Member Info for Fortissimo

"certain performance criteria that need meeting"

Yes DBW... and I suspect they'll make that criteria rather easy to accomplish. One caveat being 'any material sale' will result in all SOLG shares vesting.

In Scott's case the options are already at a base price near multi year lows. Hence surely he would be ok with the criteria being that unless a 100% gain (34p) is achieved then Zero options vest. Considering that most believe that 34p is far from being a decent price (on historic basis to with or without dilution) then something like that could certainly help shareholders with their outlook. If for instance the criteria says something lime 50% increase in share price (from 17p) results in 50% vesting then I for one will not be voting it through.

So when the 'criteria' is released, we'll soon know two things... 1. How cheap they want to make it for themselves... 2. Or how confident they are of making a sale or cash in event over 50p. In absence of the latter, I think it's going to hurt sentiment wise as well as morally.

Keeping it simple, I don't think any management should be rewarded with any options unless the monetisation event happens THIS YEAR and it's over 50p. Anything less and that's poor performance, undervalued and all down to MISS management and we wouldn't want to reward for that would we?

If they are using 3% as the cut off point then they wouldn't include Norges as they dipped under 3% with the merger dilution. Blackrock were already sub 3% I believe and missing off the list.

Apart from that, all looks normal. Considering CGP had 15% ENSA and around 6% SOLG stock, they appear to have dodged the dilution that we have all suffered and are almost 3% up on their holdings. Irony is, after Scott's extra 1% farce they are collectively close to 25%. So yes, they appear to be doing very well whilst everyone else BHP included have seen their holdings diluted by almost 30%.

Agreed performance criteria important... so where is it? One assumes they are holding back on that until they reveal the master plan... and then shareholders will have a gun to the head to ensure we'll all be happily voting for the directors to line their pockets.

Seriously.... just wait fir the new remuneration details... there's no way they'll stick with the older options. All will be ripped up and nice fresh ones gifted out. That's already been signalled. This is classic nest feathering ahead of sale. Noses in trough ... usual ugly stuff.

Stock was going no where until they got their SOLG shares via merger. Stock will be going no where until they get all their nest feathering sorted out. Once they are suitably 'IN' then they'll release the news.

Stinks doesn't it?

if shareholders get handed out rotten eggs then he'd be pelted with them right now.

Give them golden eggs and they are happy. Crack on Scott.

if it's getting sold then he won't be full-time for long hopefully!

Nest feathering to be expected but 30m shares was way too much and has now turned a large amount of investors against him and others which means he has to perform miracles going forwards or else he's going to get slaughtered.

The honeymoon period is soon ending for the cgp boys. Time for results as accountability rises 10 fold when awarding yourself disproportional value to fellow shareholders..

Sorry but Irwin's talking nonsense (not for first time). Scott already had 19million reasons total the SOLG job and in the top role ensure he was able to drive the train for the rest of his buddies being Bob, Irwin et al. So do me a favour Warren... pull the other one. Maxit and Bob and doing the tough stuff, Scott just needs to dish out the p45's and visit Ecuador a few more times a year than anyone else cares to.

Scott has delivered ZERO so far. He's been in the position for months and months. Delivered shareholders an all time low share price, weaker royalty deal to last deal although let's put that down to Maxit. Pushed back PFS2 and Porvenir updates. Delivered ZERO operational news. On the whole let's face it... he's done farq all!

Where's the exploration that was promised? Where's the results from the SR? The list goes on.

30m shares could have got us 10 to 20 holes drilled on Rio for goodness sake.

addicknt,

Not sure how you can make the Chinese think they are not the only show in town? Let's face it... no one can take them on and win unless it involves a silly bid which they think over values the opportunity. Not sure any bid under 400p would over value Alpala on a 50 year outlook and copper at 4 x today's price levels but that's all pie I the sky and who knows we might be flying around in helium powered personal jet packs or flying cars in 20 years with copper looking like a metal best suited to restoring electric vintage cars!

We live in the here and now and the good news (banking crisis aside) is that numbers should improve as we lower inflation and see end of interest rate rises. All interested parties will be fully aware that the window of opportunity closes this year. Next year, interest rates are coming down, debt cheaper, growth returns, inflation back to 3% levels asset prices start to climb.

Not many Tier 1 mines out there with the classy metal mix that Alpala has in place.

Not much to see here today by looks of it, so have a good day all.

addicknt, I thought is was public knowledge that Ecuador are in talks with the chinese over finalising an historic and first ever free trade deal like those already in other South American countries??

I agree that land purchases and other red tape stuff is likely required before anyone taking over the keys etc but I think you need to step it up a level to the 'top' and assume that any chinese talks with Ecuador would involve a $6bln (full cost) mine investment. If the Chinese arena the mix, then it not only involves building the mine but all the infrastructure like pipelines, hydro, roads, tailings and so on. Just what the Chinese are good at.

So if a Chinese Ecuador trade deal gets signed in a months time or two, then perhaps the dominos begin to fall after that key event? Maxit and Bob have such a long and proven relationship with the Chinese it's hard to think that they are not in prime position right now especially after that signal to market via the $36m placing.

This is going to be fun. Twiggy v BHP fight 2. Twiggy currently the undisputed champion having Ko'd BHP in the 4th round in last bout.

Copper and Nickel soon to be in very high demand. Only problem for this dinosaur like market is that for decades the hedge funds have used Dr Copper as a hedge for their bets. Using it as a barometer of weather weights on equities are bullish or bearish. Problem is... Copper is now a high demand metal and not appropriate anymore for that kind of hedge. But the hedge funds are slow and reluctant to change their ways after decades and decades of playing the same game. That's what is suppressing copper right now... some old school hedge system tool. Bonkers and yet again just another example of a market that is incapable of seeing the future and pricing that in.

I think the general rule is that there has to be at least 2 or 3 weeks between issuing themselves shares and then releasing price sensitive news. It's that simple. Over the years, I've seen plenty of companies suddenly do equity raises that they also partake in only then to release mega drill results a few weeks later.

I think you'll find SOLG have already said very clearly what the SR will explore and giving you and the entire market the possible outcomes. We haven't had the answer yet, but it's not like they haven't told you so it's not exactly insider trading is it? If a director buys now... and in a few weeks great news appears, then you've had ample signal by the director to follow their lead. That's why sometimes director buys are a clear sign that better news might follow. Not always the case. I've also seen plenty of directors buying stock In open market only to see the share price halve months later.

If the next RNS appears and it says... SR concluded, recommendation is to seek a buyer for ENSA. BoD's announce that they have appointed Maxit / Citi to do the sale process which may or may not result in a sale etc etc.

I think most can read between the lines!

In fairness Guyana Goldfields was sold chinese 6 months after Scott stepped down or resigned. And we all know the team behind that.

I don't think that's a chequered past by any means. It actually bodes well for us as redknight has highlighted before. Bob and Maxit know the chinese very well indeed.

dbw, I think march April is the usual period of the year for SOLG lining their own pockets. We had the same ahead of the pfs last year.

To be blunt, I was expecting it but must admit that I never saw 1% of the company shares being handed to the CEO. I think I would have been spitting bullets on 20m shares... but 30m is just like sticking 2 fingers up to shareholders.

We haven't heard about the other options and rewards being planned yet! Can't wait to see those revealed and suspect that won't be too long either. In meantime, we are all kept in dark, starved of news because the BoD's don't want to inflate the share price and then issue options at a higher price.

I think we'll here some expletives from BnC pretty soon!

IN one RNS... Scott has turned from hero to zero. Very fast indeed.

I think the fact that he's been on the 'lets cut costs' bandwagon, sacking staff to save money, cutting back on exploration plans etc etc and suddenly 1% of the company shares gets offered at 17p. That's 1% dilution. How much exploration would would those 30m shares get us?? £5m is virtually the entire flipping exploration budget for H1 2023 and we haven't even seen a drill bit turn yet!

So yes it is very poor show and this without a doubt turns the new boy management team into the old boy manage team and we are back to square one (almost).

I thought Scott was refreshing and on brief when he talked about excessive costs and so on. He sounded grounded. He sounded like a normal investor. But I'm afraid self awarding oneself 30m shares is nothing short of tone deafness. He's instantly become a greedy hate figure rather than the hero he could have been. The latter can still be achieved if he delivers a monetisation event over 50p+. But anything under that and it's a poor show.

SOLG is not a business that has shares to throw away. We need those shares for future funding should any sale process prove elongated.

Some very tired and weary pi's out there. Another box ticked pre deal.

Remember the first deal not likely to be the best.... but it gets the ball rolling and opens the door to bid warrior counter offers. If nothing comes along (unlikely with a. their 1 world class asset) then it goes cheap.

I can't see BHP being happy with 30p. Nor 40p. But at 60p+ they might step aside.

Bob and Maxit know exactly where to pitch it... then it's down to natural market forces.

But having a large portion of the investor shareholder base showing weary signs is perfect text book M&A stuff. Along with directors feathering their nests before the big event.

I think one thing is pretty sure, 17p is a bargain and that's why Scott and co seen perfectly happy loading up in that region. Oddly enough the wider market doesn't seem too bothered as sp is still some 50% off where it was when the merger was first announced or thereabouts and we are fully funded and no issues with AGM resolutions.

Bizaar!

The only distressed and desperate stuff around here is coming from you Orphancopper.

You keep trying to portray SOLG as weak and desperate. It's nonsense. There is absolutely nothing desperate about owning a world class Tier 1 mine.

Unless you can back up the distressed and desperate claims... it's just nonsense and living in your own head.

I should add that the good news of this release is that it has come now. Management always opt to grant shares at the lowest point they can and certainly BEFORE any major news is released. So no surprise that this comes first, then the rampy news follows.

Strap yourselves in... nests being feathered just before the news rolls in.

The bad news is that by rewarding some heavily in the 17's means any deal price in the 50's suddenly looks great for Scott and co. Previously a deal in the 50's would have been lucrative for Scott based on his holding but adding another 30m shares makes a lower priced deal sweeter. Just for balance etc... wouldn't want to ramp lol!

Things to look out before big transactions occur...

ermmm Number 1.... BoD's feathering their nests lol!

I'm not sure SOLG can hoodwink investors with the old chestnut of 'securing his services' like other CEO's?

He's already publicly announced that he's heavily invested in SOLG and therefore aligned with our interests. So there's no need to 'secure' his services lol!

And as for the other indication that they are going to be reviewing the BoD's incentive plans going forward, that's just code for .... we will be lining our pockets before we announce any transformational deals or sales etc etc.

It's par for the course... ugly stuff but that's the markets and city for you. Incidentally, did anyone notice that Mr Hunt dropped the rules on Bankers pay and bonuses recently citing that we are moved on from 2008 now. Mmm... looks like Mr Hunt knew what was coming to the bank sector (who didn't with rates rising so fast) and speedily slipped through a nice pay hike for the jobs for the boys crew.

The lot of them need banging up in the Tower of London.

Hopefully that's the back of Blackrock. They had about 60m shares about a month ago so thought they'd be done around end of March. Perhaps they finally did the right thing and found a block buyer for the stock rather than selling destructively into a weaker market. The way the markets are right now, wouldn't surprise me if Blackrock need every penny as many funds, hedges and traders feel the pinch on the banking nerves. They said 2008 could never happen again due to regs etc etc. Mmm.... leopards don't change their spots. Once a casino always a casino. Let's hope that everyone doesn't realise the truth about the Fed Reserve as it's a case of emperors clothes. Transitory inflation?? Erm... no! Printing trillions of dollars... and hoping the market doesn't notice! They've created this mess... no one else... Powell hasn't got a clue and when the market decides on that... mmm... PoG to 10k?? SOLG should find the chinese more than welcoming as the Fed has made sure GOLD has been suppressed... another little chicken to come home to roost there too.

DM, agree think there is some leverage in either scenario but you'd think the Ecuador Gov would be super incentivised to assist SOLG with anything they need on ENSA... anything to help Lasso generate some much needed multi billion dollar headlines etc etc. I don't think exploration across the known targets are contentious in any way so can't see locals or issues there - after, we've already drilled 2 holes or was it three? on Rio from 1 pad. I do recall SOLG saying or implying that exploration wouldn't commence until weather improves so might have more to do with seasonal rains/landslide issues etc etc. I think ti can vary a lot based on north vs south.

As it's pretty dull today, thought I would posit the following for discussion....

Could the delay on Exploration targets (as far as we know they haven't started) be down to the fact that they are close to announcing spin off plan and ENSA sale (or talks of sale in progress)??

There is some logic in sitting on ones exploration hands if planning to spin it out. Why would you spend important cash via SOLG's bank balance just before you spin the assets out? Doesn't make sense does it? Far smarter to spin out exploration assets into CGP subsidiary and then use funds from SOLG share sale once ENSA deal done (5% stake). Or likely that Maxit et al will doing equity raise in NewCo which they participate in and gives them a chance to rinse and repeat with greater spirals in SP growth.

Here's a couple of examples on valuation creation (lol!).

1. As things stand, let's assume SOLG hits monster hole on Rio ... sp would rise possibly to Porvenir levels or mid 30's and then likely sell off as per the norm.

2. Let's assume spin out NewCo is under CGP sub.. market cap upon float is circa £100m based on exploration assets and porvenir. SOLG shareholders all get same shares, so lets say 3billion in issue (like they would reduce these) so 4p a share. Now... let's say we hit monster size hole on Rio... sp would likely rise to 12p or even higher as market cap of £360m easily doable. So holders instantly get a 3 bagger. Yes it would sell off as above, but the point is... the impact of exploration is likely to be sooooooo much better in value accretion than under the SOLG umbrella as things stand.

So here we are almost half way through H1 of which we were promised some $10m+ of spend toward exploration and surveys etc. Yet... we have heard nothing.

In my opinion, I think they might be close to announcing SR outcome and spin out. Hence... all exploration to be done through the new spin out company. Makes sense and could be very fruitful over coming months... more fruitful and less complicated than holding in SOLG shares alone.