RE: Positives2 Feb 2026 17:00
I think this is more about what we’re not being told, and I think the diamonds may still be playing a significant part.
Gulf has good potential, but it will need money that BS doesn’t have and can’t access. So they look to reverse in. Vast is an option, but it has significant debt that BS doesn’t want, or to be diluted for. So the terms of the RTO stipulate that debts must be repaid prior to completion, hence the associated placing/bookbuild, the proceeds from which almost totally extinguish the debt in $ terms. The RTO completes at which point BS own 80% of a debt free company with diamond assets which are miraculously then sold to provide working capital. BS shareholders come out sweet - they get capital and liquidity without really giving up anything. Vast shareholders, however, will have effectively paid off the debt by dilution and given 80% of the diamond value away. Sure, we will then be invested in a company that offers new potential, but that will come at further cost.
And I also think creditors may be playing some significant part. The proposed raise looks the cleanest solution for them, but they are fed up with being dangled carrots and so used leverage to impose a longstop of 13/2.. Notable I think that this is more or less 14 days after the current debt extension ended. You can imagine them saying “we will extend to 30/1 but you must have called a GM by that date, so we want a 13/2 longstop”. Naturally AP didn’t do this, possibly for reasons outside his control, but instead he issues the CPR and presentation perhaps to appease creditors in the hope of getting further time. The raise remains, after all, their cleanest solution and no doubt AP is playing on that. But what about the diamonds? If I were creditors I’d be insisting on their sale, so why haven’t they been sold? As I say, my guess is that’s because BS want their value and the deal falls over without it.
Might all be bunkum, but now until close on 11/2 will be important for news regardless. If we get silence on the longstop and/or debt extension then I’d be concerned for the deal. On 12/2 we’d be asked to vote at the AGM, notably for refreshed headroom authority. Should we give it in those circumstances?
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