Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Looks like Smiffy needs to sell. Hope no naive investors get spiked. Is this the final effort before suspension? Less than a month away.
That's the gravy train leaving the station. Without Mr Menzies. He was paid £263,000 last year with a £223,000 bonus on top. Who paid him that exorbitant amount? The remuneration committee of course. They like to reward themselves handsomely. It is only shareholder money.
Mr Parsons was awarded £68,000. Over £1,000 a week and more.
Marco Fumagalli was awarded £40,000.
Fiona was awarded £40,000.
They have plenty of other directorships etc between them. Many at the same companies. Incestuous or what? According to the recent RNS Mr Parsons, Marco and Fiona are to defer 25% of their respective remunerations for 3 months. They don't lose it, just defer it. And then will be given it back when you aren't watching. Cozy. All they have to do for the next year is look after the cash for the interest payment to bondholders. Most else is shutdown. Shares anyone? Mug punters apply here.
You will be told when appropriate!
Who has welshed on the £200,000 placing shares?
Share Prophets reveal : "latest rumours on Ascent (AST), reveal that it is Novum Securities that has welshed on a £200,000 commitment ".
Or is it BMD as mentioned by the good doctor? Or is it both?
It doesn't really matter who. The important thing to remember there are 4,000,000 (£200,000) loose placing shares to dump on unsuspecting shareholders (16,000,000 in total if truth be told). They were always going to be dumped on unsuspecting shareholders but the cunning plan was to dump them at a profit. A pump and dump is underway in an attempt to minimise the loss and so sidestep legal proceedings. Conference call? "News" before the conference call? Wouldn't be holding the conference call if there isn't big news? It's all being rolled out. Same old same old.
There is no news. Slovenia is locked down. And will be for the foreseeable. Mr Parsons has mothballed Coro Energy and should do the same with Ascent. But there are disgruntled placees at 5p he must placate. At the expense of the small shareholder. Are you mug enough to take up these shares? There are, in total, 16,000,000 that need a home. There has been an oil and gas price collapse and coronavirus since they were issued. They have little value.
What do you do when you anticipate having to take a pay cut. Well, in the case of Mr Parsons you hop on another gravy train. Over at Coro Mr Parsons, amongst others, has decided to defer 25% of his remuneration for a period of three months. Defer, not give up. Yet he still needs to make up the difference. Stand up Ascent Resources. Nice little earner as Executive Chairman. It is interesting, in the light of the current malaise in oil and gas, where Mr Parsons is chairman that he has just sacked his CEO :
" the Company's Nominations and Remuneration Committee has offered the executive directors the options of: (a) taking an unpaid sabbatical; (b) receiving 3 months' notice (subject to conditions), payable in new ordinary shares in the Company, for the termination of their employments; and/or (c) stepping into a NED role. In putting these options to the executive directors, the Company has made the difficult but robust decision to not offer cash payments to outgoing executives. Andrew Dennan, the Company's CFO, has elected to become a Non-Executive Director of the Company with immediate effect. James Menzies, the Company's CEO, has not accepted any of the options offered to him and, in light of this and, inter alia, the need for the Company to cut costs to conserve cash resources in the current environment, the Board has therefore taken the decision to terminate his employment with immediate effect and without payment".
Without payment. Why have executive officers not been given the same ultimatum at Ascent. Maybe because Mr Parsons is an executive officer here. No salary? Not for him. Holidays in the Carribean to pay for. Your money, so he couldn't care less.
He has brought with him from Coro " Leonardo Salvadori, Managing Director of Italy" who yesterday shareholders of Coro were told : " will continue to report directly to the Coro Board and will also take on additional executive duties across South East Asia". What is Ascent getting? Another salary to pay, another hanger on. Divided loyalties. Two salaries. Sheer contempt for shareholders. There's a strange smell surrounding these shares. Only mug punters need apply.
https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/CORO/update-and-directorate-changes-wewipbfczej5l4b.html
End of March lock in over. Smells of cash raise required. Times have changed. No cash available. Any news of the legal proceedings and Mambare that was expected by the end of Q1? You'll be told when appropriate. Mug punters, it is your duty to buy the shares. Go on. Go on. I dare you.
$4.5 million. How long will that last? Administration costs at the interim stage was $2.9 million so double for the year to $5.8 million. It is hoped $2.3 million costs will be removed from the annual figure by the 2nd April changes so that leaves G&A costs of $3.5 million in the next year reducing that cash pile to $1 million by April 2021. Then the second payment under Tranche A comes up for payment for the $22,500,000 bond issue :
" The Eurobonds will be issued at 85% of par value, such that the Company will receive €19,125,000 in cash. Half of the bonds are expected to be designated as Tranche A Bonds which carry a 5% annual cash coupon and half as Tranche B Bonds which will accrue interest at 5% per annum and which will be payable in cash on redemption. In addition, there will be a 7% origination fee payable to the Institutional Investors".
A payment of $562,500 required next April. And that is only for Tranche A. So the cash pile is reduced to $0.4 million.
A company with $22,500,000 debt. A further payment of $562,500 for Tranche A to pay by April 2022 and accumulated interest of 3 x $562,500 to add to the $22,500,000 debt under Tranche B. No wonder Mr Parsons and Marco are sticking close.
A company with no profitable revenue stream. Italian assets which they cannot give away. The Duyung agreement not yet finalised and years from coming to fruition.
A company with no executive team to carry it forward. A company which sacked its top officer and possibly expects legal proceedings to follow. The CEO departed because he wouldn't accept worthless Coro shares in place of salary. Take heed. He has millions of shares to sell. The company expects mug punters to buy them.
Spike. A month to go before suspension. You know what to do. It may be the last.
https://www.malcysblog.com/2020/04/oil-price-genel-gkp-coro-egdon/
He would be of more use if he gave his photo album to Police 5. Worth reading standing on your head.
What has Mr Parsons done for Ast?
Well the share price is a quarter of what it was a day before he came on board. And he has raised £800,000 or is it £700,000 or is it £500,000 or is it £485,000? Whatever. He has raised some money and is starting legal proceedings and using some of the money he has raised to force some of his friends to give him some money. All above board. He will find it hard to raise any more money. Fewer friends in the new world. Today he mothballed Coro Energy for the foreseeable future. Coro is in oil and gas and gas a nice $4.5 million cash pile to keep him warm and salaried for a while. Coro has assets in Italy which are hardly paying. And Slovenia is next door to Italy. Why is he not shutting down Ast costs in Slovenia? He can't sell them much as he would like to. The trouble is Ast has no cash pile to sit on for the next few years. He needs to raise more cash for his push into the sunny Carribean sea. It is nice and warm there. Hence the conference call. A tried and tested method. Loosen the clasps on the cheque books. Yours. It is your duty to get unseemly excited.
https://www.investegate.co.uk/coro-energy-plc--coro-/rns/update-and-directorate-changes/202004020703005500I/
Mr Cobrakai1, is that the best you can offer? A spike. Hopefully Nuog will spike upwards so you may sell your shares. To someone who will be caught out by buying your shares at the top of the spike. Not a share investment then. A sneaky trap paid out in the woods so unsuspecting prey might get caught? I think there is more honour sitting in my bedroom hiding behind my keyboard shirtless and shareless (and boring and repetitive). Do you not have any shame?
I think most Nuog shareholders would be realistic enough to say they have already lost their money. I can only hope there might be no naive investors dragged into the mess. I don't want anybody to lose money. I know the kind of people they will be losing it to.
Tambo this is not investment advice.
It might be worth reading the Coro RNS issued today. An early vehicle of Mr Parsons. Involved in oil and gas. But the same MO as RGM. The model is broken. Coro is a case of raising cash on the back of investor euphoria and selling on placing shares at profit whilst introducing debt at exorbitant rates. Great when times are good. Those times are gone. The same model here but later in the " feel good " cycle. Too late. No euphoria. No share placing profit. No cash available, although cash is needed. 0.1p seems a long way off now. But it could happen. And that's in "new " money. Where is the exit door?
An affectionate name. "Andy" appears in the RNS issued by Coro today. You might know him as Andrew Dennan. He is a shareholder in C4 Energy ( I know boring, what has it got to do with Nuog). In the same RNS are mentioned two other shareholders in C4 Energy and indeed directors of the same, Mr Parsons and Marco Fumagalli. Coro is an early example of Nuog. Before C4 Energy was formed. Marco has links to the debt providers there and is a member of the BOD to look after their interests. Today they have mothballed the company with their arms around the $3.5 million cash pile. Sitting out the coronavirus fallout whilst receiving a salary and looking out for number one. Nibbling on shareholder cash. It couldn't happen here could it? I suppose suspension is a form of mothballed. But don't worry. At Coro there is no mention of the link with C4 Energy so they are probably totally different people there. Totes.
I suppose the sacking of the CEO highlights the sacking of a scapegoat. But a willing scapegoat. I should think he is glad to be out. As would the other member of the BOD who is leaving. Both trying to dodge bullets. Both probably ashamed of being associated with the company and its shenanigans.
That leaves Mr Parsons, Marco and "Andy". All shareholders in C4 Energy and the first two directors in the same company. I wonder if Fiona is a shareholder in C4 Energy or does she not have the same "shame" threshold as the two that have left? It would've been a good RNS to highlight the link between members of the BOD and C4 Energy. And the link with the debt. Too much to ask perhaps.
So now we have the remaining guardian's looking after the company debt and nibbling away at the company cash. They do not know how long the coronavirus fallout will last so they are looking out for number one. Don't be fooled. There is no company left. No future. The share price today is the highest it will be for years. Twitterites will tell you differently for their own ends. But for shareholders it is over. Your money is now the money of the BOD. It's over.
The company is now paying interest on interest it cannot afford to pay. The debt holders have their boot firmly on the neck of the company. This was built into the DNA of the company with the conditions of the original loans (8% coupon, a 10% fee and will be issued at 80% of par, warrants etc). And guess what - people were taken into the management of the company to look after that debt. The company needs to raise cash but in the current market conditions it cannot. Problems, problems problems.
" Following the highly-successful appraisal drilling campaign on the Mako gas field in Q4 2019, which saw the Tambak-1 and Tambak-2 wells demonstrate the presence of well-developed, high quality reservoir sandstones with a common gas water contact across the Mako structure, The operator, Conrad Petroleum, has been working alongside external consultants to update an internal view of resources at the Mako gas field. Subsequently, Gaffney Cline and Associates ('GCA') was commissioned to update its view of the Mako gas field, which lies in the Duyung PSC in the West Natuna basin, offshore Indonesia (the 'Duyung PSC').
The work required to arrive at an internal assessment of resources at the Mako gas field is very close to being completed and Empyrean anticipates being in a position to release these numbers shortly.
The operator has advised that despite the movement and travel restrictions affecting all parties involved, all efforts are being made to ensure that GCA delivers their report in a timely fashion. The revised competent persons report by GCA will use new data acquired from the Q4 2019 appraisal drilling programme, including the drill stem test at Tambak-1, which flowed at 11.4 MMscf/d.
GCA previously ascribed 2C resources of 276 Bcf and 3C resources of 396 Bcf to the Mako field and the Duyung PSC partners are now awaiting the publication of this new independent resource assessment. The Company is confident of a significant upgrade in the resource size as a result of the drilling campaign and the Company looks forward to updating shareholders on the results of the updated GCA resource assessment in due course.
The Mako gas field is located close to the West Natuna pipeline system and gas from the field can be marketed to buyers in both Indonesia and in Singapore, where a heads of agreement with a gas buyer is already in place. With a Plan of Development approved by the Indonesian Authorities, the conclusion of a gas sales agreement will mark an important step toward the final investment decision to develop and commercialise the field".
Investors awaiting a CPR will have to wait a while longer. Commercialisation a long way off. No income for Coro, only costs. Hence the cash raise before September.
Bad news for partridge indeed. I hate to see money wasted. £500,000 on November 4th 2019 reduced to £236,000 by December 31st 2019. That's £264,000 in 57 days. No wonder a cash raise was required early in January 2020. We're at the end of March 2020, 91 days since the start of the year, I wonder if anything is left.