The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
You lot do realise that one of the largest shareholders is Newcrest and the proposed takeover by Newmont means that we are going to have the world's biggest gold miner and BHP as two of our biggest shareholders. Lest we forget Solgold is sat on one of the world's largest undeveloped copper/gold mines. Solgold also own the adjacent exploration rights around Warintza in Ecuador where Solaris Resources keep discovering more and more copper, its huge, they had yet another RNS yesterday.
Actually a takeover of Newcrest explains an awful lot of the interaction between GGP and Newcrest over the past 12 months. The approach from Newmont would have involved several months of talks and due diligence, Newcrest may have had other interest as well. This may explain why they walked away from purchasing the further 5% from GGP and haven't pursued a TO of GGP themselves at a time where there has been weakness in share price to take advantage of. No point Newcrest themselves trying to make acquisitions when they themselves are facing moves.
Agreed, it is too close to the next election. Worse still Novacyt manufacture their instruments in Sunak's constituency which may attract even more attention from the media. There will be a lot of pressure on DHSC to settle. But why has it got this far?
All is not quite lost. I recall Lynas Rare Earths when they were at a few cents, now several dollars, quite a turn around and they were literally on the brink of bankruptcy. And Taylor Wimpey too at 4p after the credit crunch, subsequently recovered to £2.25. Novacyt have no debt and a lot of cash, they just need to get to breakeven and build their revenue. They did well to take advantage of the covid outbreak at the outset but have the same sort of growing problems experienced by many small businesses. Im assuming the DHSC dispute is being covered by their products liability insurance. That isn't the only dispute DHSC are involved in, they had approved and endorsed Novacyt's products. This could be a very good recovery play.
No, it won't be a bloodbath. I'm expecting more of a damp squib or a wet fart. This is purely on the basis that all the weak hands and institutional investors have already sold up so I wouldn't expect a sudden deluge of panic stricken shareholders selling up. But this is Aim, so anything could happen. Incidentally, I think merger or takeover unlikely while the DHSC dispute is rumbling on. Biosynex considered it a possibility, but something has caused them to run for the hills.
Not really. There are about 10,000 visitors from China coming in on flights next week according to the Independent. If up to 20% are tested on arrival that is a maximum of 2000 tests a week. Compare that to the demand during mass testing of hundreds of thousands of tests a day. Given that the Chinese have now stopped mass PCR testing themselves the market will be awash with cheap tests kits. Will this transform Novacyt's fortunes? Absolutely not. Is it a return to mass testing? No.
1.2% copper from surface, it's in Ecuador, it's huge, it will be a super pit. https://solarisresources.com/news/press-releases/ but guess who owns the mineral rights on adjacent territory? - Solgold.
Junior mining shares follow the Lassonde curve. We are still in the orphan stage.... but this will come good as GGP are fully financed and the mine facilities (billions worth) are already there within trucking distance at Telfer.
I think he was a poor choice in the first place in that he does not appear to have much experience in diagnostics and also turning businesses around. But has he fallen on his sword because things are not going well?
What is Solgold worth though? In Cascabel you have one of the world's largest undeveloped copper mines, but also probably the biggest land package for exploration with a further pipeline of tier 1 prospects. £1 a share would be nice but is too high a multiplier from 19p. We need a bidding war with the likes of Rio and BHP slugging it out.
That's old news, Feb 2022. In fact the gold price hasn't done much, it is the collapse in the pound that has kept gold prices high here in the UK. The gold price is totally manipulated by the big banks. There may be 100 to 200 times more paper gold in the world than there is physical gold. The only point at which it will become apparent what the physical gold is really worth would be a major war. If you can't trade all that paper gold electronically, I suspect the real physical gold is worth considerably more than $10,000 an ounce and god knows how much gold mining shares would be worth in such a scenario.
If you have weak management, merging with or acquiring another business will not fix that; you just end up with a bigger mess run by the same clowns. Mullis should have been replaced with someone with experience growing a diagnostics business. It is now clear he left quite a mess behind and no long term strategy. I find it hard to believe, in fact I don't believe, shareholders voted for the executive pay package. Quite how it was passed then, doesn't bear thinking about. Did anyone here vote for a management pay rise given their exceptional performance? Any growing business has teething problems. It is a pity they do not have more big institutional holders to put management under more pressure. But in any event, the new guy, is not so new anymore and if he and the rest of the management team don't turn this around, and quickly, Novacyt will be the graveyard in which their executive careers end.
Sterling has been weakening for several months now, but over the last few days in has really started to tank. It can only get worse as the pound will be shorted. This is very bad as all commodities are priced in dollars. This will send inflation soaring higher. If the BOE intervene to support the pound, they will need to push interest rates to double figures. In reality, they should be 2.5% over inflation. The longer they leave things, the higher it will need to go. That, in economic terms, will be like doing an emergency stop on the motorway. Those in a lot of debt will be screwed, the property market will implode. And what of government debt repayments? They will be crippling at double digit interest rates. It is all about to get very nasty.
I thought it odd for Newmont Agnico to want the names of prospects changed and to remove references to actual geographical locations. I have never see that before, which makes me wonder whether field sampling has thrown up some interesting results. It also occurs to me that if they want a total news blackout, the only way to do that is buyout Omi at an early stage.
I reckon Biswas was thinking raising large sums of money is difficult and Greatland wouldn't be able to do it without massive dilution or extortionate terms. The 5% was pocket change for Newcrest but would have helped Greatland fund their share of development costs. If Greatland had not been able to raise their share of the development monies the share price would have collapsed and Newcrest could have picked up a real bargain. Classic battle between disciplined cash rich majors and junior explorers who have interesting assets but lack cash. Similar scenario going on with Solgold at the moment. Newcrest have a stake in Solgold along with BHP. Solgold recently tried to fund development of their mine but have struggled to get finance in place. That leaves it as a sort of stand off with Solgold unable to go it alone, and potential bidders waiting to see if they can pick up a tier 1 asset on the cheap if the share price collapses. It is all a game.