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From Serica's results
The Environmental Statement and draft Field Development Plan for the Buchan project have been submitted, with completion of Serica's acquisition of a 30% interest is expected to occur during February.
Whilst AB continues to collect his £300k salary + whatever add on's available and with the knowledge that in 2/3 years time cash will be flooding into the company he (imo) will be in no great hurry to sell the company. In the interview he reiterated there will be circa £25m cash at the next year end and running costs for sitting on their hands is circa £3m pa. Why should he rush?
Share buyback continues until July 2024 - no new buy backs announced. Rather disappointing, expect sideways trading for the shares.
Maybe if AFC got their finger out and delivered some positive share price enhancing news thing would improve on here. Why it takes such a small small company, with no meaningful financial transactions over three and a half months to produce annual results is beyond belief. What are these people doing all day?
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We will harness Britain’s sun, wind and wave energy to:
Save £93 billion for UK households.
Deliver one hundred percent clean power by 2030.
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Labour will build an energy system for the future, run for the British people.
Malcys latest blog covered this and I thought since SQZ are now a partner in the Buchan project JOG investors may be interested- "top of the 2024 bucket list" well if they do well maybe we will too.
Mitch Flegg is one of the most experienced, high quality CEO’s in world energy not least in the UK and it is a serious blow to Serica that he has decided to move on after two spells at the company. This news is to me a shock but not a surprise as they say, in one sense with the deals he has done in recent years and the one he fought off he has a 100% track record and Serica rightly sits at the top of the new Bucket List.
Also, having met with him very recently, whilst he said nothing about this I get the impression that firstly SQZ is so well run that it runs itself very well, not a criticism but he has assembled a highly professional, experienced team that deliver time and again and secondly, frustration with the rating, something shared by other CEO’s may have contributed to his decision.
Next week a group of Serica followers are gathering in Scotland for a Capital Markets event, it will be difficult for it not to become a Mitch tribute extravaganza. Nevertheless, it will not be easy for the nominations committee to step up and find a replacement, after all, how do you replace the best in the business….?
Mitch Flegg commented in some depth on the deal, I found his final sentence unusual, but very encouraging
Below is the start of his statement and the final sentence - most strange that he is leaving as they announce results.
"We are delighted with this transaction which gives Serica a significant interest in the proposed Greater Buchan Area project, potentially adding a third production hub and further resilience to Serica's North Sea portfolio. In common with our other hubs, the GBA plan involves utilising existing infrastructure - in this case an FPSO - with the possibility of exploiting multiple accumulations in the area. Moreover, the development has been designed to deliver an industry-leading low level of carbon emissions, consistent with Serica's objective of reducing the overall carbon intensity of its activities.
We congratulate Jersey Oil & Gas for having created and progressed the GBA project before recently transferring operatorship to NEO Energy. We look forward to working with them and NEO, including the latter's experienced and well-respected project team."
I acknowledge that both the share prices of ITM and CWR have rallied recently and therefore to take this into account I have added below the 2023 highs and lows for each of the companies. No bias is intended between any of the companies, and for clarity I hold both AFC and ITM and expect all three to do well in 2024.
All LTH of AFC are expecting (me included) an exciting 2024 with multiple events in the pipeline, including (the prospects) a labour government. So I thought it would be useful to tract the progress of AFC and our main sector firms ITM and CWR.
All three have suffered really poor share price performances with dramatic drops in value since the start of 2020 and throughout the COVID period and all are looking for better times ahead. I set out below the current share price, number of shares in issue and the current market caps for each. I'm sure all LTH can recall the days when AFC had a market cap well in excess of £500m and hopefully, with the right news we will see it again - :
AFC share price 19.20p. Shares in issue 746.52m. Market cap £145.42m. (data from 2/2/24)
(High 33.03 on 7/2/23. Low 11.28p on 17/7/23)
CWR share price 217.40p Shares in issue 192.98m Market cap £424.17m. (data from 2/2/24)
(High 518p on 8/2/23. Low 138p 1/12/23)
ITM share price 62.70p. Shares in issue 616.88m. Market cap £388.51m. (data from 2/2/24)
(High 119.05 on 8/2/23. Low 48.01 on 1/12/23)
LTH in all three are looking for better times - will come back and update as the year progresses.
All LTH of AFC are expecting (me included) an exciting 2024 with multiple events in the pipeline, including (the prospects) a labour government. So I thought it would be useful to tract the progress of AFC and our main sector firms ITM and CWR.
All three have suffered really poor share price performances with dramatic drops in value since the start of 2020 and throughout the COVID period and all are looking for better times ahead. I set out below the current share price, number of shares in issue and the current market caps for each. I'm sure all LTH can recall the days when AFC had a market cap well in excess of £500m and hopefully, with the right news we will see it again - :
AFC share price 19.20p. Shares in issue 746.52m. Market cap £145.42m
CWR share price 217.40p Shares in issue 192.98m Market cap £424.17m
ITM share price 62.70p. Shares in issue 616.88m. Market cap £388.51m
LTH in all three are looking for better times - will come back and update as the year progresses.
DU you wrote
"................inc the directors (all 5 of them)."
With a max of 10 - They reported annual expenditure through to first oil would be circa £3m. What, in your view would these director/employees be doing during this period?
Over the last 5 years they have closed over 250 branches and cut thousands of job and bought back and cancelled billions of shares and many LTH remain under water, and now the car finance fiasco - you couldn't make it up. Behaving like an AIM stock.