Member Info for Fevertreeman

heaps more pressure on management because having made great play over the Liquidnet acquisition, we've had a succession of poor announcements to do with it -cost savings harder to come by, and now revenues towards bottom of range. Plus Breteau and the CFO still cant lift the gloom on the outlook. When US opens more selling expected. Thi is heading back to the rights issue price of 140p

You are right on the money front but look at it from Angostura Bitter's vantage point (by a swimming pool in ta-lite Cyprus), he just continues to coin it. I think if I met him my first inclination would be to pull his trousers down and place a clown's nose on him

1. Yet again the can has been kicked down the road. Whoever says its not HAA's fault is wrong as if anything it shows he had no real handle on what was happening on the ground
2. As others have mentioned the flags on the mining licence
3. If the staff were returned, a ransom surely must have been paid. And if security has been beefed up that also costs money
4. Staff morale: if the kidnapped were locals, that just adds to the scepticism about the Aussie chancer, who can't protect his own people not to mention the MoM who must be heartily sick to the back teeth of HAA's inability to move things forward
5. The little matter of cash - how is he going to fund another extension when in the summer the auditors were flagging a cash issue......all points to another emergency rights issue
6. he still hasn't closed out the financing with 33% still unaccounted for

I have no idea what that means but unless I am The Boston Strangle I have but one personality but thank you for considering there is more than one of me :))

I share your concern as the Company will need to balance the need to investigate versus the need/desire to move on. Normally in these situations, the Company would employ an external adviser to investigate (i.e. City Law firm or Big 4 or s/o like Kroll) to ensure that it's a proper process and no one can accuse company of bias. That of course costs money, so lets hope that what he/the appointed experts uncover can be done quickly,forensically, and definitively.

Well done for reminding us about directors duties under the Companies Act - our former board may have to work hard to show they were living up to their duties under:

S172 - Duty to promote the success of the company
S173 - Duty to exercise independent judgment
S174 - Duty to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence
S175 - Duty to avoid conflicts of interest

It's been fascinating reading the thread over the last coupla of weeks and I just want to throw my tuppence worth in.

1.Performance of previous Board: in short, disgraceful, supine and verging on the negligent. Throw the book at them. McTiernan and the others utterly failed to live up to their directors' responsibilities. The en masse resignation in face of a humiliating public disembowelling by the Court in itself appears to me to confirm their utter contempt for the shareholders, the staff, and for their own duties as directors of a listed company.

IMHO the investigation being undertaken by the NED has to be through, comprehensive, and involve outside advisers to conduct a forensic investigation into the actions of the former Board. There is simply too much at stake (17m) for Mc T and others to be let off without a proper investigation into their actions/inactions. The fact that the High Court effectively called them out them for misusing Covid-legislation to hand over the company to the bondholders for 'free', is a huge issue and an indication that there are fundamental questions around corporate governance, competency, transparency and honesty that need proper answers.

On the CEO and CFO: I have more sympathy with the execs than most folk here. My belief (semi corroborated by s/o close to the company at the time) was that Maris did not realise what a mess the business was in when he arrived and what was happening with the bondholders which was being orchestrated and led by the chairman and board. He was effectively sandbagged by the board - remember that extraordinary run of negative, threatening RNSs prior to the Court ruling, not one of them had his name on it nor a quote showing he owned the strategy and the decision-making. In my view, he was set up to take the heat by the board whilst having minimal influence on the main event -the attempted smash n grav by the bondholders. Then of course the guilty men & women on the board resign en masse (an admission if ever I saw one of appalling stewardship) leaving him hung out to dry. What was Maris to do? I think he did the honourable thing and stayed as otherwise as others have pointed out the Company would have been scrambling to replace CEO and impact on AIM listing. Plus, and this is the truth, we have but one functioning well, which thank god is producing at a steady clip to date. I feel sure he is in the exit lounge but, I think he deserves a break, as he has been dealt a dreadful hand by McTiernan et al. Chaffe stayed on also to fulfil exec role, but with him I have much less sympathy as CFO he must be up to his neck in the failed negotiations that cost us 17m.

I have just the one thank you. Talking about conspiracy theorists!!! No idea who Stockready1 is....is teh ANS money there yet? How about the 33% shortfall in funding? How about 2 price monitoring extensions? How about another rights issue? How about that

So clearly Tim has got the gig to pump Atome from PL. The comment about the shareholder base being a major plus was bizarre, as if this was some extraordinary coup, which of course it isnt. Hard to get excited about this given PL#'s track record for his own shareholders and the comingling of his private interests. Still one never knows.

Well said.

You asked for proof - well the facts are all there as promulgated by the flipping company. I dont understand what you are on about

1. Adams said that they were still short 30% plus of funders
2. Tom Winnifirth blew whistle on HAA's attempt to award himself 500k bonus with virtually no hurdles to overcome which led to a hasty reverse ferret by the Board.
3. Adams announced himself that financing now likely to be done and dusted in Q4

my views on Tate are similar:

1. Once it splits it should result in a much higher margin business and a rerating
2. Timing seems very lucky - when this was first mooted inflation wasn't seem as a big threat. Now it is and commodities or near commodity type businesses are likely to thrive given pricing power and I include Tate
3. Once it splits, I think that it will be firmly in fray for M&A activity as in likelihood of being bid for. To counter that, they need to bulk up, and fast, so watch for splurge of M&A.
Meantime, it is paying a decent but not obscene divi

Have you forgotten that step (b) still does not have 100pc financing pledged, as Pinochhio is still 33pc short on the funding package, and his performance in recent weeks is hardly likely to encourage them to open their wallets.....so this is still miles away (like the mine build) from any sort of compeletion. No wonder Adams gave himself a huge time extension to complete based solely on his desire to safeguard his enormous 500k cash bonus if he manages it. Amazed that no one has challenged him on why he sees fit to take cash out rather than invest behind his sunny uplands investment case. Wonder why that is....

One other way of looking at it is this: Ethiopian government(s) are ingenues when it comes to opening up mining but they arent stupid. Along comes our slippery HAA and says "Look I'm the man that can open up the world for you, so lets become partners and that will attract proper financing from overseas etc..." The Ethiopians not being stupid and no doubt with some very bright chaps on board do their due diligence on the Cypriot-based sun lounger and realise that he is a perfect foil to help them understand the ABC of mine financing, how bad western capitalists behave, and the perfect character to learn lessons from whilst they accumulate knowledge of the processes etc. Meanwhile they come to realise that even his past cv doesnt do justice to his chronic inability to close a deal and his ever-elastic relationship with the truth does not go unnoticed. And now as we near the end of the dance, they suddenly start to disenegage, and dont want to dance with him any more, and then they decide actually they are bored with this endless dancing with this inept dance partner. They have learnt all the dance steps and it hasnt cost them much and its time to sweep him off the dance floor and take up with a proper partner....exit Harry with patent leather pumps slightly soiled but with his shareholders stuffed

FP Octopus UK Micro Cap Growth Fund has a great track record

Octopus is one of the leaders in EIS schemes and VCT schemes so it sweet spot is private and small cap companies. Very strong resources in this are of the market. As a result, their small cap equity investment team has built a strong reputation in recent years and a great track record. This is a big endorsement imho of what Milverton and the team are achieving at the company. Octopus would have done reams of due diligence and clearly had them on their target list to take such a big stake. The question is who were the loose shareholders. I guess we will see in due course.

Your comic intervention made me smile Tintin, esp the bit about a penny share price holding up!

I suspect Cyprus was viewed as part of Greece back then judging by the ruins dotted about :))) Not sure about Australia though

I really do blame myself . A lot of us would avoid financial embarrassment with Kefi, if only we had reread our Latin A level texts, specifically Virigil's epic poem Aeneid, that contains the immortal lines: "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts..."

Get rather irritated with the familiar use of "Harry" here as if he is a cheery, chirpy Harry Rednapp character, or someone we all know personally. The facts are that the word of Mr Adams cannot be trusted at all - if it were, the share price would be miles higher, the funding would have been completed years ago, and we wouldn't still be paying his outrageous consultancy fees. I wouldn't trust "Harry" to deliver milk let alone a working mine in Ethiopia or Saudi.