Member Info for GT6546

I wonder who the seller is?

13:13
07/10
Sell 2,825,746 2.91p £82,116.18

Large sell. Submarket price at volume. 2 pence.
04-Oct-19 15:50:23 2.00 3,958,601 Sell* 79.17k

(Shows on list after the one at 1142am, 7/10)

Oh dear! Certainly doesn't sound like choosing Eskom was a good idea at all. Perhaps they chose Eskom because they were cheaper? Companies in trouble sometimes cut their prices to the bone. If so, that may have been a bit of a bad gamble, especially for Firestone Diamonds at this time.

Sometimes low cost can come at a high price.

Bloomberg:

"South Africa is pushing coal producers to cut prices to help save Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., the debt-stricken power utility that threatens to unravel the country’s finances."

PS I wonder how many kilowatts an hour it it take to run the Liqhobong mine? And how many generators they would need to do so? Are there even generators in existence with the power capacity to run a big mine complex? And, if so, who might have any, and how long and how much would it take to deliver them and set them up? What fuel would they require and how much would that cost?

I wonder if the Liqhobong mine already has some back up generators? Do they/did they have enough?

Seems to me there may have been a bit of an oversight there in contingency planning. Your average householder knows to keep some candles as back up in case of a power problems. So many people would expect a company with Firestone's responsibilities would have had something in place in case of power problems.

It would have been good to hear about the planned maintenance at the hydro thingymyjig in advance before it happened.

I wonder if management could have anticipated the power problems with the electricity supply?

I wonder what the exact technical and electrical difficulties are?

Something to do with amps, voltage levels, ac or dc?

Why the difficulty when changing supplier?

Domestic, residential customers in UK changing administratively from company 'x' to company 'y' don't seem to commonly experience what Firestone Diamonds have?

Will the problems Firestone are having just turn out to be a brief flash in the pan, or something more long-lasting, structural and systemic?

I appreciate the frankness in a number of their recent RNS's.

I wonder what current (and future potential value?) these major investors are seeing in the Company and why they are holding such large stakes?

At the moment it feels as if the only 'brilliant' bright spots and 'crystals' being produced are the finer, large carat diamonds, once polished.

Talking of polish, I see some shares are being 'polished' up again, following the second sizable drop in recent weeks.

Quote:

"The Company announces a production disruption at its 75% owned Liqhobong Mine in Lesotho due to intermittent power supply. The Liqhobong Mine is supplied electricity from the Muela Hydropower Station (MHS) which is owned by the Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) and which forms part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project Phase 1 Katse Dam.

The MHS commenced a two month maintenance shutdown on 1 October at which time ongoing supply was to be provided by Eskom, South Africa's power utility company. Since then, the mine experienced unexpected voltage fluctuations that caused the drives of the plant equipment to trip and as a result, operations have been severely disrupted. Management is addressing the issue urgently with the LEC and Eskom, and will provide further updates in due course."

The power problems and production disruption, it seems to me, are very unfortunate, convergent events; happening, as they have, in the run up to voting on resolutions at an upcoming General Meeting which - if passed - could see the percentage shares of the Company (and potential influence and control?) of two major shareholders increase significantly.

I see, in information publicised elsewhere by Firestone Diamonds, that 25% of the Liqhobong Mine is owned by the Government of Lesotho.

I wonder if the Government of Lesotho have any influence and/control over the Muela Hydropower Station/Lesotho Electricity Company/South Africa's Eskom?

Perhaps Firestone Diamonds may wish to consider investigating and asking whether it is possible for the two month long maintenance programme that commenced on 1 October at Muela Hydropower Station
(which I just learned about for the first time in today's RNS!) can be suspended?

Excerpt:

"The Proposed Restructuring constitutes a fundamental disposal under Rule 15 of the AIM Rules and is subject to shareholder approval. In order to effect the Proposed Restructuring, Motif Bio will need to raise sufficient capital through the Proposed Capital Raise, which would be managed by Motif Bio's joint broker SP Angel. An announcement will be made in due course providing further details on the Proposed Capital Raise and, if successful, a circular shall be posted to shareholders setting out full details of the Proposed Restructuring and Proposed Capital Raise.

If the Proposed Capital Raise is successful, it is expected that SP Angel, Motif Bio's joint broker, shall become nominated adviser (Nomad) effective upon the close of business on 2 October 2019. Peel Hunt LLP, Motif Bio's current Nomad, has given notice of its resignation as Nomad, to be effective as at the close of business on 2 October 2019, unless extended" [End quote]

Excerpt:

"As noted in the 2018 annual report, Celadon Mining, an investment the Company made in 2011, has predicted a liquidity event for this November. The Board will keep the market informed of what we learn, though, as we have explained previously, we have no oversight over the sale process including the identity of the purported buyer.

The Board then expects to put the Company's remaining assets up for auction with an announcement identifying those assets and the auction procedures to be made toward the end of the year. Following the completion of the auction process the Board expects to call a shareholder meeting to determine the future direction of the Company. Further details will be provided in due course."

I wonder what the "future direction" of the Company might be?

Whatever it may be, after the saga of recent years a number of members of the Board of Directors may have acquired some useful business restructuring/business turnaround, detection & research and (forensic?) accounting skills...

:-)

I can't remember ever seeing any other company present a dividend/distribution, that includes an unnecessary, mistaken or superfluous TWO extra zeros to the right of a decimal point before, thus making the dividend/distribution appear - apparently wrongly - a 100 times smaller in the Capital Distribution RNS than presented in today's Interim unaudited Results RNS. See below.

That said, I personally am really pleased about today's news, especially when I compare Origo's recent (i.e. past few months) share price with the 0.117 US cents a share dividend/distribution!

Quote:

" [Note] 22 Subsequent events

After the reporting date, on 26 September 2019, the following dividends were proposed by the Board of directors.

$0.00117 per Ordinary Share totalling $419,734

$0.02947 per Preference Share totalling $1,679,790

The ex-dividend date will be 3 October 2019 and the Associated Record Date will be 4 October 2019. The Group will aim to pay the dividend on or around 31 October 2019.

The dividends have not been recognised as liabilities and there are no tax consequences."

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/OPP/14244851.html

Capital Distribution RNS:

"Origo Partners Plc announces a return of capital of approximately US$2.1 million to shareholders of record as at 4 October 2019 with payment to be made on or around 31 October 2019. Pursuant to the Company's Articles of Association, eighty per cent of that amount will be distributed to the holders of the Company's redeemable preference shares at 0.02947 cents per redeemable preference share and twenty per cent of that amount will be distributed to the holders of the Company's ordinary shares at 0.00117 cents per ordinary share."

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/OPP/14244021.html

If Origo intended to say they planned to distribute US$0.00117 they should have said that.

Fact is, they said 0.00117 cents.

The correct figure is 0.117 cents (US).

That is 100x larger than what they said.

Quote:

"Origo Partners Plc announces a return of capital of approximately US$2.1 million to shareholders of record as at 4 October 2019 with payment to be made on or around 31 October 2019. Pursuant to the Company's Articles of Association, eighty per cent of that amount will be distributed to the holders of the Company's redeemable preference shares at 0.02947 cents per redeemable preference share and twenty per cent of that amount will be distributed to the holders of the Company's ordinary shares at 0.00117 cents per ordinary share.". [End quote]

However, from my calculations:

US$2,100,000 = 210,000,000 US Cents

20% of that for Ordinary shareholders is 42,000,000 US Cents

42,000,000 US Cents divided by 358,746,814 (the number of ordinary shares Origo state on their website as being in issue) actually gives a figure of 0.1170742104 US Cents per ordinary share.

Rounded down, that's 0.117 US Cents per ordinary share.

Correction: Just to correct a number in the last paragraph (in my message just posted a moment ago) should have read:

Resolution 10 (disapplying pre-emption rights) was WITHDRAWN, thus no approval was given for "...authority to issue equity securities for cash otherwise than in the proportion to existing holdings."

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/JWNG/13786762.html

To re-cap,
Resolution 10 was WITHDRAWN. Resolution 11 was APPROVED.

Worth a read/re-read:

https://investors.jaywing.com/news/jaywing-report-and-accounts-2018-notice-of-meeting

Resolutions subsequently APPROVED, included Resolution 9:

- "...general authority to allot further shares of the Company, having an aggregate NOMINAL value [capitals my emphasis] of £1,541,632, representing approximately 33 percent of the Company’s issued ordinary
share capital in issue at the date of...[See Notice of Annual General Meeting 2018 & 'letter' therein on the website]...letter. The authority will expire at the conclusion of the AGM to be held in 2019.")

And (Special) Resolution 11:

- "Authority for the purchase of own shares...will authorise the Company to make market purchases, in limited circumstances, of up to 15% of the Company’s issued ordinary share capital. Such purchases will be at prices not less than the nominal value of an ordinary share and not exceeding 105% of the average of the middle market quotations for the five business days before each purchase (exclusive of expenses). The authority will expire on the earlier of 15 months from the date of passing of the resolution or the conclusion of the AGM to be held in 2019."

Resolution 11 (disapplying pre-emption rights) was WITHDRAWN, thus no approval was given for "...authority to issue equity securities for cash otherwise than in the proportion to existing holdings."

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/JWNG/13786762.html

Looks as if we might see a flurry of Holdings RNS's.

I wonder if we will also see an RNS early next week about rig and well activity and well seismic data?

Seems to have been a lot of selling down recently by Miton, in various different companies.

Could be a number of reasons for it.

Could Miton's general, wider selling down in a number of different companies perhaps (at least in part) be something to do with Miton preparing for a proposed merger with Premier?

Perhaps if Miton and Premier have holdings in similar companies, they don't want the combined company (should they merge) to be TOO overweight in some companies and sectors?

I wonder if we will also see any Holdings RNS's soon relating to:

1) any existing major shareholders INCREASING their stakes in recent days (if any)?

2) any NEW major shareholders taking a position recently? (If there are any, I think that will get a lot of notice, and be particularly keenly followed).

I wonder too if the BOD at i3 will end up adding a new board member in the very near future, to compliment the existing team?

And perhaps hire/add an advisory firm?

There's a list of OO's current and past directorships in the RNS that announced his CEO appointment:

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/ADME/14149574.html

I wonder what assets - in liquidation -Energy Equity Resources (Norway) Limited actually has, and whether someone or some company might want to buy some or all of them out of liquidation?

According to a past Align Research note on ADM Energy predecessor, MX Oil, the Energy Equity Resources share in the Aje field is held by EER (Colobus) Nigeria Limited (EERCNL). Osamede is listed as a CURRENT director of EERCNL in the RNS. I am not aware of any information or evidence that EERCNL is in liquidation.

Is EERCNL a wholly or partially owned subdivision of Energy Equity Resouces (Norway) Limited? Clarification and clarity on that would be mighty useful to know.

Some people might suggest that the possibility of greater and closer partnership working (or even something much closer) may be more possible than before between some of the Aje partner companies, under the new CEO's stewardship and leadership.

Will be interesting to see what - if anything - develops, or is developing.

The recent mention of Andrew Frangos reminded me I spotted his name (and CEO Osamede Okhomina) on the 29 Jun 2017 Confirmation statement of shareholders in OO linked, in liquidation company 'Energy Equity Resources (Norway) Limited':

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05216866/filing-history

Worth bearing uppermost in mind today's RNS - as it clearly stated in its' title - was about a PRELIMINARY result.

['Preliminary':
adjective
preceding or done in preparation for something fuller or more important.
"a preliminary draft"
synonyms: preparatory, introductory, initial, opening, prefatory, prior, preceding, lead-in, initiatory, precursory;]

Today's RNS was very brief...perhaps too brief, and didn't have enough 'PR polish' to it in my opinion.

But it is was only one RNS. The company have released many over the past year, and I think most people would agree it should also be viewed in both that context - amongst all the other news, information and data, and the entire history - and potential future - of 'I3 Energy'.

There is a lot of important information in other RNS's in the company's recent releases.

The sky hasn't fallen. The stars are still in place. An earthquake hasn't ravaged, nor has a tsunami devastated the UK Offshore oil industry.

A lot of sells today, and a massive number of buys.

I wonder if we will see any Holdings RNS's released soon?