Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Any opposition to those supporting the board unconditionally gets trashed or labelled a boiler room member or part of the shareholder group. If the board had outperformed I'd understand it. Why not actually read my posts? I have consistently been against the audit if the company had to pay. Now they don't it's worthy of consideration. The idea they would pay for this audit just to somehow cause trouble is ridiculous in my opinion. They must have genuine concerns. You are welcome to disagree, but what is wrong with debating and discussing it?
Investorverysmart? Do you actually have anything constructive to say or is it your job to police this board attack anyone with an alternative view and get people to send you likes it comes across as a little insecure. In my opinion.
If this vote goes ahead and the small share holder group lose which is very possible, then what? What happened last time they lost do people actually think these guys will just walk away they will still own a significant chunk of Block and still won’t have seen a return on their investment, its clear they think there is something untoward going on at Block.
Meanwhile we are patiently waiting for drill results to come in and if they are as expected then great the share price should go up we may see some selling there maybe some buying in order though for there to be a sustained increase Block will need to attract new investors, any experienced investor that is just doing a basic level of due diligence would see that there are some red flags with this company with NED’s walking off the job and significant investors calling for an audit that would be enough to put most savvy investors off so then our increase will be capped.
I have always been against the company paying a large sum of money for an audit but with the pressure mounting and the cost coming out of other people pockets I can’t see a good reason not to, despite what has been said it will put out a clear signal to the wider market that the company has clean bill of health and has nothing to hide.
This should not be about winning or losing but finding a way forward for the benefit of ALL shareholders.
Yiannakism it’s a good question why don’t you go on their Website and ask them, a while ago there was an offer made to engage directly with people on this board I think it was AJW, Holywood and a couple of others can’t remember and I’m not sure if that offer is still on table, Twitter might be your best bet to ask that question.
I think the point that I was making was that in the past people have made assumptions about you that you didn’t agree with just as you did about me.
I always enjoy spirited debates with people that do not have to resort to playground insults that’s why I stay away from Twitter.
I think this board would be quite dull if it just became a one sided cheerleading platform.
I have another question for you in your post 13.06 below you write
“Are you really serious that the Minority Shareholders Group will stump up £1M upfront, when there isn’t anything to find!”
Can I assume this is your view and another assumption how do you know they won’t find anything when it hasn’t taken place?
Apart from the cost which it now seems is less of an issue and the time it would take are there any reasons you would be against a forensic audit?
Sorry by free I meant at no cost to the company have you read the release that Cperkins made reference to?
“The Concerned Shareholders have proposed this resolution as they believe it is in the Company’s best interests and not to cause unnecessary nuisance or cost. To ensure other shareholders are not forced to commit more funds and to ensure there is no financial impact on the Company to give fellow shareholders comfort, the Concerned Shareholders are willing to meet the full costs of the investigation”
This is what I meant.
The disruption is already there, the time is already being taken up what we need is closure and to move forwards together, the ball is in the companies court and as such they have a play to make and I would want to see an audit agreed to on the condition no more flipping votes are called by concerned shareholder’s.
That’s an interesting point to make AJamesW as I can see you have felt it necessary to defend yourself when people have jokingly made insinuations that you might have links to the company due perhaps to your in depth technical knowledge
My role is simple I am a frustrated investor that feel things need to change and I don’t think anyone can deny that the share price has been too low for too long and am really hoping that we have a positive drill result, it now looks like the company have a FREE independent audit available to them which should show the wider market the much needed clean bill of health.
I think it’s ok to have differing views and as I’ve said before I respect yours. Regards
This could be a game changer for the company, to have an independent audit done which they don’t have to pay a penny for should once for all put an end to all the unanswered questions, I can’t think of a good reason the company would say no as their main objection was cost to the company but now that has been removed. Interested in your view AJamesW??
AJamesW, But those are still not tangible reasons for resigning and there is still room for speculation, it’s a red flag for me that would would prevent me from investing further funds in Block until we have a better understanding an audit sooner rather than later should address those concerns, I guess others feel the same way which might be why our share price has stayed at a low level even with a drill in advanced stages.
What I would have wanted from the board of a company I’m invested in where governance is being questioned is a robust, transparent response from a united board, what we got was 2 NED’s running for the hills , if that isn’t a red flag I don’t know what is?
The board then had a golden opportunity to appoint a high caliber and INDEPENDENT NED we then got an announcement from the chairman saying he was ‘delighted’ to have given one of the roles to an ex work colleague which happens to be the Chairman of another underperforming AIM listed company, I can quite decide whether I feel this is naivety or arrogance from someone who’s job has been called into question.
It’s a bit like giving GP Jersey and co. a can of petrol to put out their flames of discontent!
Ah ok thanks I thought so I guess that’s all we can do is speculate, I don’t think it’s helpful that we are not given an explanation that at a time when the governance of the company is being questioned why 2 NED’s suddenly departed even the Chairman acknowledged that ‘it’s a matter of substance’ without offering any reason for this.
Being able to stand up to scrutiny and being able to demonstrate good governance is key to any successful business there have been oil companies that have produced a lot more oil than Block are likely to in the near future because they have had poor governance or worse.
Bedex, I do agree with you an independently conducted forensic audit demonstrating a clean bill of health would be a massive tick for for company and finally draw a line under any inferences of impropriety and in my view could have a really positive impact on the share price …I just don’t think the company should pay £2 million for it.
Well yes it certainly looks that way at the moment which is why a change of tact might be the way forward, I think I remember reading somewhere that the board has acknowledged that this is likely to become a massive distraction and takes their time and energy away from their day jobs or words to that effect.
I for one am bored of reading about votes and resolutions and would much prefer to be reading about successful drill results …..who knows maybe tomorrow!
This also isn’t just about an audit this is about finding a solution to a problem if I was making a suggestion, to the company it would be to go back to the shareholder group and ‘We agree to an audit as we have nothing to hide, we will not be paying for it, you should pay for it and in return we want no more EGM’s called by GP Jersey for a set period of time, so we can focus on our jobs which is drilling for oil and gas and creating shareholder value.’
Or we can can have vote after vote after vote until people lose interest and take their investments elsewhere.
AJamesW, I’ve always found your posts to be really helpful when it comes to helping me understand the technical side of the goings on at Block and I’ve previously thought the company have missed a trick in not offering you a job, perhaps some of the mistakes that have happened in the past would have been avoided!
An audit is not something to be afraid of it will provide the company with important information to move forward with, learn from any mistakes and celebrate their achievements, as an investor I would welcome any fair process that will help the company make more progress than it has done previously, however the sticking point I can’t get past and to echo others views is this should not be paid from the cash reserves the company has, its is not what I want my investment used for.
THEY SHOULD PAY.
Wow Maladoni I had no idea, I would be shocked if they would agree to pay for it though as in my experience people in business with deep pockets don’t like to spend it unnecessarily,
as the Share Prophets article suggested it doesn’t seem like this group are going anywhere soon but maybe if they were thrown a bone?? It seems like a lot of time and energy has been spent on this and maybe a compromise is the way forward what’s the harm that can come out of it? The company gets a free audit, a clean bill of health and the board get to pat themselves on the back for a job well done meanwhile the small group of investors will run out of questions to ask and probably ride off into the sunset.