Member Info for Madpunter

Tsbs - I suggest that you read my post again, especially the part 'if required'. I've suggested that the fact FRR could obtain a loan without SH/O's veto, means that it can be used for leverage in negotiations with the super majors.IMHO prior to this FRR were nearer to fire-sale territory, but now are nearer to obtaining the true value for an asset at this stage of it's cycle. In other words now that they have the ability to get a loan, even without signing on the dotted line, it can be used as leverage.

IMHO now that 1 and 2 have been achieved, FRR can use the $150m loan if required. This fact means that the ability to pursue a FDP, even if this isn't implemented, will push the super majors into offering fair value, should a deal be agreed. Therefore, a deal could come at any time and the FD case against SH/O becomes a mere sideshow (something that kickmuck alluded to last year).

Just confirms my view that there are and probably always were 3 objectives.

1 - get rid of Hope. Done.
2 - protect the asset. Done at least for now.
3 - create the space that allows the time for other things to happen (ie a chunk of this is now tactical. Time will tell

Patience is a virtue - and I have become rather virtuous. (I have no other choice anyway)

Also worth remembering that in 2016 the POO was down in the thirties and nobody wanted to lend to O+G companies.

Virtually all junior miners and O+G companies are skirting bankruptcy while in the exploration phase.

They haven't been involved with FRR all this time for nothing. A little more patience is required and IMHO we will all be rewarded handsomely.

“We were profitable within a three-year time frame. At Wedge, White was able - in contrast with his role at Frontera - to turn profits quickly. He bought and sold companies, made Wedge a return of more than 80 percent a year on its investments from 1997 to 2002. He also managed to make himself a great deal of money. His investment in the company he founded, meanwhile, was clearly not panning out. The Azerbaijani fiasco had been a huge setback for Frontera and its investors and likely deprived White of what might have been a large fortune. If the political climate had not changed, and if the company’s lenders had not bailed out, according to Nicandros, “We would easily be a billion-dollar market cap company today.” White wasn’t the only one to see his investment lose value. A number of corporate investors have lost money over the years, including White’s former boss at the Susman Godfrey law firm, Steve Susman. Susman had invested $1 million in 1997. When asked why he had invested, Susman replied that his wife, now deceased, had insisted on it. “I’m going to be sick if Bill White gets rich and we don’t,” she said. Susman said that when Frontera’s fortunes “went into the ditch,” he decided: “I’m giving this dog to my son.” His son, Harry, said in an interview: “There was a short period of time when it looked like it might turn out OK. Unfortunately we stuck with it. Now, it’s almost worthless.” Public offering White made money off his Frontera investment because after renewed interest in the Kura Basin oil fields in Azerbaijan and Georgia, the company’s fortunes improved enough to allow it to do a public stock offering in 2005. That offering, in turn, meant that the company’s shares had value and a ready market where White could sell them. Second, he correctly timed his sales of the notoriously volatile Frontera stock, which trades at 6 cents today. White sold most of his 1.4 million shares for more than a dollar on average. The Susmans waited and lost out. White’s recently released tax forms show capital gains of nearly $1.7 million on sales of Frontera shares between 2006 and 2009. Asked about that, White said that, because of other expenses he incurred over his long association with the company, his real gain from his Frontera investment was about $1.1 million. White, meanwhile, still owns 95,633 shares of Frontera, a stake he said he intends to keep because he believes that the Frontera shares “at the current market price represent a good value for investors.” The company drilled 20 new wells in Georgia last year and successfully raised $7 million in new capital. “Our prospecting work has uncovered and confirmed a very large resources base, and we estimate there are 2 billion barrels we can access in this area,” chairman Nicandros said. Frontera is, in effect, one gushing well away from success. If that happens, White’s shares, worth less than $6,000 today, might be even worth more than the stocks he’s cashed in.” ATB,

Changing fortunes White says Frontera’s fortunes changed after 2003, enabling the company to go public and White to sell shares. Before 2003, he said, “it was not an investment that I could have easily liquidated that had market value. I did not have capital gains that I could have realized.” Second, he argues that his profits actually represent a poor rate of return on a risky investment such as Frontera. “I made capital gains on the stock, but did not realize the returns that were expected,” he said. From 1993 to 1995, White served as deputy secretary of energy. He became the Clinton administration’s point man, during the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in opening the oil fields of the Caspian Sea to U.S. investment. He traveled six times to the region, cultivating contacts such as Georgia President Eduard Shevardnadze and Azerbaijani strongman Heydar Aliyev. White returned to Texas in 1995, and in early 1996 he founded Frontera Resources, an oil and gas company whose purpose was to exploit the very same Caspian region. He drew heavily on the contacts he had made with leaders like Aliyev and Shevardnadze and assembled a high-powered cast of investors that included former Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen and his son Lan; former Conoco chairman Constantine “Dino” Nicandros and his son Steve, the former head of Conoco Overseas; and corporate giants Schlumberger and Baker Hughes. (Former CIA director John Deutsch was an adviser.) This looked to some like classic “revolving door” Washington politics. White has been criticized by political opponents in recent years both for capitalizing so quickly and deliberately on his contacts from his DOE days and for dealing with leaders like Aliyev who had poor human-rights records. The Perry camp is doing the same, saying that White has used those connections to benefit Frontera. “He should come clean and divulge the business dealings and the business associations he’s had over the years,” Miner said. While White clearly played his foreign contacts, he did not profit from anything like a U.S. government contract or dealings with American officials. He also defends doing business with strongmen. “They were no saints, but they helped lead their nations to independence,” he says today. White, meanwhile, funded the company in the early days entirely out of his own pocket. “I put well over a million dollars into the company,” he says. He took no pay and paid for his own travel. But these early, seat-of-the-pants investments soon paid off. Frontera became one of the first western companies to have oil “production sharing” agreements in Azerbaijan and Georgia. The high-flying company also secured a $60 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to develop its Azerbaijani fields. “We ramped up production of these two fields from 1,000 barrels a day to 6,000 barrels a day,” Steve Nicandros, the current chairman and CEO of Frontera.

Origins of Frontera Interesting article from several years ago. I had not realised that Baker Hughes had invested in the company from the start! Although Frontera Azerbaijan is no more, anyone who suggests that FRR is just a small American company operating overseas with no political backing and clout is seriously misguided. It may just be that the Taribani Eldari B discovery is that “one gushing well away from success”, which explains the current industry majors’ interest. “Bill White, the former mayor of Houston and now Democratic candidate for governor, has long touted his business experience as a qualification for public office. And indeed, White’s resume is packed with successes that account for a net worth of nearly $8 million - not counting the $3.6 million he spent on his own campaigns. But White’s business record has always contained one large blemish, one wrong turn, one investment that his political opponents have bludgeoned him with as a case study in failure. This was Frontera Resources, an oil and gas exploration company he founded in 1996. White had sunk more than a million dollars of his own money into it. And then, by his own statements, he had lost it to political intrigue and trouble finding oil. Frontera, it seemed, was the rare White failure. But as it turns out, that isn’t true. In response to questions from The Dallas Morning News, White now says that, based on his sales of Frontera stock since 2006, he actually made a $1.1 million net profit on his investment. White has been accused of using connections from his time in the U.S. Department of Energy to pave the way for Frontera, and of employing Frontera’s subsequent financial difficulties to deflect those accusations. His acknowledgment of success now gives his opponent, Gov. Rick Perry, an opening for a renewed political attack. “He is clearly hiding past business practices,” said Perry spokesman Mark Miner. “He’s become a habitual liar when it comes to business dealings.” Miner is referring in part to the fact that, while White has released tax returns for the years he was either in office or running for office, he has withheld others. White has consistently disclosed his Frontera investments in his public office disclosure reports. The case illustrates White’s business practices, some of his political vulnerabilities and the unsteady nature of the international oil business. In a 2003 interview with the Houston Chronicle during his run for mayor of Houston, White said of Frontera: “I have not made a penny. I have some stock but it is so subordinated to the other interests that I am told that it has little or no economic value.” As recently as June 21, in an interview with The News, White asserted again, though less forcefully, that his Frontera investment had not been a good one. “I think on a cash-on-cash basis I would not be up very much because there were a lot of expenses that I incurred,” he said.

The following three posts were posted by ChampionWonderhorse on ii back in November.

RR - SH/O never made a loan to FRR, they bought $13m of loan notes for $4m from a company that had lent to FRR, but was in financial difficulty.

Your right Bezzy. I'd forgotten about that. Just off to bed and a bit tired, so a lapse in the memory.

Posted by thefozzer on ii :-

.... best thing to do is call Mr. Still which is what I’ll do on Monday morning. I don’t see why it would be sensitive information and as a shareholder (part owner of the company) I’m entitled to know what the liquidators are up too.
Cheers

Posted by thefozzer on ii :-

Still no mention of FRR in the Cayman Gazette as posted by IVY from the LSE

http://www.gov.ky/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/12814536.PDF 2

Just a thought but has anybody emailed the liquidators to ask them about the DOS? As shareholders I’m sure we’re legally entitled to at least ask if the declaration has been accepted as if the assets were wound up we would be entitled to any “left overs”.

Contact for enquiries:
Name: Kelsey Still
Telephone: +1 345 743 6830
E-mail: kelsey.still@fticonsulting.com

Taffy52's posts of the New Doc on Pacer have been copied to the Frontera Archive.

The posts by Contra @ 08:42; Tsbs @ 08:50; and VivaLasVegas @ 08:59 have been copied to the Frontera Archive.

http://www.lse.co.uk/view-general-chat-thread.asp?forum=commodities-and-mining&thread=41C7D130-7E51-4344-82E7-83B697F53322&page=14

http://www.lse.co.uk/view-general-chat-thread.asp?forum=commodities-and-mining&thread=41C7D130-7E51-4344-82E7-83B697F53322&page=15

Also worth considering that if YA are involved and were to testify in California, then they may be prosecuted by the SEC. Whereas, if YA were to testify in the Caymen's, could they then be a witness for the prosecution if the SEC act against SH/O? One for the legal eagles on here to enlighten us with the points of law.

VLV - The interesting wording in the statement which I've re-copied below, is the request for the 'action to be dismissed with prejudice to RE-FILING' (CAPS. inserted by myself). The Caymen's case initially went in favour of SH/O, but then appeared more in favour of FRR. In California, the case has been in favour of SH/O. Perhaps, now that SH/O is off the board and the DOS has allowed 12 months grace, the case may revert back to the Caymen's. Even if FRR with Discovery and possibly evidence from YA were to pursue in California, has Judge Seeborg been swayed by FRR wasting the courts time with the injunction and the use of two jurisdictions? Also, I seem to remember that someone posted about the breaking of FD being more subjective in the Caymen's. Furthermore, the possibility of a deal being negotiated with the super majors, might be better served with a total news blackout on production side, with the inferences that it is due to legal matters. All conjecture, but something to consider.

'PRAYER WHEREFORE, PREMISES CONSIDERED, Defendants respectfully pray for judgment as follows: 1. Plaintiffs take nothing by virtue of this action, and that judgment be rendered in favor of Defendants or, upon consent by Defendants, that this action be dismissed with prejudice to re-filing.'

I assume that the statement 'this transcript may be viewed only at the Clerk's Office public terminal or may be purchased through the Court Reporter until the deadline for the Release of Transcript Restriction after 90 days,' is due to the Jury Trial in August. There may be information in the transcript which they want to keep from jury members until the trial, therefore, anyone who accesses the transcript is traceable.

ODR - Not necessarily, as if SH had abstained, or even voted for the loan, then it would have strengthened his defence. All SH would have had to do is remain with the objection to the debt structure changing and the loan would still be declined.

ODR - A technicality, as SH/O would not allow the JCAM $2.5m LN debt structure to be above Outrider's. They didn't have a vote as SH had rejected this in his email of 26th March 2018.