Member Info for kenj

Companies usually consolidate to make their shares look more impressive. It is basically vanity by the directors, who do not like to see the stock listed as penny shares. However, If they had done their job properly the shares would not have crashed to this level.

That's enough for me. I have dumped my fortunately small holding, taking a 95% loss.

"Gold was in a bear market from Jan 2012 $1780 to Jan 2016 $1055. It lost 40 % of it's value. Gold is cyclical and will at some point enter a bear market again."

LMA,

Back then there were reported to be around 100 paper gold certificates for every ounce of physical gold held by the banks and bullion vaults. It was very easy to manipulate and control the price of gold as these pieces of paper were deemed to be of equal value to real gold bars.

Fearing a bubble the regulatory body issued BASEL 3 regulations, which promoted physical gold to a Tier 1 asset and dropped paper gold to a Tier 3 asset.

While not fully implemented the new rules and tiered BASEL 3 categories have changed the gold outlook completely from what it was in 2012 t0 2016. It is the US debt that now looks like a bubble, not gold, which is why gold is rising and the $ is falling.

"The reality is that it's the USD that's been in a bubble for the past few years and not gold"

I fully agree Dictum, it is laughable reading others posting that gold is a bubble that is likely to burst. The US debt is unsustainable, and has been for years. Printing more and more dollar notes doesn't cover the interest, let alone start to repay the trillion dollar debt. And the UK's finances are in much the same state.

The current world money system is drowning in a sea of debt, and their only solution has been Quantitive Easing. This failure has been evident for a good while, but has been highlighted by that clown in the Whitehouse. He has single handedly crashed the World monetary markets with his imposition of tariffs on all and sundry, and sent Gold soaring.

So a big thank you from me Donald, my heavily weighted Gold portfolio is doing really well.

Because there will hardly be a queue of buyers wanting to purchase a company that is likely to be suspended for failing to submit its 2024 accounts.

Lee,

Hate to disagree, but without people selling the stockbrokers would soon run out of shares to sell.

"Investors are selling off some of their gold holdings to cover losses in other asset classes, prompted by margin calls"

Nostra,

I disagree with your use of the term investors above. An investor can hold their shares however much the sp drops. He has paid for them with his own money, and they are his to hold or sell as he wishes.

It is people who borrow shares (Shorters), or those who buy them using their brokers money who are subject to margin calls. There is a risk with any share investing, but people who borrow shares to short, or buy them with other peoples money can only be termed gamblers in my opinion.

Control.Madness,

My post of 26 Dec hopefully answers your question.

Had a better look at this, and AST have not reduced the shareholder return to 41%, they have issued a new offer to share out their 51% share of any money the company wins from Slovenia.

2023 Offer - If the company wins they retain 51% of monies received and distribute 49% to shareholders.

2024 Offer - The company is now offering to share out 41% of the 51%they had previously said they would retain. ie; 41% of 51% = 20.9%

" The Company currently retains 100% ownership and control of its significant ECT claim and further to the distribution earlier this year retains a 51% economic interest in the net proceeds to be received in the event of a positive claim outcome. The Company now announces that it intends to conduct a second distribution with entitlements to up to 41% economic interest in the net proceeds to be received in the event of a positive claim outcome."

That's the way I understand it. Will be happy to be corrected if I have got it wrong.

Lee,

If you Google Free Cash Flow you will find plenty of definitions, but nearly all of them state that CAPEX is deducted. first. See example below.

"Free cash flow (FCF) is the excess money a business produces after it pays all of its operating expenses and capital expenditures."

PAF tipped in today's MoS will raise the interest level, so expect the sp to rise tomorrow.

Kashdog, As far as I know AST never submitted an EIA for anything. They submitted the required preliminary screening to gain an IPPC certificate to enable them to build a processing plant. The Slovenian Gov then changed the rules and demanded a full EIA. AST challenged this and finally won the right to build a processing plant. But by then they had run out of money to build the plant, and their two main wells needed re-stimulating.

Once again the Slovenian Gov demanded an EIA for the re-stimulation. AST challenged this in the courts and finally lost. They then said they would submit an EIA, but they lied, and decided litigation was a better option.

Good luck with your gamble Wobble24, especially when based on statements such as -"the crux of it all is that i have access to very little information here"

Here is some information that I think you should consider:

"RNS 2 June 2020

"Ascent Resources plc (LON: AST), the onshore Caribbean, Hispanic American and European energy and natural resources company, announces that the Administrative Court of the Republic of Slovenia has published its decision in relation to Ascent's JV partner Geoenergo d.o.o's appeal against the Slovenian environmental agency ARSO's decision to require an Environmental Impact Assessment ('EIA') in order to re-stimulate the PG-10 and PG-11A wells. The Court has ruled that an EIA is required.

The Company is in the process of beginning preparations for submission of an EIA, alongside the stimulation and field development planning which was initiated recently."

For years AST argued that they did not need an EIA to re-stimulate the wells. Then after saying in June 2020 that they would prepare and submit one, they did absolutely nothing. This in my view seriously weakens what otherwise would be a strong case for AST.

· Final ordinary dividend of 26.1 US cents per share, amounting to US$192.3million.

· One-off special dividend of 41.8 US cents per share, equivalent to US$308.0 million which will also be payable on 30 May 2025 to shareholders on the register as at 22 April 2025.

If my maths is correct that is a Final Dividend of c20p and a Special Dividend of c33p.

That's 53p per share held, at current exchange rates.

Boomtree,

I can assure you that my post about the USA refusing to let Germany inspect their own gold was far from a conspiracy theory. It is a recorded fact.

Google it if you do not believe me. There are plenty of articles about it from reputable sources such as Mining.Com and the Times newspaper

"with Trump repeatedly stating that he will be visiting the US Government’s vault in Fort Knox to carry out a personal audit of the metal that’s supposed to be stored there, asserting: ‘If it’s not there, we’re going to be very upset.’

(1) What if the gold is not there, will he let the world know that the US has been lying about its gold reserves for years?

(2) Could he even tell the difference between real gold bars and gold plated lead bars?

The NY Federal Reserve Bank has not been audited since 1954.

In 2013 Germany asked to audit their gold that was being stored for them by the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The request was denied. As a result of this refusal Germany asked for the return of one fifth of their 1500 tons of US stored gold. The FED asked for 7 years to return this fairly meagre 300 tons. An amount that was less that 5% of the gold that the NY FED claimed to be holding in it's vaults. In the first year the FED returned a pathetic 5 tons to Germany.

Unfortunately this has not gone higher. It has dropped significantly and is now at 3530p.

Hopefully results tomorrow will reverse the trend.

"The fact is that under Sidara (who already owns some 60 brands worldwide), Wood Group will prosper. Everyone wins. Wood Group (i.e. will be stronger, with its future assured), "

I seem to recall hearing much the same when AMEC were taken over by Wood Group in 2017.

"As to the other poster's comment about access to the pension scheme surplus....while not ideal, if the company goes pop, then the PPF steps in, and the amount received is materially lower. So one would imagine the scheme's trustees would likely not have an issue with them doing so."

LWHL,

I wonder if you would think that if you were a WG employee?

And as regards the pension schemes trustees, they have a duty to protect the interests of existing and future employees. It is not their job to bail out the company. The fact that the pension fund is showing a surplus, suggests that it is managed better than Wood Group.

"Deferral of expectation to realise cash inflow from pension surplus (c.$50 million)"

Stealing money from the company's pension fund is not a good sign. Neither is suggesting that they will do it next year, as they could not do it this year.

" We had previously expected to broadly offset these payments with cash inflows associated with our pension surplus over the next three years. However, the current uncertainty around the Review has deferred our expectation of realising cash from this pension surplus"

A pension fund is like any other investment fund, it will have good years and bad ones. It will never grow if it is plundered every time is shows a profit.

Bustard,

The problem is with the copy and editing by LSE. The text is at least readable on PAF's website, see example below:

• AISC of US$1,466/oz (FY2024: US$1,170/oz) for our

lower-cost operations (Elikhulu Tailings Retreatment

Plant (Elikhulu), the Barberton Tailings Retreatment

Plant (BTRP), the MTR operation, Evander Mines

underground and Fairview Mine), which account

for approximately 86% (FY2024: 84%) of annual

production

• AISC guidance for H2FY2025, is anticipated to

be between US$1,450/oz to US$1,500/oz, with

the expected cost reduction versus H1FY2025 as a

result of improved performance from the underground

operations and MTR being in production for the full

period.

Today's RNS is even more confusing. Sentences that are so long you have forgotten what they were about by the time you get to the end. Does nobody in PAF know how and when to use commas and full stops? This is just one example:

" A number of mitigation measures have been implemented to avoid a recurrence of this issue appreciation of the average exchange rate by 4.0% to US$/ZAR:17.95 (H1FY2024: US$/ZAR:18.69)once-off long-term employee incentive expenses to the value of US$4.3 million (US$53.3/oz) included in the cost of production AISC of US$1,466/oz (FY2024: US$1,170/oz) for our lower-cost operations (Elikhulu Tailings Retreatment Plant, Barberton Tailings Retreatment Plant, MTR operation, Evander Mines underground and Fairview Mine), which account for approximately 86% (FY2024: 84%) of annual productionAISC guidance for H2FY2025 is anticipated to be between US$1,450/oz to US$1,500/oz, with the expected cost reduction versus H1FY2025 as a result of improved performance from the underground operations and MTR being in production for the full period."