Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
"Nothing too shabby about today's update..." other than another £14m added to the cost of our TW deal !
Production range is wide, as always at start of year, this will narrow and should in theory move to the upper side if not exceed stated range as the year progresses.
Borrowing is borderline for the hedging requirement on the new facility, hopefully it at the lower end.
How have we paid so much tax given the promise of the much shouted about tax losses from TW. Details on how much we have used and/or remaining would of been helpful to gauge this.
aimo & dyor
QC, thanks for your thoughts, think we are roughly on the same page.
You get the feeling that a deal is close and a few city 'anchors' are ahead of the game and don't want to get caught out aka Wintershall style HBR deal.
I might be wrong, but did MF get an ultimatum, step back and you can keep a role with us .... MF didn't like that and either walked or pushed. Guess he didn't want to work for the new CEO.
aimo & dyor
Of course there is always the possibility, He's A Very Naughty Boy, and certainly not the Messiah.
https://youtu.be/0zsclkblxr8?si=E1_ZcksJVUAp_Zji
Market (shorters) certainly making the most of this event, even though I would have thought long term it will be better for the company, particularly if AA moves in .. :-(
aimo & dyor
Upomega,
"So if bad news is due what could it be....."
Think it has all the hallmarks of the opposite imo. There was obviously an 'urgent' reason for MF immediate departure as CEO, my guess is a deal is to be done very soon. Can not believe for one moment it's anything to do with forthcoming ops update.
Sasa, Mercuria would have been fully aware of AA's ability and I would have thought AA being financially adept and a real deal-maker that would fit nicely with Mercuira's ambitions. Remember AA's approach for SQZ was right in the middle of SQZ pre deal negotiations with Tailwind, so AA skill set was clear to see for all.
PS Foothold in Norway, now who do we know that could provide that ?
aimo & dyor
We all knew this was coming (probably except MF himself), moved aside before he was pushed, Mercuria's Trojan horse is off and running.
Hope he looks back at his decision in Dec 2022 and thinks long and hard about whether it was the correct one, 27% of the votes thought not !
aimo & dyor
DK2020,
" reporter doesn't say much.."
Actually, I would go as far as saying he has gone out of his way to paint an awful picture of HBR, so ask yourself, why !
No mention of our recent mega deal (by far the most significant near term event), plus he uses assumed gas forecast in 3 years, 3 years ffs to down grade to a sell, no mention of oil or our zero debt or as of Jan our pretty good hedging or indeed used the same rationale for ANY other gas centric players, just good old HBR.
Also in the light of above, he went from BUY to SELL, not even HOLD (neutral), unreal, absolute joke but it had his (GS) desired effect !!
GS are dirt bags for sure and that's putting it mildly .
aimo & dyor
So zero mention of the Latest mega deal pencilled in… and the cut also is based on “forecast” gas price in 2 years time, also no mention of oil , just gas. Talk about one sided reporting by a single analyst.
Appears they, GS et al are really trying hard to suppress any bounce.
When it appears that it's a done deal, you can always banks on the SP being dropped to allow the pack of hyenas in.
NAV_Mike, yes would be nice to see exactly what reasoning is behind GS attack.
aimo & dyor
"SP reaction continuing to show the influence GS hold amongst its peers..."
GS know exactly what they are doing, knowing full well that every BoT will 'read' and act upon their latest farcical downgrade. One massive boys club and Rachel Reeves is more than happy for these lowlifes to go totally unchecked.
aimo & dyor
Flexmw,
Direct result of the EPL is now forcing UK focused O&G to circumnavigate tax by acquiring other players that have large tax losses, or utilise current allowance, failure to do so will result in more and more distressed sales occurring esp for highly geared outfits with poor hedging. EPL is now starting to bite, result being the accelerated demise of UKCS.
For an out-of-the-box thought, I would be happy for us the sell out totally all NS assets (>£1.5bn) move to 100% focus on overseas. Cash from sale could sit in holding company gaining interest whilst we complete deal/s. Even better still, sell up and distribute cash to SH's, now there's an out-of-the-box thought ( could that be SQZ's aka Mercuria's game-plan ) !!
aimo & dyor
NAV_Mike,
"Doing okay then the familiar sudden smackdown around 2pm.....", indeed Sir !!
Has to be someone in the America's building a position at ~300p/s, my money is on one particular amigo, although I would have thought other buyers are thinking the same.
aimo & dyor