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Well done ecologist. I think the deal is done, your timing for this investment was excellent. For the real long-term shareholders the deal was actually terrible, but for people who bought later (including myself) it was probably good enough. You cannot expect more from a greedy and incompetent management unfortunately. Katherine got her deal, and most important to her, she now got her ~3 mln bonus. It's actually symptomatic for many companies listed on AIM : the main purpose of the company is 1) to get money out of the market and 2) to make management rich... All you need is 3) promises of huge future profits and 4) clever marketing.
Time to move on and say goodbye to WEN. Also time to retire "Mick2020". All the best everybody!
FY 2022 final dividend (1.4p ) + interim H1 2023 dividend: (~0.8p) = 2.2p. With 2 new wells and a compression project planned for next year (100 mln gross?) the company will need a lot of cash the next 12 months. I don't expect the additional special dividend to be much greater than 1 pence.
Note that if the company reduced its G&A costs (to normal levels), they could easily pay out the special dividend every year, as normal dividend.
The AGM will be held on 15 December, see the announcement below. Shareholders finally have an opportunity to force change, by voting out Katherine.
She has misled shareholders for years now, e.g. by stating that she would reduce G&A spending, by pushing through a bad deal, by talking down the asset at many occasions this year, by saying that M&P have no plans to further investment in the field, by not sharing essential cost recovery information, by pretending that WEN is a semi-operating company.
If the take-over fails, she has in fact achieved very little at all. Costs are so high that despite record production the company is barely breaking even. We desperately need change. We need a management represents the shareholders and focusses on reducing costs to the absolute minimum.
Note that the company now wants to “soften the blow” pay paying an extra dividend early next year. Expect a one-off 3-4p dividend, not more. Nice, but not very much. If the company had reduced costs earlier we would easily get such a dividend, every year, so not as a special one-off. Time for change, time to vote out Katherine. Vote “NO” on resolution 3!
https://wp-wentworth-2020.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/media/2023/11/WEN-2023-Notice-of-AGM-final.pdf
Wow, Astrol!
Are you not the guy who in the past was “impressed” by Katherine and called her “a very skilled woman with a strong backbone”, who had done “a lot of great things”; who explaining that WEN was a “semi operational” company; who called my posts “vicious attacs” that were “ libellous and defamational”, all mixed up with Norwegian sayings, verbal abuse and even intimidation?
To now say that it is “obvious they mismanaged the company over years” is a truly astonishing change of heart! I guess, at last, it has become obvious to all now…
To answer your question: I hope it will not come to a class action. It is very expensive and time consuming. The best way to get rid of this management is to vote them out at the next AGM. The notice period for the AGM is 3 weeks, so I expect an announcement by the end of next week. As PI’s we can only do so much. Ultimately, it will obviously depend on the II’s.
Please use your vote and spread the message.
With link: Https://dailynews.co.tz/tpdc-denies-rumours-on-drying-up-of-natural-gas-wells/
Hi Thordon,
It may actually be a quite a good time to buy back again. In case the deal goes ahead you’ll earn about 20% within a few months. In case the deal fails (most likely) I think it is highly likely that management will announce a large dividend payment in December. In addition, M&P appears to have serious investment plans for 2024: 2 new wells and the ongoing 20 mln (?) compression project (TPDC denies rumours on drying up of natural gas wells - Daily News). Also, the field is performing better than expected well (120 MMscf/d production). The weak point remains management: G&A spending is so ridiculously high that I suspect that the company is currently making a loss, given than all past costs have now been recovered. The majority of production is now recognised as “profit gas”, with the state taking around 70%. Of course they will start to become profitable again as soon as they start investing again.
Much more important than a take-over or even a dividend is a radical reduction of costs. We must vote out Katherine & Tim, to finally end the pretending, self rewarding and squandering of shareholders money.
Good luck!
A great post from my friend, Inge Skjelfjord, on XI. He's willing to step in and help sorting out the mess this management has created. Enough is enough, we must stop the pretending, self rewarding and squandering of shareholders money. Vote out "special K" and Tim, on 7 December!
".....as Wentworth shareholders, we should do everything possible to protect our interests. This concerns, among other things, M&P's relationship with the Tanzania Government. An important point is what happens to the cash accumulated on WEN's balance sheet; money that strictly belongs to the shareholders - in other words us! We also understand that the management and the board in London have finally recognized the dissatisfaction among the shareholders - enough is enough - and they have good reason to believe that they will be voted out of the board at December 7th AGM. (I think they are following XI WEN).They are also concerned that the shareholders may be in the process of seeking legal advice about filing a grievance with the LSE and to even filing a lawsuit against the WEN management, board & any other parties (not excluding the Tanzanian Govt) and are now trying to save themselves and will come up with plans that they believe will dampen the opposition among the shareholders. We cannot trust this and we must not fall into that trap. A dividend payout is essential and must happen, but it is not enough; we need a radical and permanent cost reduction. This management won’t deliver that, so… “they have to be voted out. A few days ago I received a question: so Inge, who will then join the board? In the first instance, I would recommend that Juliet Kairuki (the TZ board member) take over the management of the board. Juliet is highly regarded in Tanzania. I am able and willing to step in for a short period of time to help sort things out while representing the Norwegian shareholders. I know Juliet from my time as a board member of a (World Bank-sponsored) financing company in Dar es Salaam (2013-2017) and we have kept in good contact. I have, moreover, good contacts in Tanzania (I can send on my CV). My first proposal on a new WEN board will be to de-list WEN from LSE/AIM back to Oslo Børs - and consider a listing on the Dar stock exchange. I need help in sending a letter to Tim Bushell and I hope Ingemar can help; I will forward to Ingemar the latest letter/response we received from Tim Bushell 27 January 2023 in reply to questions we raised. We’ll post this letter also on XI WEN. More will come later. A united front for the AGM on 7 December is important to vote the out Katherine Roe and Tim Bushell. We will send a copy to XI WEN of letter that we plant to send to Tim Bushell. This text will also be posted on the LSE/AIM WEN Chat Group.
120 MMscf/d production....
Plans for 2 new wells in 2024...
a $ 20 mln compression investment ongoing (if I remember correctly, in the FEED stage now?)
A reserves upgrade only a short time after a previous "independent" reserves review...
Mnazi Bay seems to be performing spectacularly well. It's simply unbelievable how Katherine talked down the field last year.
Here's a link to another success story, straight from M&P: the celebration of the, apparently, successful MB-1 workover. Time for shareholders to benefit, not just management!
https://www.maureletprom.fr/en/article/m-p-tanzania-offshore-well-intervention
Gazelleman,
We will need support from as many private investors as possible (again) and one or two institutional investors, to boot out the BoD. Not easy, but if the deal fails the II's will be ready for a revolution I suspect.
As announced in July, an AGM will be held no later than 15 December 2023. My understanding is that Katherine will need to be re-appointed at that AGM, as it is 3 years ago that she was re-appointed the last time, on 17 June 2020.
At last, shareholders have a great opportunity to force change! We desperately need a new management that finally accepts, and embraces, its NON-operator role, and reduces costs to a minimum. Enough of the self-rewarding and endless squandering of money. Please, use your vote!
I think everybody will very much agree that the long stop date should not be extended. In fact, I think almost everybody will also agree that this management has to go as soon as possible. They have failed in delivering anything for years now, while spending enormous amount of money. To add some numbers: annual admin costs are now 8.5 mln G&A + 3.8 mln "acquisition costs", so 12.3 mln in total. A genuine/real management should be able to reduce that very quickly to about 3 mln in total, say 1 mln normal admin costs and 2 million for "doing business" in Tanzania, so a cost saving of about 9 mln. That's 750k per month! Squandered! The sooner the BoD is sacked, the better, and the more valuable the company becomes.
a very polite and well worded email highyield, i can only commend you for your attempts. unfortunately though, i think you should expect zero response. sending out emails has proven to be futile, especially this year. as somebody pointedly told to me once: these people are like ****roaches… the only living species that survived a nuclear attack. they will never leave voluntarily or change their habits. pi’s need to unite with ii’s at an agm, start a revolution and vote them out. that’s the only way to get rid of them. until then they will milk the company as much as possible, so it is no surprise that g&a is at a new record high. note by the way that in addition to the 4.3 mln g&a, they spend another 1.9 mln on “acquisition costs”. i wonder what that was on…
in reality i expect that the deal is dead, and management will indeed be voted out at the next opportunity. they are now working to siphon off as much money as possible while keeping up appearances. every month longer in the job is a win and is rewarded with a massive paycheck.
you are right by the way about my pence per share calculation. i forgot to convert usd to gbp! shame!
The most amazing thing is: it looks likely that WEN will be sitting on a net cash pile of approx. 50 mln at the end of the year, despite the repeated warnings about the end of the cost recovery period and absolutely gargantuan G&A costs. With 180 mln shares outstanding that amounts to 27.7 pence per share. It also means (obviously) that WEN’s take in Mnazi Bay is valued at 32.5-27.7= 4.7 pence per share at the end of the year. That’s a tiny 8.5 mln US$. The deal looks quite simply more absurd than ever, it is not in the interest of the shareholders. I can think of only one reason why management ever accepted this deal, and it is absolutely not a pretty one…
wen's shareholders have been shafted so hard by now that there's no point in appeasing them with a little dividend any longer. either they deliver the take-over and grab all the money they can or they lose their job. they money this management has wasted on the take-over and the last couple of years in general is utterly incredible. wasted on pretending all sorts of things, while lining their pockets. it is utterly shambolic. even bob seems to have remained on the payroll, as "president of wentworth tanzania" (see the website), despite his announced departure two years ago.
there **** was saved so far by an outperforming field, but even that is not enough now to cover their huge costs.
time to call for an egm and sack the complete board.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein says Baghdad is determined to find a solution for resuming the Kurdistan Region oil export from the Iraq-Turkey Ceyhan pipeline:
https://twitter.com/thecitadel_co/status/1703788460241223860
An update on the offer will be published on 26 September 2023.
The suspense is almost unbearable. For management as well obviously, they must be awfully worried by now that they won't receive their big LTIP shares bonus as planned, or worse even, that they will be voted out at the next AGM.
Poor Kathrine. After so successfully ignoring all PI's this year, she'll soon have to face up to them again...
---------------------
RNS Number : 2009M
Wentworth Resources PLC
13 September 2023
WENTWORTH RESOURCES PLC("Wentworth" or the "Company")
Notice of Interim Results
Wentworth Resources (AIM: WEN), the independent, Tanzania-focused natural gas production company, announces that its interim results for the six-month period ended 30 June 2023, together with an update on the offer by Etablissements Maurel & Prom S.A., will be published on 26 September 2023.
Some highlights:
-Net cash of 38 mln on 15 June'23 (about 20p per share), despite exploding G&A (now above 9 mln/year!)
- Gas price increased from $3.44/MMbtu to $3.71/MMbtu in 2023 (+7.8%)
- Production remain at record levels
- Reserves replacement ratio is above 100% (essentially caused by poor quality reserves report, underestimating total volumes)
- dividend suspended, and nicely phrased: "the Board intend to consider reinstating a final dividend for FY22", which means nothing at all. Paying out a dividend would obviously reduce the sales price, which reduces the LTIP awards, so Katherine will certainly be against paying any dividends....
No word about Bob leaving the company for good now, as promised 2 years ago.
So incredibly frustrating this.... a management continues to fail in achieving anything at all, but reward itself as if they are doing a wonderful job..... Hopefully this is over soon, I just can't bear it anylonger.
Interesting find Alph, but Katherine will simply say that the development plans are the results of the successful acquisition. When I asked her about future development plans, here answer was the following:
"Any future capital expenditure in Mnazi Bay will be determined by M&P; the operator has not sanctioned any material capex in the past 8 years and there is no expectation that this will change if the acquisition does not complete. There can be no certainty that M&P will deploy capital at Mnazi Bay versus other assets in their portfolio given their view that the transaction enhances their economics for further reinvestment"
Bob wanted out urgently, Katherine as well, and, sadly, we lost. We can't stop them anymore unfortunately. Lot's of companies like this on AIM: creating true shareholder value is almost always secondary to personal gains.
Iraq’s federal government and the KRG have reached a final deal to restart northern oil exports to be announced Tuesday, official sources say.
https://twitter.com/RowenaCaine/status/1643165642927816704
Iraq’s federal government and the KRG have reached a final deal to restart northern oil exports to be announced Tuesday, official sources say.
https://twitter.com/RowenaCaine/status/1643165642927816704