Member Info for Fevertreeman

The Guilty Men:
1. Giles Clarke who has precipitated this with his arrogance and over-weaning greed and cavalier attitude the truth has overseen this disaster...no operational progress; wtf why didn't he just reject it ...we all know how u8ndervalued this is...
2. Our PT Barnum CEO who while he at least put his money where his mouth was has failed consistently to get this business moving operationally and had the gall to suggest that at 17p it was massively undervalued
3. The useless finance director who along with Clarke kept trumpeting the joys of no debt and look where it has got them
4. The NEDs: their job is to interrogate he management team, hold feet to fire, and ensure that all shareholders are dealt with equally -what a shower
5. Malcy who doesn't know his arse from his elbow
6. ONGC who were clearly in cahoots with GEO all along.

Clarke and Wardle are utter bandits and what shred of reputation they had left is now utterly shot to pieces. I had no respect for Clarke who is by all accounts not someone you want to spend much time with, but Mr Wardle wtf...to blithely thank your staff (and shareholders) who've worked their nuts off for 12 years and recommend this as the best price is utterly shameful. And on top of that to till us all to stay put back in July saying that the M&P massively undervalued the company is incredible. The Geo CEO's barely concealed triumphal comment re CPO3?ONGC sums it up! Rarely in 30 years of investing, M&A banking have I witnessed such an incompetent, inept, spineless Board and management team as this lot....

...Michinoko and others will be pressing for management change

Lots of moving parts (dealwise) and non moving parts (operations wise) led by a management that has rarely made deadlines and a board that has failed to hold management to a/c for ridiculous comments such as September's:" we revise our plan from up to ten, to around six wells to be drilled in 2019 across exploration, appraisal and development activities."

Am note it was "upto" it was "around six wells"

…..if they successfully drill any wells

GC's nose must have got considerably since this load of old tosh was scribbled in Sept - so GC 6 weeks to drill up to 6 wells....wtf:

".....However, given slower than expected pace of drilling on CPO-5 and revised drilling plans on PUT-8, following the previously announced transactions, we revise our plan from up to ten, to around six wells to be drilled in 2019 across exploration, appraisal and development activities.....We enter the second half of the year with a strong cash position and an exciting fully funded drilling programme ahead."

"The Company is seeking to conclude the FSP in Q4 2019"....is reminiscent of many of our esteemed management team's statements...remember this one from Sept Interims from Giles Clarke:

"Moving into the second half of the year we remain focused on delivering operationally. Key events are expected to include appraisal of the Indico field on CPO-5 block and exploration drilling in the Putumayo Basin around the Platanillo field.."...and later on …"In the Putumayo Basin work continues to secure final approvals to start exploration drilling on PUT-8 in Q4 2019 on the Bienparado prospect defined by 3D seismic

Mix GC, a semi detached CFO, plus an uber optimistic CEO then throw in M&A bankers, lawyers, multiple suitors, ONGC & the Colombian government and frankly we'll be lucky to have an answer this side of next year. Mean time everything operations-wise has ground to a complete halt. No wonder sp is treading water.....

As opposed to>>>>?

Bottom line is that for good or ill we are where we are. Management has been abysmally self-serving and neither the chair or FD seem to be fully engaged; the CEO knows his stuff but has been overly optimistic on countless occasions which has damaged credibility. On top of that we had an unseemly board spat which led to Rex Harbour destroying the share price, a Board rapped over knuckles for ridiculous pay awards, and an untrustworthy partner in the Indians.....and yet, and yet for any oil company tempted by Colombia, Amerisur for all its issues is a "plug in and play" purchase: producing fields, the possibility that it is sitting on a 30% stake in a monster field; its own pipeline, lots of unexplored acreage and no debt.....in this sense for a purchaser it represents a rare opportunity to buy a strategic asset and hit the ground running in Colombia. For this reason alone, I think it is a really attractive business. The question is what's that opportunity worth to a buyer with serious ambitions in LatAm. In these circumstances my experience of M&A over last 30 years is that whatever the market deems a strategic asset is worth is usually wrong. Endless valuation exercises on here are fruitless as ultimately the value of the business will be how it fits/aligns with the purchaser's commercial strategy.

The other issue to think about is the exchange rate. We are a UK quoted business (in a dollar based industry), and given the fall in sterling for an overseas purchaser we must look a blinking steal

Indeed, god knows they have had enough time, although its quite possible given ONGC that they are still awaiting guidance from the mothership back in India. If Clarke doesn't pull a decent rabbit out of this hat, will be tempted to set fire to his seat at the MCC

I am in the 35p -40p camp, which given we've all been in here for ages at around 20-30p is a crap return. Anything below will show that GC and JW put up no resistance at all and had no intention of continuing to run the business to deliver a better outcome form long term shareholders

19 - 25p 0r 25-30 or 30-35, or above?

I think we should be grateful for M&P for putting in a mickey mouse spoof bid that finally got Clarke off his ****. Frankly without them we'd be still having to swallow untruths about drilling programmes etc and GC would still be swinging in a hammock somewhere relaxing as the share price hung around 12p

Supposedly GC/JW are in the driving seat re negotiations as they are not forced sellers but, and its a big but, to Col D's comments these two want to take their moolah and run asap, and frankly I have no great faith in their motives, and certainly not in securing a deal that works for all shareholders. Let's hope the likes of Michinoko and the other big institutions who have been similarly burnt by the operational failures and greed of the Board stand up to be counted

….and so far the only people coining it are Bogota barmen, the airlines, the lawyers and perhaps the bankers. GC and JW better have a bloody big rabbit to pull out of their hat otherwise there will be hell to pay.

Serious bidders face a dilemma in weighing up a 'just so' offer versus a 'knock out' bid. Any sensible bidding strategy will not want to incur the costs and uncertainty associated with a hostile bid, so securing a board recommendation on an agreed deal is the golden ticket. So the final bid needs to be (1) close enough to Amer's bankers fair value valuation (2) at a sufficient premium to deter others trumping & (3) be largely in cash if not all cash...Playing silly b****** with GC/JW most likely wont work, as they will walk away.

25p gives me break even but more to the point it has been dead money thanks to our moribund management and dreadful, truly dreadful, exploration record with the Indians. The opportunity cost of holding this basket case has been huge ove the last 5 years, not that GC and his ilk give a toss, loaded up as they are with free shares.