Member Info for Maldini1

Dark, no one can really argue with the political landscape that you’ve articulated. It’s the reality that Europe has lived with for the past 20 years. It really matters to Morocco that Tendrara has gas, and in sizeable quantities, because once they break their links with Algeria they need to be sure that they have security of supply from other cost effective sources and Tendrara will need to play a part in that future. However, the daily manic debates on this board about how much value we think we have or don’t have in the ground simply highlights the emotional state of many iis. It’s become Groundhog Day every day and will continue until this marathon of a wait is over. All will then be revealed and some will be proved more right than others. However, along with Morocco and the more positive investors I sincerely hope that it’s the doomsayers who are wrong....and if I was one of the doomsayers I would also want to be proved wrong. Come on news!

Jez, no SOU news seems like perfect opportunity to go and find something else to do... I would have thought?

Dark, invariably that was always the case. I’m hoping that the execs of the respective companies involved (assuming there are some) will all come back from hols ready to press the approval button, unless they think they need more info before committing themselves to a purchase, in which case a decision will be deferred to a later meeting. One way round this is to ensure that execs are briefed and in agreement with your project before the exec meeting takes place so that it then becomes a rubber stamping exercise.

Has anyone ever tried to take a proposal for capital expenditure to an exec committee for approval? It can be a painfully slow process especially if the numbers involved are significant. If we are to get a thumbs up in August/September one can only hope that this marketing phase started sometime earlier than when we got to hear about it in May. I suspect it probably did and hopefully we will get validation of that sometime soon. As for the radio silence, its always a bit of a judgement call between maintaining compliance, commercial sensitivity and keeping investors informed so I hope that this time SOU will have done their homework and timed their communication to perfection for the benefit of investors.

Jarro, the £3m insurance policy is a fair shout. There will be a number of key decisions that Morocco needs to take around its energy needs (renewal/extension of existing supply contracts for example) which are linked to the TE5 Horst coming online in a timely manner. Any delays in making these decisions could prove costly for Morocco. If the £3m raise buys time for SOU to influence the timing of some of these decisions then it strengthens our hand in discussions. All speculative stuff I know but why not..... it’s as plausible as many other theories on the BB.

Well KTF, the money being the primary objective, the latter being the icing on the cake.

A few days back Keeptofacts helpfully posted a guide to the four main types of sale/buy scenarios in O&G. As follows:
List on a Site: In this situation, the seller places an ad and hopes for a call.
List Through a Broker: Here, brokers list your deal on their website, set up an online data room and promote your deal both through word of mouth and online channels to a network of known buyers.
Investment Banking: These are typically high-value or less public deals, promoted by the investment banking community directly from sellers to buyers.
Self-Promote: Corporations who self-promote have a lot of control in the process, since they host their own data room. But, this tends to take lot of time since selling is not typically their core competency.

Now, taking a leap of a faith, if SOU fits into the third category, it’s because the transaction is of high value and/or Rothschilds are having confidential discussions with interested parties, ideally both. Well...you can but hope.

Esattamente signore Longwait. Assuming a generic 20- 30% chance of finding gas with the drill bit, lady luck has certainly not been on our side so far. However statistically the number of wells drilled to date are insignificant so get someone in who can drill another 5, 10, 15 wells and I suspect that the 1 in 3 - 1 in 4 average will balance out. The gas is there but it will take numerous wells to prove up the potential.

Long, I think that Schlum see value in Morocco and the question is then whether they move forward in partnership with Sou, with SOU and other partner(s) or with completely new partners if SOU sell out. Either way value = value just in case some would have you believe otherwise.

Jack, agreed, the difference being that SOU would have had a stronger initial hand to play in negotiations if they had been able to bag some more gas from TE10. However as we can see from discussions on the BB there are a number of possible ways that you can cut and dice a deal and doubtless all the options, scenarios and potential outcomes would have been discussed at length prior to going public with the marketing intentions.

Keep, good find and very interesting. It just takes one potential buyer to be convinced by the potential of the licence area to start a chain reaction. Will it happen, has it already happened? Who the hell knows... but we do have valuable assets and Morocco needs gas.

Sorry if I’ve missed something.... but you know that there have been no offers how? If you are privy to some industry gossip or other knowledge about a lack of offers please do share it here with your fellow investors.

Ha...glad to see that both Soundingoff and Lonwait have already responded with a more balanced view.

RE JJ’s FSC response, as per WH0sthedaddy’s post, could someone please clarify what it would take to turn the T5 Horst from unrisked to risked? (does anyone also think that it was already risked?) Also I think that the question which proceeded JJ’s response might help to put his answer into context, which was:
“Your corporate brokers currently have price targets of 9p and 10p on SOU stock. Given that they are industry experts and put valuations on companies for a living, why do you think their valuation of Sound is so much lower than the Board's?”

“Let me remind you of the deep dive (where the failure didn't have the cahonas to attend)“....Strange I must have been speaking to a hologram of JP after the presentations then?
There’s only one certainty at the moment folks and that is that every day that passes without news is a day closer to news. I trust it’s worth waiting for.

‘Cos I think that Q3 is a concise version of earlier presentations designed for use as an overview for prospective buyers. I posted as such in a previous post some days back. You may also note that the heading on page two now says “Largest Onshore Operator in Morocco” thereby placing SOU’s strategic importance into context for anyone interested. Previously the same slide was headed “A mid cap Moroccan Gas Co”

You’re right of course Soundingoff... politeness just got the better of me.

Well that’s certainly one person’s doomsday reading of the current situation..... and it’s as valid as any other in the absence of any new info. It might well turn out to be quite accurate in its assessment, who knows, but then again it could equally be a mile off.... and I hope for anyone invested that it’s the latter. If you’re currently stuck with this investment and feel unable to sell out, then you might just as well hope for the best rather than predicting the worst. It could just make the wait a bit more bearable.

And another AIM company with small pockets will no doubt satisfy Morocco, Ogif and Schlumberger. Along with patience, the things that seem to get easily lost with the passage of time are all the facts that keep PIs hopeful of a decent ending.

Just an observation.... out of all the iis, if you check out Karios you’ll see that the management team is predominantly of Italian background. Funny how both Karios and Continental Investment Partners (also Italian) have over time divested significant chunks of SOU shares. Well, I suppose that’s the difference between professional and amateur investors eh???