Member Info for Njames

Nothing has happened in the bankruptcy case being pursued by the JOLs since 4/2022. At that time the JOL's counsel (Holland Knight) informed the court that the Texas case by FIC v SN and ZM referred to in this thread had been filed and was proceeding.

"On August 20, 2021, the FIC and FRGC commenced an action in the District Court of
Harris County, Texas, captioned Frontera Int’l Corp., et ano. v. Nicandros, et ano, Case No. 2021-
5529 (the “Texas Proceeding”). In the Texas Proceeding, FIC and FRGC broadly allege that their
former officers and directors Stephen Nicandros and Zaza Mamulaishvili breached their fiduciary
duties by approving transactions that violated lending agreements and failing to supervise and
conserve the assets of FIC and FRGC. The Texas Proceeding is in its nascent stage and the parties
are awaiting an initial case management order. The JOLs are monitoring the Texas Proceeding in
the event that the interests of FRCC become implicated."

One would hope (pun intended) that the settlement of the Hope case in Cali would lead to the unwind of these bankruptcy proceedings as well as the Harris county case. Is there any way to take these companies out of liquidation, or would a whole new structure for ownership of the Georgian assets be needed if the Georgians invite Frontera back?

Worth noting the YA case is still ongoing as well, with YA trying to collect on a $3.4 million judgment obtained in the UK. This is their second attempt. The first default judgment was set aside in 2021, and they obtained another judgment. Most recent filings in 2023 are for appearances of various out of state attorneys on behalf of YA.

I think Hope was unfairly painted as a villain and called silly names by some on here. He may be a vulture, having bought the bonds for pennies on the dollar, but he certainly wanted to turn a profit and had engineered a sale of the company at one point. Management (SN and ZM) painted him as an adversary and harmful to the company's interests, but in hindsight Hope's sale would have netted everyone a return years ago and spared us the thievery of ZM and the years of silence. And from the court records of the original Cayman case against Hope, the emails where he was demanding certain information and reasonable board practices and transparency were spot on in light of the crook ZM turned out to be.

"Very annoyingly, there are no details at all on what the settlement consists of !!!!!"

I'm thinking there's no requirement to file the settlement agreement so we will probably never know the details unless the company lists again at some point and is required to disclose or if shareholder approval is required in order to issue Hope a large number of shares.

Frontera International not appearing is due to the fact it got taken over by Hope/Liquidators in Caymans.

Vakhtang was a long time Frontera employee. Perhaps he's back on the payroll. The 1% was the area that encompassed the old Soviet discoveries that Frontera worked continuously, including Taribani, etc. The 99% included such prospects as Basin Edge that came up dry. Not sure where the claimed massive gas deposits were.

We would all be better off with a deal that gives us either cash or listed shares in a major E&P. Listings of jr E&P companies on London markets are not getting fair valuations these days.

Possibly a serious dilution giving Hope a significant equity stake in exchange for the debt and then to pay $ 6 million to Georgian govt arising from the arbitration as mentioned in the article below. Then also to fund continued development once the Georgians give Frontera back the keys. Likely not a relist as equity markets in the UK are not great for small cap E&P right now. Sale to a deep pocketed buyer would be best and give everyone an earlier return.

Wouldn't move the needle with Schlumberger as they are merely providing drilling services for a fee. Should have moved the needle for Block energy if real. Maybe it rose when the news first came out in 2022.

Thanks Looed. Just the luck of the business, and the vagaries of subsurface geology, FRR operating since the 90s unable to make such a discovery, along comes Block Energy just to the north and finds 160 BCF of gas. At $10 per MMBTU that's worth about $1.6 billion.

Shows Block owners (old):

https://www.griffincap.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Jindal-Petroleum-Georgia-Blocks.png

Looking at this map, most of the historical production and discoveries were in Block 12. Some in Block 11, part of which is in Kakheti.

http://georgiaoilandgas.ge/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/License-blocks-with-license-holders-2019-end.jpg

Looking at the two maps, it appears Block 12 is essentially the southern 1/3 to 1/2 of the Kakheti region, so the discovery could be in a non-Block 12 portion. Still, points to the existence of substantial reserves in the vicinity just like company said. 16 bcm is about 160 bcf, nothing to sneeze at.

This is a great find, keyser, maybe it's been posted here before.

This article shows the area of Block 12 in Kaheti region of eastern Georgia:
https://www.energy-pedia.com/news/georgia/frontera-resources-signs-mou-for-block-12-with-bhge-174999

And this one shows the Kaheti region in Georgia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakheti

Would be tragic if someone else had a commercial discovery in the old Frontera Block 12.

SN is a net negative in this investment. The company never had annual turnover of more than $5 or $6 million. Mostly they burned through a lot of investor money, including his own, but never found anything commercial. Theoretically, if he were corrupt, he might have been in a position to benefit from kickbacks from contractors in Georgia, but I suspect if anyone did that it was ZM not SN. He and his family had a huge personal fortune thanks to his dad being CEO of Conoco and Vice Chairman of Dupont. Frontera was his passion and he invested a vast amount of time and personal resources in it, but did not get any sort of return. Yet.

Purely a guess but perhaps they were being harassed online by former employees who were not being paid or were being sought by minions of ZM or Georgian government to testify in connection with the various legal actions in Georgia and decided to go off the grid.

Interestingly, former senior employees Giorgi Kalandarishvili and Levan Bakhutashvili have recently removed their LinkedIn profiles. They had left Frontera about the same time about 9 months or so after the de-listing, but continued to have their profiles up listing Frontera as a former employer. Could mean something could mean nothing, just thought it was interesting.

Yeah, they signed an NDA to look at data with a view to a potential transaction. That went absolutely nowhere. Like 99% of NDA's ever signed throughout the world. They probably looked at the data and took a pass, like every major before them.

"A great Report on BBC today. Piped Gas much less toxic to the climate change debate."

Laughable on its face.

The US court ended up accepting it (parroting the language given by FRC attorneys in the judgment), but it wasn't a matter decided by the court, just appears in the recitation of the factual background of the case. At the end of the day, the Georgians have to accept the validity of the assignment (which the arbitration panel decided against FRC specifically on this point) and the Caymans have to conclude this wasn't a fraudulent conveyance to avoid enforcement ahead of the posse (i.e., Hope).