Deal15 Sep 2020 11:43
Not sure the relevance of any court case on unpaid consultancy fees here.
Main thing for me is the deal that's 'close' to being done. The issue is whether Tony can negotiate a deal that's valuable to his shareholders (and himself). He has undoubtedly played his hand pretty poorly of late. He timed his capital raises badly, and didn't have enough of a cash buffer in place. Consequently he gave away a significant amount of the company for very little to keep the lights on when covid struck. With or without covid we shouldn't have had such little cash reserves when trying to negotiate a deal. Tony alone is responsible for this position. Prior to this the project economics released in the well overdue dfs were underwhelming. As someone watching from the sidelines at this point I was genuinely surprised not to see a high 20's IRR and significantly higher npv. The fact there's a lot more work to be done to open up more value was also unexpected, as I was assuming all the drilling done to date would have opened up a bigger project then scoped. Plus there's the issue of outstanding permits. Best not to underestimate this last point as permits in this part of the world can be a real nightmare. Indonesia is well known as a brown paper bag country to do business. And sadly we don't have much money to fill a bag, which is why I would have preferred a local partner.
Having said this, we still have a decent project, with good economics, a relatively low capex required, and short build time. So the project can start generating income very quickly, which in turn will open up the wider regional play, which we know holds greater riches. If Tony is to be believed (stretch I know given some of his past statements) then the final permits are expected soon, alongside the critical investment to get this project moving.
So we just need to get that up-front investment from Aeternum where it's a win:win scenario for them and shareholders. I'm counting on Tony as a significant shareholder himself to make a deal that works for us. I see the downside here to be limited i.e. a bad deal I cannot see dropping the sp very far. Maybe to 1.5-2p range, but it wold need to be one hell of a **** deal to do this. My reckoning is an average deal will take us to 3.5-4p range, and a good deal will take us through 5p. I just don't see the sp retreating as Tony will have f@cked all pi's, Bruce Feng, and of course himself in doing this. If the permits arrive before the deal is completed then I see them taking us through 3p as well given it would further de-risk the project and strengthen our negotiating hand. I also believe Tony has pointed to the deal being close when hiring a local CFO, which simply wouldn't be done if they weren't at final stages. I currently hold 3m at 2.5p and nervously believe an average to good deal will be done. Mid range target 4-4.5p within the next month. GLA