Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
I am stating that CAG has no market-sensitive information. The information it does have has been obtained from the public domain. Insiders such as COPL directors have access to a variety of information that CAG does not have access to. An example of a routine communication is CAG sending a request for a GM and then COPL's legal team acknowledging receipt of this request. The CAG is effectively an interface between COPL and a group of shareholders. It is not 'an insider'.
CAG is not party to any inside information. CAG is party to information it has spent countless hours retrieving from the public domain and collating this information. Not all of what has been collated has been distributed so far. What happens over the next few hours will likely determine which way enquiries go next.
Another area to investigate is the Annual Reports of these companies. Who are the directors? What are their credentials and how much is their remuneration? How are they being incentivised? Can they effectively sign blank cheques?
But wait, dear reader, the eagle-eyed amongst you would have spotted one winner! Argo Blockchain with plus 30% since its July raise last year.
Marco D’Attanasio, yes, the very same gentleman who is CEO at Hadron Capital and who sits alongside our very own Thomas Richardson at Fenikso was a director at Argo Blockchain between 21 July 2020 and 29 July 2021. An RNS in July 2020 said that Hadron held 13,548,000 Argo shares at the time. The Argo share price at the time was 3.75p. When Mr D’Attanasio resigned as a director on 29 July 2021, the share price had risen to 132p or over 3400% more. Since then, it has gone down by 85%. I have no idea why, dear reader, do you? How could that be?
Peter Krens has been busy for his employer over the last couple of years. He and his colleagues at Tennyson have a list of the deals they claim to have completed between Jan 2022 and Jan 2024 on their website which you can freely review (at least for now).
Here is selection for you in chronological order. First of each month has been used through to 6 March 2024. The only ones not included are private companies where the data is hard to find (Osmatic), overseas ones for the same reason (Tag oil) and one where the company symbol is hard to decipher (G). If you can find the data on these, please come forward with it.
Incidentally, it seems like the going rate for financing is about 6% commission payable. It is difficult to tell as there is not full cost and charges disclosure as per regulated investment business in the UK so it could be higher or lower than this. At COPL the figure of 6% was referred to along with warrants awarded. There could be fees paid addition.
1. Jan 2022 CYBA $8 million deal. Sole Broker. Share price since then? Minus 21%
2. Mar 2022 Europa Oil & Gas $9 million deal. Joint Broker. Share price since then? Minus 64%
3. April 2022 COPL $13 million deal. Sole Broker. Share price since then? Minus 99.6%
4. May 2022 i3Energy $20 million deal. Joint Broker. Share price since then? Minus 68%
5. May 2022 Streaks 3% Market Cap. Sole Broker. Share price since then? Minus 79%
6. July 2022 COPL $20 million deal. Joint Broker. Share price since then? Minus 99.8%
7. November 2022 Streaks $4 million deal. Sole Broker. Share price since then? Minus 79%
8. November 2022, We Cap $4 million deal. Sole Broker. Share price since then? Minus 45%
9. Feb 2023 Diversified Energy $ 163 million deal. Joint Bookrunner. Share price since then? Minus 57%
10. Mar 2023 COPL. $12 million deal. Joint Broker. Share price since then? Minus 99.1%
11. March 2023 Beacon Energy. $7 million deal. Joint Broker. Share price since then? Minus 73%
12. May 2023 Block Energy. $2 million deal. Sole Broker. Share price since then? Minus 24%
13. July 2023 Argo Blockchain. $12 million deal. Joint Broker. Share price since then? Plus 30%
14. Sept 2023 Beacon Energy. $5 million deal. Sole Broker. Share price since then? Minus 77%
15. November 2023 Southern Energy. $5 million deal. Sole Broker. Share price since then? Minus 47%
16. Dec 2023 WeCap. $1.4 million deal. Sole Broker. Share price since then? Minus 11%
17. Jan 2024 Argo Blockchain. $10 million deal. Sole Broker. Share price since then? Minus 50%
Pretty much a Sea of Red for the share prices then. Of course, we don’t know what the Tennyson remuneration was for their part in the raisings but just supposing it was 6%, the above would be around $17.7 million commission over 2 years to Tennyson whilst the shareholders of the companies who raised these funds had to deal with the above. For guidance, the MSCI World Index with dividend reinvested was around plus 7% over the same period.
Great post first thing RBM. Keeps it real.
CAG is aware of many life tragedies as a result of the behaviour you all know about. Things that can't be undone. Also, many of those involved continue to suffer and, for a variety of reasons, are unable to help themselves currently. It has been and will continue to be the duty of CAG to represent those people as part of an overall quest to achieve a fair outcome for all small COPL shareholders. Thank you for reminding us RBM. A great start to the day. Let's get working and find something new on the protagonists.
If you review Tennyson’s website, they have a section which provides a selection of companies with which either Tennyson or Mirabaud was involved in raising finance.
There are 30 or so companies listed. Some are private, some overseas, some have been taken over and some have gone bankrupt.
I spent some time reviewing all these companies and their share prices since Tennyson/Mirabaud got involved.
I could find no example of a share price that had done really well. Several had done very badly or the business had become insolvent. I estimate that the cumulative figure for all the data I could find was around minus 58%. That startled me bearing in mind the underlying markets over the last few years and how strong they have been. Risk/return is part and parcel but I couldn’t find any strong return.
I would like to know much more amount how businesses such as Tennyson are remunerated and how this remuneration is disclosed.
At COPL, did Tennyson receive remuneration for introducing Anavio and Thomas Richardson or did Tennyson have a fixed fee with COPL? How is Tennyson incentivised if indeed it is?
The salt in the wound presently is COPL's share price is down 99.97% since 9 March 2021 - the day of Tennyson's appointment as the Company's joint broker.
As we know, Thomas Richardson remains Chairman of COPL notwithstanding the shocking events during Q4 2023 overseen by Mr Richardson in this role which have continued into 2024.
What do we know about his past? Here’s an example drawn from public records.
He was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Nostrum Oil & Gas on 1 September 2016 NB: Mr Richardson had provided ‘Corporate Finance Services’ to Nostrum since 2011. He left Nostrum on 31 March 2020.
How much did he earn during his time at Nostrum? He was there for 43 months and over that time he earned £2,128,915 so just under £50,000 a month. (How much do you earn per month, dear reader?)
Part of Mr Richardson’s remuneration was a $100,000 bonus awarded in 2017 for ‘outstanding performance in connection with the refinancing of the Group’s outstanding debt’. That’s a good bonus so what was the basis of the refinancing?
It was a five year note for $725 million and 8% coupon. Give or take, Nostrum had to pay $58 million a year for 5 years then pay back the $725 million. Total payment: $1.015 billion. There would have been fees as well of course. How much were those fees? Who was the broker? Peter Krens of Mirabaud Securities.
Was 8% a year for 5 years a good deal? Bank of England Base Rate was between 0.25% and 0.75% per year over the whole 5-year period so not much on a cumulative basis. Surprisingly, the cumulative performance of median corporate bond returns over the period was about the same so not much there either.
Why was that refinancing deal so good then? So good that it was worthy of that bonus for Mr Richardson?
We could ask Atul Gupta who was Chairman of Nostrum at the time, the very same Atul Gupta who was appointed non-executive director by COPL under Chairman Tom Richardson’s watch on 2 November 2023 but resigned suddenly just over 2 months later on 18 January 2024.
Mr Richardson was paid almost £50,000 a month during his time at Nostrum acting as Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
How did the company’s shares do during that period?
Nostrum shares lost just under 98% of their value during Mr Richardson’s period of service as CFO.
What about COPL? He was appointed first on 20 April 2023 and then as Chairman on 9 Sept 2023. COPL’s share price since then is down just under 99% on both counts.
COPL and its shareholders deserve more. Mr Richardson should resign and resign now. To the best of our knowledge, he didn’t own shares in Nostrum and doesn’t own shares in COPL. We don’t know how much he earns at COPL (now that he has disclaimed any right to his bond!) but it is likely to be commensurate with other figures we have seen from COPL accounts and with his Nostrum remuneration.
COPL must have a new Chairman – one who will willingly align his/her prosperity with that of the Company rather than own few/no shares and be paid a hefty salary and bonus. It needs a new Corporate Broker too. Mr Krens, now of Tennyson Securities, remains in place. Why i
With respect Jazzy, those are your opinions which you are perfectly entitled to, of course, but they are not facts.
Starting at the end and going backwards, COPL does indeed exist currently. Among other things, Peter Kravitz is interim CEO and a requisition to hold a General Meeting of the Company has recently been made.
The CAG is extremely active on many fronts. It is well resourced and extremely determined. Pursuing legal solutions is one element of CAG's work on behalf of small shareholders.
Shares issued by a company can be bought back by a company.
There are plenty of options available. Please see above.
Anavio are able to take executive action and reset the price of bonds/ cancel warrants or some combination thereof should they wish to do so. Perhaps they would say that they took their initial decision to reduce the subscription price based on information provided to them by John Cowan (resigned as CEO) Ryan Gaffney (resigned) Atul Gupta (resigned) and Thomas Richardson (in office but for how long?). Resetting could help Anavio reduce the scope for claims based on crystallised losses and is therefore a credible option and perhaps even a desirable one in relation to Anavio managing its business risk.
COPL has P2 reserves of around 40 million barrels of oil with a value of around $490 million – see link to RNS below. Of course, Fed Deep and other valuable assets COPL owns are in addition. Could this be why a) such a battle has been going on between the parties b) why such a prominent restructuring officer has been appointed to a company which, on the face of it, is a tiny, failing oil business?
We will soon have more news. Remember the words of Andy Dufresne to Red in Shawshank Redemption Jazzy ' Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies'.
https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/COPL/significant-increases-in-reserves-and-values-249f0dpnhnq3qbn.html
Good afternoon all,
A Nigerian executive has been in contact with the group and wishes to help us with our enquiries having heard and read about our travails at COPL
The person did not wish to discuss matters on the telephone so a member of our group is now travelling to Lagos, Nigeria on 12 March 2024 for a face to face meeting. This is an exciting new development that can only help us with our efforts to out any wrong doing at COPL and do everything we can no matter how long it takes to achieve a fair outcome for shareholders who rightly feel they have been misled and treated so badly over the last 6 months or so. The executive asked that identity is not revealed at this stage.
I am asking for trust that more information will be revealed the moment it is available, has been lawfully obtained and can be released without breaking any rules or laws. We all have to distinguish our opinions from facts. There are many possible outcomes from here and these include legal challenges via Class Actions and other methods.
I think you are bang on absolutely right to highlight this point Lloyd. As I've said before, how absurd it looks that a megahitter like PK has been parachuted in to a minnow no-hoper like COPL (As depicted by Tommy). It's like a 'pregnant pause' now isn't it? Not just BFSU but these wells, CC, the JV. A coiled spring. Call it what you like. Busted flush Tommy. Just go and take Cowan with you and your stories too. We want the truth and we will have the truth even if it takes years.
Https://www.ghd.com/en-gb/insights/what-does-the-inflation-reduction-act-mean-for-carbon-capture-and-sequestration
Mr Richardson,
As Chairman of COPL, why have you never commented via RNS about the fantastic opportunity COPL could have not only to use CO2 for EOR and thus save massively on NGL cost but also to then enjoy huge tax breaks as described in the attached? Moreover, ExxonMobil now own Denbury and has a large CO2 pipeline within 25 miles of our property. The opportunities are fabulous and could last decades. Mr Richardson, why have you never highlighted the key and critical points identified here? They are tangible and clear. Why have you not done that and why do you instead go on and on about COPL having such little value? Why have you done that? What is your motivation?
Yes Lloyd, I've looked at the data over many years from WOGCC very carefully myself and I think you're right. If anything, a bit conservative in my view. The Jan 2024 production was just super based on the shameful neglect shown by you know who. The GGS looks excellent. A really good piece of work. Also, I whole-heartedly agree with your sentiment. We all knew investing means risk and so on when we invested but we have been misled in a way that makes us think that those that did this think we are foolish. Dead wrong. Bad call. We'll fight on for years and years if need be.