The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
RK that seems quite punchy loading up on POLY before seeing what any sanctions might look like, if they come. I know they say buy on the sound of cannon fire, but the cannons haven't even started firing yet.
I agree though, I think PMs should go higher if it all kicks off. They seem to be a bit like catapults, they need to be drawn back first before launching forwards rapidly. I think it's just selling for liquidity when other markets are tanking that causes gold to drop alongside equities at first, then hopefully off it goes in the opposite direction... Although I am a bit disappointed that silver's breakout from the end of last week seems to have been bashed on the head.
Not worried about anything Solg specific, I don't think this drop has anything to do with lack of news, the CEO, the colour of their wellies or anything like that. Think it's just a case of being caught in the downdraft of the wider markets.
Yes there must be situations sometimes where as a result of a corporate action, shareholders receive something that isn't ISA eligible... you would hope you'd get the option to have your broker sell whatever it was on receipt and deposit the cash into your ISA, otherwise it would be unfair in terms of the tax treatment. Anyway, hopefully not a situation we will have to worry about with Solg.
BHP shares will continue to be listed on London under a standard listing after the consolidation of the dual listing structure. It will just lose its premium listing on London, and the Australian listing will be the primary listing. So we should still be able to hold BHP shares in our ISAs. No reason they would become ineligible.
Hi Damers - yes agreed, in an article about BHP's push to get M&A deals done the mention of "its years long chase of the copper developer" is very good. It's a shame though that they framed it in reference to internal squabbles, which makes Solg sound a bit of a mess imho.
Anyone interested in the energy transition/electrification theme and looking for copper plays should have Solgold top of their watchlist. Not only does it have a huge Tier 1 resource but it's also a prime target for a takeover by the likes of BHP, coming fresh off the back of the Noront fireworks which resulted in a massive uplift for their shareholders. This is exactly the kind of high reward junior investors should be looking at with anticipation.
Would be great if Solg and their advisors could get that message out there! Enough of the boardroom shenanigans and public spats, Solg needs to get on people's radars as a prime copper play in a booming copper market, not as a messy small cap with governance issues.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/bhp-revives-appetite-for-deals-with-biggest-rivals-in-sights-1.1709236
Looks like they have some much bigger beasts in their sights. Solgold gets a slightly disparaging mention near the end...
"BHP has also been dragged into internal squabbles at SolGold Plc during its years-long chase of the copper developer."
I've seen it stated on various occasions over the last year or so that there are long lab delays and assays are taking months to come back in some cases. Considering we just had the Christmas holidays and also that normal working patterns are once again being disrupted by the Omicron wave, I don't think it's surprising that more assay results are taking a long time to materialise. I'm not reading anything into it other than that.
I just think that the SP isn't going up materially because nothing has happened to materially increase the value of the company. Obviously the drills are turning and more resources are being added at Porv, TAM etc, but as of today Solg has no way to access those resources because it doesn't have funding to do so. Every oz of gold added to the total represents what, $1,000+ of cost to extract it? Solg is basically valued at the current discounted value of what's in the ground at Alpala, plus a little bit for all the rest. To me it seems like what will materially increase the value of the company on a fundamental level is 1) derisking of Alpala in the form of PFS so that the discount is reduced, and 2) a clear financing plan so the prospect of turning the resources in the ground into profits can be values. In the absence of those, Solg's SP bumps along.
The outside factors of course are speculative excitement, usually after a new discovery such as 40p after first Porv results, or anticipation of an imminent bid. These probably drive the swings up and down within the range as anticipation builds and then ebbs away again. Until that bid comes in, we don't know what another party really values the resources at, so the SP is just left reflecting their discounted value in Solg's hands as of today.
Yes I agree, it's extremely unlikely that Solg will take Alpala all the way to production on their own. Someone will buy the company outright, or each discovery will be sold off/JV'ed or something. I just don't think that a "secret deal" has been done in the background and it is rumbling on secretly for all this time... if they have agreed terms, why not just make the offer and get it done. Or announce whatever it is and allow shareholders to get the true picture of what is happening.
Just feels to me that even if we all agree an offer will come, it hasn't been agreed yet and as of today everyone is working to the plan as publicly stated.
Also there are a lot of examples of negotiated/agreed takeovers that clearly aren't in the best interests of the shareholders but which will enrich the current management through contractual bonuses etc, it's obvious what the incentives are. I am hoping that in Solg's case, Mather has such a lot of skin in the game in terms of his share holding that his incentives are actually much more aligned with ours and not just to agree the quickest, cheapest takeover possible to pocket his bonus. While he is still able to exert some degree of influence at board level I hope this means any takeover figure that might be recommended by the board will be way north of the current share price. Although of course this could also just be my wishful thinking.
Damers, I see what you mean but then why would they have even appointed Darryl as CEO in the first place if a deal was being negotiated to sell the company to BHP? They spent the better part of a year looking for a new CEO, why waste that time and effort if the board was negotiating a friendly buyout? Darryl has many skills on his CV but I don't think being parachuted into a company specifically to negotiate a takeover is one of them. In fact that sort of role is normally taken by a chairman isn't it? For example, look at Sir Nigel Rudd's career of coming in to chair companies and then selling them off.
I know some people will say well DC is BHP's man and they wanted him in so that he could run Alpala for them after they buy Solg out, but really to me the whole thing seems way too complicated and elaborate. If BHP were so keen to buy Solg at a price they can agree now, I think they would have. Seems to be a lot of wishful thinking behind people's views here. Occam's razor would suggest the reality is as stated, Solg are trying to fend off takeover offers and they appointed Darryl for his expertise in financing and managing major underground mining projects, which is what they intended him to do at Solgold.
Covgaz (and slug), honestly I don't know. Could well be someone trying to lower the closing price. But my point is, if that is the case, it will be some prop shop or hedge fund doing it, not BlackRock. And not any other long only fund either.
Equally, it could be dealers and market makers just wanting to offload shares at the end of day to make sure they don't exceed overnight position limits. Market makers make their money on the spread remember, they are interested in taking price risk on the name.
Colonel. That's hardly the gotcha you think it is. It should be obvious from my posts that I work in financial services. Anyone working in markets for any large bank will have BlackRock as a client, they are everyone's client just as they are everyone's largest shareholder because frankly they are massive. It's no surprise that I have dealt with them over the years.
As usual on this board when anyone who actually works in finance at the moment (and not in the 70s and 80s) posts about markets based on their own experience, there are many people who would rather stick their fingers in their ears and say la la la I know best it's all a big conspiracy and the share is being manipulated.
Smith trader, spot on.
"Blackrock are likely working for BHP in same way Citi are working for SOLG. Standard stuff."
Colonel that's a ridiculous statement and you clearly don't understand the difference between the buy side and the sell side. Citi are an investment bank. Blackrock are an asset manager. Also having had various dealings with them over the years I can assure you that Blackrock are not doing BHP's or anyone else's bidding.
And no I don't work for BlackRock if that's what you're implying. I just find the constant scaremongering and conspiracy theories irritating because they perpetuate a lot of emotionally charged nonsense about how markets work.
SharketMare, you are right.
Blackrock has $9.5 trillion of AUM. If you really think they are wasting their time attempting to pin tiny little Solgold's share price down so be it. I'd rather confront my own decisions to buy and hold a share that the market generally is not buying (yet) rather than blame our lack of performance on some dark market forces working against us. Also, if they did have the ability to magically control the share price, which they don't, surely the better strategy would be to keep pushing the price up, not down. Either an acquirer would then have to pay more to buy the company, or Solg would be able to raise more capital from a position of strength with less dilution for existing holders, Blackrock included and perhaps actually achieve the goal of producing and unlocking greater value.
Why do they buy and sell? Rebalancing, index tracking, and due to fund inflows and outflows, I assume.