX (several of whom are either set to join the Corcel Board or to become key advisors to the Company), following the 90% sale of these interests to Corcel, collectively hold some 17.19% of the business."
Not including Mr Karam's personal holding of around 10% (from memory) we've two cornerstone holders of around 27%. If they do attract more ii in then great. With the potential development of Tobias and Galinda that's possible.
Regards,
Ed.
Good morning Nige,
Yeah very bullish statement from Mr Karam. Considering where the company is now to where it was 12 months ago I can see why. Things have moved at a super pace since he joined the company. Now on the verge of testing two very exciting wells and assets with huge future expo potential on top.
Yeah will be interesting to see who Mr Karam appoints to the board to diversify he team, bound to be someone with oil and gas history with project development.
I think he's probably referring to moving away from the battery metals and towards oil and gas, less hyped at present and therefore lower acquisition costs while many are chasing battery metals. No guarantees at the moment that the EV hype will match demand. Regardless oil and gas demand keeps rising and will be around for decades to come.
Agreed chap, with the pending testing and planned early production on top of the acquisition trail I'd expect 2024 to be as exciting or exceed 2023. Shareholder value seems to be a key focus and he's got some significant holders to keep onside. Onward and upwards, roll on TO-14.
Regards,
Ed.
Very bullish chairman's statement today highlighting the progress the company has made in transitioning to oil and gas with more to come. We still have some real heavyweight backers and very large holders who are supporting this strategy.
"Board believed that the opportunity for an attractive entry into near-term hydrocarbon production in Angola is the best long-term strategy to create value for shareholders. The Directors recognize the global energy transition already underway, but believe that oil and gas will remain key components in the world's energy mix for many years to come, offering strong returns to those with the right assets and funding, willing to invest in opportunities not always obvious to wider popular investor sentiment."
Several additional opportunities are currently under consideration, we're all looking forward to seeing some of these, some of that Angolan asset consolidation perhaps!
"The Company's cornerstone achievement during the year was the acquisition of three interests in onshore blocks in Angola, KON-11/12/16, through the acquisition of a 90% interest in Atlas Petroleum Exploration Worldwide Ltd "APEX". Corcel's agreement to bring these assets into the Company - at what the Board considers very favourable pricing - has provided the Company with a firm foundation in Angola on which to build, and several additional opportunities are currently under consideration."
"The Company and the block consortium as a whole, led by the Angolan State Oil Company, Sonangol, believe that these early results point towards significant hydrocarbon potential remaining and dictate a move towards an early production system at the field, targeting first oil during the course of 2024. This will clearly be an important milestone for the company. "
Looks like 2024 shaping up to be another pretty transformative year.
"While overall market conditions remain poor both on AIM generally and in the oil and gas sector specifically, the Board believes that Corcel is uniquely funded in a manner that distinguishes it from most of its peers, and when this funding framework is tied with top tier appraisal and development assets in onshore Angola, Corcel is positioned to succeed in this space where others have failed."
Bring it on Mr Karam.
Regards,
Ed.
Nige,
No worries! Well spotted, yeah hopefully there'll be a few changes to add to the presentation in the near term now that they're active on Canegrass and Angola and hopefully gonna get an update on the Mt Weld results from RGL. I would like to see Mr Karam do a proactive interview or investor meets company and give the market a good overview to a wider audience.
Cheers chap, have a good weekend too as we may have a busy week next week, they could potentially announce the findings of the pXRF rather than wait for full lab assays of the samples:
"Rock chip samples will be collected from each target area and these samples will be analysed in the field using a pXRF"
"The field programme is expected to last just under a week, and the Company will make further announcements on the results in due course."
https://www.rsc.org/images/portable-x-ray-fluorescence-analysis-technical-brief-41_tcm18-214830.pdf
Regards,
Ed.
Good morning guys and gals,
Sienna I've a similar strategy at the moment, not in a position to add more right now, but not selling for the foreseeable future. Might not be a good idea to switch off for a while though as there should be plenty of news over the next 6 weeks or so from Canegrass, Mt Weld and of course the main attraction in Angola.
Nige, yeah hopefully that's what we'll see, a gradual development of Tobias up to meaningful production followed by more acquisitions. Those other companies that have acquired assets offshore Angola have taken around 18 months so far to complete, still not there yet. So if CRCL were to announce similar I would imagine they'll have made significant progress on their assets in the mean time. Looking forward to see what position CRCL are in this time next year.
Regards,
Ed.
Sienna,
Its basically means when a small company acquires a larger one or larger asset, that triggers market rules for an RTO which means they then need to issue a admission document etc. It mainly happens when a cash shell acquires its first asset, but also with other small companies too. What it normally means for shareholders is that that make more money. A lot of oil and gas companies will do that with debt and sometimes between the effective date and the closing date of the acquired assets they can have paid most of that off from the accrued revenues. I've yet to see an RTO that was negative for shareholders, especially in oil and gas. They're usually transformative acquisitions.
Regards,
Ed.
Nige,
Its the scale of the assets that determines whether or not its an RTO. The initial blocks in Angola were a straight acquisition, I guess deemed as smaller than the established reserves at Wowo gap and Mambare. However if CRCL at this moment was to acquire a production asset and therefore reserves with a higher NAV than current assets it would be classed as a reverse takeover. As the company progresses the bar for that would increase. Saying by the end of 2024 most of the Tobias and Galinda contingent was reserves and production was 2-3000bopd net. A smaller asset could be acquired without suspension and admission doc. If however they acquired a share in an offshore field of say 20-30mmbbls and 5000bopd, that would likely trigger the need for an RTO, therefore suspension, admission doc etc.
Regards,
Ed.
Hi Nige,
If the acquisitions by AET and SRSP are anything to go by I would say yes to the need to RTO. If on the other hand the acquisition offshore was much smaller and they are well advanced on Tobias or Canegrass by then, perhaps not. All depends on the size of the acquisition and what CRCL would have done in the mean time.
Regards,
Ed.