Member Info for mick2020

An excellent result, and many thanks to Mikkel for all his efforts. Let's hope that this increases our chances of a dividend increase for 2020; starting in the 2nd half of this year.
Looking forward to hear the response tomorrow!

Mikkel, how/where can I reach you privately?

To all shareholders, please register your name + number of shares in the document below if you agree that the company should reduce its G&A expenditure significantly. Thordon, can you perhaps post this on ADVFN as well?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WydFSRGIwjyd9tQQSmndGo_JvQvBgkX9WmHWbuZfz5I/edit#gid=0

Mikkel,

I doubt that we will get enough votes to enforce anything at all, but a coordinated shareholder intervention might frighten Bob and Katherine a little bit already... which is always helpful!

Thanks Mikkel!

I agree with you: I also don't expect that WEN will be able to capitalise on growth opportunities. Last year the company was focussed on securing NAV accretive deals (obviously nearly impossible with a core NAV of ~ 2x the market cap), while the focus now is on growing WEN’s presence and foothold in-country… Something I personally actually dread.
Instead of growing the company further, I fear Bob is hobby horsing and has almost turned into some kind of missionary, focussed on improving the lives of the poor in Tanzania. At least it would explain why we keep such a large office in Tanzania. All very honourable of course, but that’s not why I invested in Wentworth (remember we were promised a rate of 130 MMscf/d by the end of 2016). Katherine is just very English: don’t expect a clear answer on any particular question that you may have.

I’m not very good at phrasing things neutrally, but what about the following:

“We, a group of Wentworth shareholders representing xx% of the total votes, are not satisfied with Wentworth’s performance. It is our view that the G&A costs remain disproportionally high, despite repeated promises to reduce it significantly. In addition, the company has failed to delivered on any growth promises made in the past, either through acquisitions or natural growth.

We propose the following:

We expect Wentworth to deliver real growth in 2020, measurable in terms of net production and/or newly added reserves. In case the company fails to deliver on this once again, we want Wentworth to truly embrace their non-operator role, and reduce G&A costs to the absolute minimum in 2021. The aim should be a G&A spent of less than 1.5 mln in 2021”

Hope this is a start! Please go ahead and present it to the Norwegian shareholders (I’m not Norwegian myself by the way)

Finally, I do know somebody within a larger institutional investor that has invested in WEN, so once your list is ready and has some support, I’ll send it to him has well.

Hi MikkelSchmidt,

I like your initiative, but with Eskil off the payroll now (850k total renumeration in 2019) and reduced screening costs I don’t think it is very challenging to save 1.3 mln on G&A in 2020. Katherine will happily agree, I think.

Personally I’d like to make it a lot stronger, with some sort of ultimatum in fact:

"Finally deliver real growth in 2020, measurable in terms of net production and/or reserves, or accept a true non-operator role and reduce G&A to the absolute minimum (less than 1.5 million in 2021), while putting the company up for sale.
For me, the worst scenario would be if WEN acquires a stake in Ntorya this year, and starts spending money on a risky development to ultimately compete with itself in Mnazi Bay"

By the way: I see only two growth opportunities in Tanzania: either increase our stake in Mnazi Bay or a invest in a new development in the north of the country, to compete with PanAfrican (Orca), delivering gas to the new SongoSongo facilities.

I have added my shares (as Mick) to your list though, good luck.

Hahaha... you really are funny Tanzania. Congratulations with the extension of the exploration license. No link to a GSA yet, but at least a real motivation to finally start drilling....
I will review my opinion of Aminex only after the new well has drilled and tested at significantly better rates than the previous two Ntorya wells. No need for any changes (or even apologies) before that.

With zero debt, a profitable business and 14 mln cash on hand right now, the Corona/oil price crisis may create some real opportunities for Wentworth... Personally I would prefer expansion outside Tanzania. Was Eskil not somewhat hinting at SDX a year ago?

Solid numbers, slightly better than expected even (net profit of 2.4 mln, minimal liabilities)

However, still some inconsistencies:

Annual report: "Net cash at year-end of $11.8 million"
announcement on 3 Feb: "end 2019 net cash position of $13.5m"

A little typo on 3 Feb I guess.... the cash position was 13.5 mln, not the NET cash position...

Anyway, good numbers, I like the dividend; a good long term return. Bring on 2021. Or can we perhaps expect a little surprise from Wentworth this year?

M&P "re-profiled" its debt only recently (see link below), so I don't expect that WEN will have an opportunity to increase its stake in Mnazi Bay for a good while still.

Regarding Ntorya: I'm not sure if WEN is interested. Monetisation is likely to be years away while it remains a very risky project, not only from a reserves point a view. On the other hand, Solo / Aminex must be pretty desperate by now, and a partnership with WEN could provide them an option to warrant at least the recovery of their unpaid Kiliwani gas bills over a longer period. If WEN can pick up a sizeable stake for essentially a symbolic price, it might be attractive.

Tanzania, Aminex is already more dead than alive, so what are you talking about. I My view about Aminex (or Solo) hasn’t changed the slightest. I predicted that the company would be bust by the end of 2020, so we’ll find out soon. Sorry if you don’t like my warnings!

Jergen,

Where do you see the individual trades each day?

Cheers

The number of trades indicated here are simply wrong. I bought some WEN shares yesterday (70,000 @ 16p), which didn’t show up at all. The real trading price is 15.5-16p I suspect.

Ready in December?

I doubt it, but at least something seems to be happening again...

https://allafrica.com/stories/202003170622.html

That would be nice, although I doubt that anybody would be willing to pay more than 40p for it.
Another possibility: M&P / Pertamina may soon need money, in the current market, and given that they are focussed on oil. what about WEN buying another stake from M&P?

Based on WEN current valuation, let’s say 20% more for ~ 25 mln? Funding will be easy (cash & rbl)....

Hope the company will soon move from AIM to the main market, or alternative, that they start paying the right parties to improve marketing and increase liquidity......

Thordon,

I think the latest RNS was very positive indeed. I’m particularly happy that our cash position increased further in January, even after paying off the final loan term.

Wentworth is now an extraordinary safe investment: no debt, strong cash position, guaranteed income for years to come, excellent long term growth potential and a very low share price…..

At the current price of 16.5p I calculate a dividend of almost 8.1%. Paid out without deducting dividend tax (Jersey registered), which is another bonus for me.

A perfect long term investment. I like it all!

There’s just one BIG problem….

it’s virtually impossible to buy or sell any shares! Liquidity is completely zero…. I’ve been trying to buy more shares the last few days but it is impossible to get any, even with a long term limit order at 17.5p (above ask) So frustrating.

AIM is a disaster… it smells of an old-fashioned highly manipulated and corrupt stock exchange… Without the right connections and “sponsorships” you can forget any trade. Wentworth seems to be one of the very rare HONEST companies on AIM, which is clearly not the right exchange for them.

At the current price. Quite attractive.

Mikkel,

H1 2019 numbers:

G&A: 2.963 mln
P&O: 1.772 mln
Cash call: unclear, but at least 0.5 mln (see section 13)

Based on these numbers, 6 mln G&A and 3 mln P&O seems reasonable I would say. Cash call remains unclear indeed.

At higher production rates (>90 MMscf/d) it’s all singing and dancing, but not at 70 MMscf/d. In addition to that, I hate it that the strategy of the company seems to be to do absolutely nothing whatsoever. In that case, let’s send Bob to a retirement home, get rid of as much staff as possible and become purely an investment company....

Sabel:

2020 Revenues @ 70 MMscf/d: 19 mln

Minus:

G&A: 6 mln
P&O: 3 mln
Capex: 4.6 mln
Debt + overdraft: 4.16 mln
Dividend: 3 mln
“cash call” from operator: ~ 3.5 mln

Gives a balance of -5 mln... Without paying off the overdraft: -2.5 mln.

We must increase production or reduce costs!