Member Info for Retireby40

Good post SB - and Zaza certainly has put a lot of energy and charisma into the last 12 months Re SN I understand from informal conversations that he really is doing the Non Exec Chair role - helping in the background but leaving the CEO to act with full authority. I am equally certain that there was always a plan here - but it could only be executed once the political backdrop had moved forward. I also think it would be wrong to assume that they are overly close - SN was as you say always the dominant force simply by way of his overwhelming share holding. Worth highlighting that ZM was only appointed a director 3 years ago - and there was clearly a battle going on behind the scenes regarding the politics. Whilst PSA issues obviously remain the April/May/June period last year marked a turning point that led to ZM being appointed CEO. Behind the scenes certain forces were trying to prevent development of the gas in particular, and what we now see is an explosion of energy that could only be released once that block had been at least reduced, if not removed altogether. Zaza in my view is the right man at the right time The clues abound - Atlantic Council, US Senators/Congressman/resolutions, meetings with presidents and PMs, European Energy Compliance, the SOCAR influence, key RNS and MOE statements etc etc Re the gas - update must be close. On Tuesday Zaza was asked to give just three reasons why investors should follow FRR. He said: 1 - because of the great resource potential 2 - because of FRR knowledge/expertise/infrastructure 3 - because of the "the very good gas potential"? Good weekend to one and all

I was pretty pleased how the week ended and started to reflect on Zaza leadership since he took full control and how FRR has developed/evolved under him. Now, a lot of people have said that he was part of SN's team from the start so he should share some of the blame for FRR historical shortcomings. I don't think that is entirely fair. Why? Well, I think SN was the dominant decision maker but since Zaza took control, his management approach to operations, finances and shareholders has been a complete contrast to SN's way of doing things. To me this says he has been given full control. So let us look at his approach very closely: 1) led from the front in participating in 3 fund raising since last September, 2) has represented FRR in a number of high profile O&G conferences and has done at least a dozen TV interviews, podcasts and investor gatherings. 4) he has said no more death spiral financing and wants to see the back of YA, so true to his word, he arranged Niko funding creatively thus avoiding dilution and Georgian Govt intervention. Operationally, he replaced a desk guy (Gerry Bono) with a field guy (Dustin Aro) and methodically started the drilling campaign on oil and gas wells. Over the next few weeks, he will finally bring all four wells in to production, oilx3 plus 1x Gas. On the gas, I think we are due an update and maybe this is what Malcy was hinting in his blog yesterday. But Zaza's job is far from done and he needs to arrange financing for Phase 2 of Taribani campaign. With YA debt falling away, i think more financing options will become available. If he can secure say $15m for another 5 wells, I think we will be self financing to roll out the other 250-wells ourselves. Thusfar, he has done a good job raising new money so worth reiterating what he has achieved since September 2017: raised £3m in October from PB, again £2.5m from PB in Feb, plus £1.5m from an Institutional Investor at the same time and now £3m for Niko. In between, they've collected over $2m from the Turkish contractor. So, if you include the contractors money, over the past 6 months, FRR has invested around £8-9m in Georgia and completed 4 wells. Not bad for a lil old company plus he has managed to reduce the YA debt to just £2.8m although this was excruciating painful with monthly dilutions, which probably impacted operations, distracted management time and hurt investor sentiment. Hopefully this sad phase in FRR's history is nearly over. The wild card remains UD, but they seem to be very cagey about it. In my view it is still 'alive and kicking' as Zaza mentioned it in his last podcast as 'in testing' and Malcy also mentioned it in his blog. So what's holding this up? Politics? Farmout? Or more rudimentary like EWT? JMO

hottrader77, the AR that will be published in June will be on figures from Jan 1st to Dec 31st 2017 so no it won’t include T-45 or Dino-2’s revenues. The interim report (Jan to June) due in Sept may show some of it but 45 days payment terms it won’t show a grat deal although H2 should do.

If it was them they’d also have to publish in an RNS.

This is actually an extremely good RNS. The shorters and derampers were warning us of a placing, which was a fair assumption under the circumstances. However, this RNS has shown that not only is there good institutional investor support for the company, but that Zaza is also able to think outside the box when it comes to funding streams. As others have alluded to, management is heavily invested in the company so would also want to minimise dilution. How many other AIM companies have this sort of alignment with PI concerns? I see shorters like WShak have tweeted about this investor probably being some sort of 'death-spiral outfit' - he obviously doesn't have a clue about the meaning of 'death-spiral' in this context. Shorters just clutching at straws when a good RNS is delivered...... sad they have no balance. Makes them all the less credible..... The one thing I would say, however, is that FRR will only get 30% profit stream of Niko-1 after payback, as we are still bound by 51/49 profit-oil share contract with Georgian govt. But remember that is only AFTER we get our $400 million payback from them for costs incurred. So getting this well online and revenue-generating ASAP is good thinking from Zaza as one of our first few producing wells, and further deals like this will only help the company in the early years while we're still owed these back costs. Well done Zaza! Next is the YA issue. We do have $2.8 mill to pay back in about a month. Zaza has known about this for some time and reiterated at the investor meeting that he was not going to allow further dilution with share conversion. I have a strong feeling we are going to get a 'bonanza' Ud-2 gas update within the next 2-3 weeks. I don't believe he wants to 'drip-feed' news about the gas until he gets excellent flow rates and then possibly some sort of JV, which all takes time wrt stimulation and extended testing. That would rocket the SP and then even if he had to do a primary bid to pay off YA, that would not be an issue at an SP of > 1p. However, we should have some funds already available with the $2 million arbitration award received as well as income from the oil wells already online, so hopefully some money already in the 'bank' to help pay most of this off. I am therefore not too concerned about this issue. Lastly, we have to give credit to Zaza and the team for success so far in the Taribani 3-well venture. Many were quick to discredit him when he had delayed Ud-2 news, so I think for balance we have to give credit where it is due (including massive credit for financing the Niko-1 well without further dilution! - this is being very underestimated in terms of today's SP reaction!) Forget about our historical delays and failures (which the derampers keep referring to), over the last year we have seen a new company develop and I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks with Ud-2 news. My only assumption on why the Georgian govt came up with this tenuous PSC arbitratio

For Niko and any additional wells thereafter. The current campaign is funded so all revenues going into the coffers.

Wow, under 5% and we were paying 15% for RPNs and 10% for CLNs are we still are. Anyway, look forward not back. Hopefully the testing demonstrates the decline rate isn’t a killer and the stabilised after decline is 200+bopd. That and booking 1P reserves should open up more avenues to finance.

I get your points but if it were on financing just 2 wells and that only I don’t see an issue. Once they get their investment back they have a small % of revenue which is taxed by the Georgian gov so keeps them happy.

As I said if they want to fund 2 wells and have a % of the revenue that would work for me, just those 2 wells though. I’m not sure how that would work with the cost recovery pool but I guess some kind of agreement could be reached. That would mean less dilution and perhaps current oil revenues could pay off YA over the course of 6 months or less.

Indeed it does. Jock doesn’t look in here as much as he used to. Bored of it and who can blame him. It should look different come end of June. For the better I hope!

Hi mate, only thing is an email from the AiM team re the cancelled trades. Hopefully RNSs soon and with an update on T-45 and Dino-2 flow to quieten the shorters up.

A great find but given the case study was from 3 years ago if it was on B12 it didn’t yield much oil, or rather FRR didn’t sell any more than usual looking at the accounts. Where else would it be? Hopefully it’s worked a treat on T-45, Dino-2 and soon to be T-39, sounds impressive. Need on T-39 and Niko permits any day. Possibly ud-2 as well.

Blimey, maybe to pay for Niko and the other well which would be $5.8m ish and they can have a share. FRR want to run things so get another minnow’s money. Doesn’t sound too bad!l as no dilution and a % of those 2 wells’ revenue.

£6m cash won’t do too much and the Georgian gov wouldn’t want another minnow in with FRR.

If that was a success 3 years ago in Georgia who was it with? Surely notnus looking at revenues up to this year.

That sounds very positive but that was from 3 years ago?! Where exactly did they do that?!

Honored to keynote the Second Annual #US-#Georgia Strategic Partnership Conference "100 Years of Georgia's First Republic" hosted by @USIP @Heritage & @GeorgianEmbassy

We need to write to the Regulatory Complaints department at the London Stock Exchange and sadly no email but a letter. Need to provide evedence too. http://www.londonstockexchange.com/traders-and-brokers/rules-regulations/making-complaint/how-to-complain.htm

They should have said how many barrels ha e been produced on initial flow and now stabalised over how many days and it’s being loaded and will be sold to market. Given FRR’s history they need to spell this stuff out.

Spurs are good at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, let’s hope FRR is different. I’m more confident now than I have been. We’re actually generating meaningful revenues, should be cash positive for the first time since being established (like most exploration cos), balance sheet better albeit CLNs but the possibility of 1P reserves by YE to improve further and gas is not priced in by the m market so lots of upside. T-39 RNS soon and hopefully ud-2 not too far away.