Member Info for ps200306

Is that how they spell 'cadaver' in the NHS? ;-)

SoundBoy: "I believe in soundenergy.very happy with my investment.i will shout soundenergy from the roof top..I know it will come good .soon we will be producing and selling gas.whats that worth 4-6p a share.then the wild cards. I.e tendara ..sidi.etc what price then 15-25p.."

Quite amazing. "Believes" in the company but still hasn't read the research notes put out by the company's own appointed spin merchants. "Soon" is a relative term when it seems like Graham is drip-feeding the message that Phase 1 might be up to a year behind schedule. But no, regardless of how soon it is, Phase 1 is not worth 4-6p for producing and selling gas. It is worth precisely nothing. Phase 2 -- several years away -- gets you to 4p if SOU doesn't give away more of its equity in the meantime. The bond repayments, already restructured twice, look to be in jeopardy again already. SOU has no money for drilling and stands to lose the acreage it still holds if it cannot fulfill its work commitments. The company is a shambles and the CEO, rather than providing a long overdue RNS explaining the current state of affairs, is planning a presentation for "potential investors". Presumably ones too dim to notice that the share price has been scraping along the bottom for four years now despite lots of noise about "monetising the assets". Graham may find out that his honeymoon period is long since over.

Just clocked in to see the RNS. Oh wait, there isn't any. Not a sausage since December 6th. Meanwhile an apologia for Graham's delays, generated by ChatGPT on Saturday, managed to get four upvotes from this forum's disciples. They presumably didn't realise its provenance ;-) ;-) ;-)

In the realm where Sarah Dees once thrived,

A tale of change, where dreams contrived.

Her job, a dance with tasks and code,

But now, a shift, a tale untold.

A chatbot whispers in the digital air,

A silicon mind, devoid of despair.

It learned the art of Sarah's trade,

Her daily toils, now in circuits laid.

Sarah, with her human touch,

In pixels and screens, she meant so much.

Her skills and passion, now in transition,

As the chatbot whispers its mission.

The office hums with a different sound,

As Sarah's presence fades around.

The chatbot's algorithms swiftly soar,

Occupying the role she held before.

Yet, in the quiet corridors of code,

A sense of longing begins to erode.

For though the bot may mimic the task,

Sarah's essence is what they unmask.

For empathy and warmth, an AI lacks,

In circuits, there are subtle cracks.

The nuanced touch of human grace,

A quality no code can replace.

Oh, Sarah Dees, in the virtual night,

Your legacy lingers in the digital light.

The chatbot may reign in algorithms cold,

But in the heart, your story's told.

ChatGPT's worst is usually in verse form:

In the realm of microLNG, where challenges loom,

Graham battles against an impending gloom.

A project unfolds, a colossal quest,

Yet time slips away, a relentless jest.

Shareholders frown, their patience worn thin,

For Graham's struggle seems an endless din.

In the world of liquefied gas, he strives,

Against the odds, where success survives.

Late nights echo in the hum of the plant,

Graham, determined, his spirit dauntless and scant.

Shareholder hatred, a bitter pill to swallow,

As deadlines loom, like a darkened shadow.

Yet, in the heart of the microLNG dance,

Graham persists, taking a bold chance.

Against the odds, where pressure is keen,

In the microLNG project, a tale unseen.

Blueprints scattered, plans up in the air,

Graham's journey, a tumultuous affair.

Hated by shareholders, yet he presses on,

In the realm of microLNG, where dreams are drawn.

Through the valves and pipes, a symphony of strife,

Graham maneuvers through the project's life.

Shareholders may scorn, but in this test,

Graham aims to triumph, to outlast the rest.

So here's to Graham, against odds arrayed,

In the microLNG realm, where dreams are laid.

A saga unfolds in the plant's echoing clang,

A tale of struggle, where Graham's hopes hang.

And then there was this, less than a month later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te_69vlM9mc

In this one Graham seems to be suggesting that Calvalley had completed technical due diligence and was on the verge of completing legal dd, and that it would be done and dusted within a week. (Unless Graham was confused about when the "end of this quarter" was, in the last week of September).

Also the LNG storage tank was sitting in Spain and the microLNG plant was completed and sitting in Louisiana, due to arrive on site "end of this year / start of next". Obviously an extra month no longer even counts as a slippage in Graham's mind.

There's only so long you can fool people (even on here), and Graham has been missing deadlines since the day he arrived. These things have consequences. Even if Calvalley comes through with the money, how much are Phase 1 costs going to increase as a result of all the delays? No doubt people have forgotten that the Calvalley deal makes additional money available to SOU in the event of Phase 1 cost overruns, but at the expense of up to a quarter of even the minority stake that SOU retains in Tendrara. As I have always said, it's all about the creeping dilution.

Quick reminder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEFivkq3Ync

That was August 24th. Graham tells us to expect announcements in the autumn on all fronts: financing deals, new drilling farm outs, and lots of LNG equipment arriving on site. Let's count how many of those came to pass. (For those who can't see me I'm holding up zero fingers). SOU can no longer even be bothered putting out an RNS when another signposted milestone date slips past. But never fear, Graham assures us in the video he "loves working". More likely he loves getting paid regardless of achievements.

Something else struck me about that video that I hadn't noticed before. At 1:45 Graham is asked about finances and conversion of the loan note. He says that £2.5m has been drawn down and £1.5m is still available and that for once in his three years finances are not in bad shape.

HOWEVER, about a fortnight before this interview the share price had dipped below the minimum level on which the second drawdown was conditional. Unless the SP could be jacked back up to 1.3p by the December drawdown date, the £1.5m would NOT be available. With that in mind, this effusively upbeat video (to the extent that Graham can ever manage to look effusively upbeat) starts to look like a forlorn rallying cry to try and stop the slide in share price that had commenced at the start of the month.

Unfortunately the only thing that might have halted the slide was if Graham had actually delivered on all the things he said were coming in the autumn (instead of NONE of them, then or since). Right now the share price is less than half the value that would have allowed the drawdown. And remember, that money was announced way back in June as bridging a funding gap between then and when Calvalley paid Phase 1 back costs. Which means SOU is almost certainly running on fumes at this stage.

An idle thought occurred to me that the lack of an end of year RNS might have been to avoid accusations of trading while insolvent. (No, I am not claiming that's true, but it is not impossible). I mean, when a £2.5m cash injection puts you in your best position for three years, it tell you how close to the wind SOU has been sailing. Losing the additional drawdown and still no sign of closure ... I don't think the cult members on here have any idea how shaky things are looking.

This board really is like a cult. The disciples go after perceived negativity like a pack of baying hounds. Meanwhile there is not a murmur when others post about "transformational news just round the corner", or "a feeling that 2024 will be great". Any post -- positive or negative -- should be judged on whether it cites actual facts or precedents, or whether it looks like it was plucked from the poster's back orifice. Unfortunately the back orifice posts get a dozen upvotes while the factual ones get a dozen angry diatribes.

SOU isn't EXPECTING any transformational news. It's overdue on closing a deal that will see the share price "soar" to 4p in a few years time, if the company's creditors can be kept from the door until then. It isn't expecting any new drilling, since its attempts to farm out three wells came to nothing. There is one work over of an old well planned (IF the overdue deals manage to get closed). The completion of Phase 1 (which looks to be up to a year behind schedule) is worth ZERO to the share price.

All of these are facts documented by the company itself. Right now SOU is struggling to keep the lights on, let alone meet the work program commitments on its licenses (which it is certain to relinquish more of this year). Good news for SOU would be to close the Calvalley deal. It's hard to know what transformational news would even be ... unless Graham has been buying tickets in the Euromillions.

Bizarre. This board used to be spammed a dozen times a day by an individual who claimed to be living above a chip shop and most of his posts were literally about spam (the food). How it has been "absolutely ruined" by a handful of on-topic posts is beyond me. Though there have always been individuals who lost the rag at the merest hint of a negative outlook, as if volunteering an honest opinion was verboten.

Not a peep from Graham, two weeks after the last extension expired. If there's a further extension that's a material fact that the market should be told about. Extraordinarily shoddy to say the least.

Ktf: "I suspect the delays are because all the bits are intertwined."

Assuming he is not privy to inside information, the poster has no idea what the delay is.

"This is not a Catch22, but a careful juggling act. I for one believe the BOD are doing well."

Most rampers (claim to) believe stuff for which they have no evidence.

"Everything they say they will do, they do, albeit often delayed."

The delays are what is killing the SP. It doesn't matter a shiny shillelagh stick to shareholders if SOU gets to first gas with their equity destroyed. 85% of it is already gone compared to a few years back when the assets were valued at 27p/share. For some it's already a sh*tshow no matter WHAT happens.

"Obviously this view won’t suit the agendas of the bashers".

Yawn.

@WoundLick, was in a similar boat when I sold most of my holding a little under three years ago. Couldn't / wouldn't get my average down any further and on current SP Angel projections I still stood to lose more than 75%. I don't so much regret not selling at the peak -- I was already retired 25 years ahead of schedule -- but I DO regret catching the falling knife so hard on the way down. Has put a slight dent in the retirement fund. That said, even *I* am gobsmacked to note that the share price has HALVED since I sold. For a company that has been on the journey to gas revenue for so long I find this very curious (in a disturbing way). Time is not on SOU's side. Every schedule slippage in the past two years has been injurious to the balance sheet, leaving SOU starved of cash and needing to raise funds at a very low market cap (even when raises were sneakily done on the back of "good" news and temporary euphoria). It seems to me SOU is running out of road. That's not a prediction of doom, but it's certainly a raised eyebrow in the absence of any news about what the hell Graham is up to.

"I'd be amazed if kylie/PS/trellis/keepitfiction (at least) are not all the same person."

Interesting analysis from someone who claims to have had me blocked for years. For the record, I have been a Sound shareholder for more than seven years, and have posted screenshots of my holdings to lunatics like ktf who just make up stuff to suit their own biases. I have no idea who kylie is or what their motivation is and I have never posted on this board under a different username. My posts are based on my personal view of SOU's troubled situation from publically available information. In fact, much of the negativity is "postdiction" from stuff that has already happened, i.e. decimation of the target share price by dilution of equity. The effect on individual shareholders depends on their breakeven price, so one person's bad news is another's buying opportunity. It's only those who bought at more than a few pennies that can be fairly well guaranteed to never get their money back.

How about ANY news? As far as anyone knows, both the ONEE Gas Sales Agreement and the Attijariwafa funding offer expired on Dec 31st. Does nobody else find it utterly amazing that we have passed the end of the first week in January without an update from SOU? Do PIs not matter any more, now that the equity cow has been milked dry? Or have missed deadlines become so run-of-the-mill as to be not worth commenting on anymore?

We had a deadline for year end 2023. Inevitably with SOU, no news is bad news. At the very least an RNS or some sort of communication is overdue. What is GL up to?

"I feel that we are going to have a good 2024."

Seriously, WHY? SOU is out of cash and can't pay its debts. Phase 1 is miles behind schedule. There isn't going to be any new drilling. Phase 2 hangs in the balance and revenue is years away. The best that can be hoped for is that SOU keeps on tottering along in 2024.

Yes that's right. Despite the herd mentality and downright ramping of SOU on this board for years, the only two people expressing any kind of concern must be THE SAME PERSON. Indeed, they must be the same MENTALLY ILL person. I mean, it's not like they listed the concerns bullet point by bullet point so they could be critiqued. No, no, anyone who disagrees with the herd must be quite literally insane, no counterarguments required :-/

(P.S. I don't actually agree with kylie75 on everything. Kylie is more inclined to attribute SOU's woes to malice rather than mismanagment. I guess you'd put that down to the less trusting of the multae personae wresting control of the keyboard ;-)

"They only need to RNS anything that has the potential to cause a major change to the share price. If negotiations are still ongoing and there is no question of the deal being pulled or materially being altered there is no need to report this."

On the contrary, I'd say Graham is treating shareholders like gimps. An update by Tuesday latest is required, and not in the style of previous years where the year-end update was nothing like what the market had been led to expect. You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to surmise that SOU is in a perilous situation. You just need to look at available information:

* last year's burn rate from the most recent annual report,

* the company's cash position as of August,

* the inability to draw down the second tranche of the June loan notes due to the share price falling so low,

* the ongoing failure to conclude proceedings with Attijariwafa and Calvalley,

* the reliance on a cash advance from Calvalley which has not materialised,

* the unlikelihood of an equity raise at current SP,

* the lack of cash for near term license commitments,

* the lack of revenue for medium term debt repayment (2027 bond repayment already looks unachievable).

Gotta hope that Calvalley comes through very soon. A raise at current prices would be very dilutive. £2.5m could end being half a billion shares, unless they can find another sucker to pay a premium over the current SP like they did with the convertible notes last year. SOU were supposed to be fully funded through end of 2023 *IF* they were able to draw down the second tranche of the loan notes announced in June (about 40% of the total). They didn't meet the share price criterion for that, so I presume they are pretty strapped right now.

Just a quick aside ... it wasn't Kylie75 who responded to the 2024 question, that was me. And I *am* invested here, probably for a multiple more than, say, ktf. And that's after selling 95% of my holding at a 90% loss. Will certainly lose most of the rest too as it's so far underwater, but I maintain a casual interest in what happens to SOU.

I don't look at anything other than what the company itself has posted. It's now 4.5 years since SOU announced their plan to monetise the Tendrara assets and we are still maybe 1.5 years from revenue. Of course, we now know what Parsons didn't tell us back in early 2019, that the company was more or less bust after betting everything on high risk exploration. Graham has had the thankless task of rescuing SOU from the abyss. That said, he's been sparing with the truth about the state of affairs. It wasn't very comforting to hear that the paltry $2.5m investor note this year put SOU in its "best financial position for three years".

What's really missing right now is a full and frank update on the microLNG project -- the dependencies, possible roadblocks, contingencies, and key milestone dates for every step of the process to first gas. Also, the balance sheet implications of what looks like a one-year-plus schedule slippage. SOU is clearly entirely dependent on the Calvalley deal proceeding, and was hoping for an advance of funds from them. That means there is an imminent funding gap. How's it going to be plugged? At what further dilution? Of course, if Calvalley doesn't come through SOU is once again bust. Even it if all works out, Phase 1 is worth ZERO on the share price. Actual value is still years away.

The current state of the share price is hardly a mystery under the circumstances. I know I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. I mostly bailed out 2.5 years ago to recover a tiny pittance from my investment. Incredibly, the SP has HALVED AGAIN since then. It is not "negative vibes" to observe that there's obviously nobody out there willing to plough a red cent into this turkey. Will things improve for shareholders? Not in the next couple of years. After that it depends on what further dilution has been suffered. Just my 2c, with no particular axe to grind, just a few years older and very belatedly wiser.