Gordon Stein, CFO of CleanTech Lithium, explains why CTL acquired the 23 Laguna Verde licenses. Watch the video here.
Kinda sums it up. The difference in content of the two statements within a matter of weeks of each other drive to the heart of the problems of the last 24 months: complacent & out of touch board, misleading communications, poor operational management, under-skilled workforce; stone age financial controls & finance function, and an arrogant 'we know best mindset' of Chair and CEO
I think if I were the board of Churchill China I would be feeling somewhat uncomfortable given the financial forecasting debacle & lack of controls all occurred under Cunningham's aegis
The big holders imv will have insisted they have a head (if not more ) on the plate in return for their support. There isn't time to faff around
1. Bundred has to go in the New Year (or announce he is leaving) because his credibility is shot to pieces & be repaled by a chairman with proper international plc experience
2. Johnson has at most 6 months to show he has the skills to turn the ship around; if he doesn't he should be replaced or moved internally
I can tell you with some confidence that Bundred & Johnson both possess that engineers' certainty that they are right despite time and time coming up short. Bundred has batted away countless questions about operations in past 22 months, and Johnson clearly had no idea what was happening. And for good measure they both have a huge aversion to folks down south, their advisers, and shareholders.
But is he the RIGHT MAN to lead the company from scale up through to the sunny uplands of ever growing sales? Very different skill sets needed to run a growing international business than what he has to do to date.
I don't think that's the issue.....no doubt he does work hard, but he still ended us up in an almighty mess, and its not as Friday was the first time its happened....
Worth reminding listeners that 2 out for the three characters wholly responsible for this shambles still have their jobs (Bundred & Johnson) whilst the third (Cunningham) slipped out the door before it shut firmly on his CFO prospects elsewhere. Great that Maddoxks & Easton have come on board but only highlights the previous shambolic state of affairs that led to Friday’s mess.
Like a lot of investors here, the equity raise prospectus fails to answer the most critical question about management. Why would anyone trust Bundred and Johnson with yet more cash given their hopeless track record? And why should the architects remain as Chair & CEO given that they have had something like 70-100m of support over the company’s history and the result is we’re back close to the level of the EIS subscription? On and they have also burned thro the last cash we raised at 40p
!
We had some thin lines about more training and upskilling factory floor managers, but that doesn’t answer the management question. The lack of humility shown by both Bundred and Johnson is staggering - just look at Johnson’s comments around the problems. Absolutely no mea culpa, no apologies, no taking of responsibility. Until the Board and management issue is settled there is no point in investing if the same actors hold the powerful positions in the company. Until change at top is initiated O am sitting on sidelines
Odds on another equity raise from Adams then if monies wont be available to draw down before next bloody spring at the earliest?
Given that what he says about the banks he will know as being potentially PSI then I take no heed of it....could be 2 week could 4weeks, could be 2 years could be 4 years
Adams is a total CANT.... cant deliver on any timetable he has put forward over last decade, cant help legging over s/holders with successive equity raises, cant help telling porkies, cant help diluting s/holders
Adams would likely never be allowed to be both Chair&Ceo anywhere else...telling that RAB Capital sold down entire holding as I suspect they know Adams is going to (1) not deliver on the timetable again....and (2) drop another equity raise on s/holders in December
Don't forget only 2 weeks ago in the Q3 Update Adams again blustered about progress on all fronts at TK "... maintains the plan to launch the high-grade Tulu Kapi Gold Project before the end of 2023, ......"
Chances of Adams delivering anything but more can-kicking and untruths before end of 23 I would have thought were odds on dont you?
Adams has never met any sort of deadline in last decade, apart from raising cash from the next round of unsuspecting punters whom he has convinced tere is gold &copper in them tha' deserts. Actually, the great Pinocchio is the only person to have made any money, as he has taken a stonking salary and consultancy fees year in year out despite there being absolutely NO sign of any finance actually being raised. Shameful, but not surprising
And Cleminson?
The Board isnt buying ...no Cleminson and a pathetic contribution from Johnson the architect of this disaster
Honestly I haven't a clue. We have a situation where the management have burned through working capital that should have taken them comfortably through to situation where revenues were flowing etc..Instead Johnson used it all up trying to sort out the production issues that came out of nowhere (apparently). So perhaps wee should be asking Coco the clown and Bundred?
So what is your solution?
Completely agree with you. Cunningham jumped ship as you know leaving Maddock to pick up the pieces of what feels like a threadbare financial function. And it appears that was matched by a manufacturing operation geared to showcasing the tech for OEMs but as you suggested certainly not geared for actual volume production,.
So the question is: what actions need to take place to get this back on track. I was gobsmacked by Johnson's insuciant commentary banding about "single points of failure" as if this wasnt anything to worry about, after the furnace issue. And yet I recall a SPOF as being definied as something in manufacturing/process system that, if it fails, will stop the entire system from working.... and there it was in black & white.....wioth that fabulous adjective "insurmoutable" also allowed to pass the Board?advisers scruitny and make the trading update!
The arrival of Maddock and Easton has (hopefully) ushered in an era of professional management sorely lacking in the core areas of manufacturing ops and finance. But it is not enough, we need a change at the top, and whilst in a larger plc Johnson would be out the door after the multiple failings of last 24 months, it is the Chairman that needs to go as he has failed to manage the CEO, failed to manage the board , and failed in his duty to represent s/holders interests.
My nickname for Newland is Nero....say no more....the way forward from here....if they are not to go under then I suggest
1. Newland kicked upstairs to Chairman or failing that a new outside chair appointed
2. Replace the CFO with s/o capable of producing realistic figs that aren't then subject to the rose-tinted intervention from Newland
Berenburg is the house broker - i.e. they bat for the company & should be a reliable pointer for financials. But clearly Newland & Griffiths's utter incompetence in managing the financial forecasts means their own house broker is 30% short on their revenue estimates for FY24 . How on earth is it possible that your own house broker is 30% above Angle's own forecasts...The trouble is that no one has any faith in Newland's numbers. At a pitiful 6.6m revenues company is effectively telling market there are no big transformational deals over next 12 months.....