Member Info for scanda

All these RNSs are just confirmation of existing positions held yesterday at time of announcement, as per the takeover code Nonsense to say RBD have bought 4% of Deltic or Newlands bought RBD yesterday etc.

There are more to come in both companies and will be a bit tedious, not to mention misleading, to speculate on each one!

I think these are Deltic shareholders.

Interestingly David Newlands was the chairman of the aforementioned Touchstone at the time of the takeover approach by IP Group. IP's initial statement said:

"IP Group announces that it recently made an approach to the Board of Touchstone regarding a possible combination with Touchstone (the "Combination"). The Board of Touchstone rejected the proposed Combination...

The IP Group Directors consider that the Combination would create an international leader in IP commercialisation and an enlarged business with substantial capabilities that would be greater than the sum of the two parts. "

The FT summed it up thus:

"Unfortunately, amid all the medtech and the therapeutics and the whacky new materials and the bleeding edge engineering, Mr Newlands seems to have lost touch with who owns the business.

Back in April, Touchstone got a takeover offer from IP Group, the fellow university spin-out specialist founded by David Norwood back in the 90s. Mr Newlands and his colleagues rejected that, only to discover that Touchstone’s three largest shareholders — Invesco, Woodford and Lansdowne — didn’t want the bid rejected.

So Mr Newlands dug his heels in. There were no negotiations."

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2017/08/04/2192226/come-in-david-newlands-your-time-at-touchstone-is-up/

The takeover went ahead against the wishes of the Board because the largest shareholders wished it so.

An omen perhaps!

The other point about S+S being city types rather than oilies is it is worthwhile to consider the impact of their career contacts and connnections. Look at the DELT significant shareholders:

Key Shareholders
As at 30th June 2020:
IPGL (Michael Spencer) 16.8%
Canaccord 14.4% >(Marlborough UK Micro Cap Growth Retail Mutual Fund & Marlborough Nano-Cap Growth Fund Mutual Fund)
Lombard Odier 8.2%
Hargreaves Lansdown 8.1%
Janus Henderson Investors 6.7%
Fiske 4.5%
James Caird Asset Management 3.9%
SVM Asset Management 3.1%
Newlands Capital 3.1%

Obviously some of those will be individual clients eg HL, but there is very close to 50% made up of heavy hitting IIs. Given S+S past career activities and considerations for future career prospects there is no chance they are going try and swoop in and take out the assets of these investors on the cheap under their nose.

Ergo S&S have the blessing of the bulk of the shareholders to go ahead with this approach so I would not write off the whole idea on the basis of disparaging statements from the DELT board.

@Genghis, for sure there is well thought out strategy here - no way this is some sort of opportunistic play by S+S purely based on Deltics low mcap - I would be fairly confident this is being done at IPGL's behest.

I'd agree about sticking to the knitting if it turns out that IPGL is the opportunist and this is some sort of scheme to put a rocket under the Deltic SP/board - if that is the case it is just a distraction that RBD can do without.

But consider this from IPGLs point of view - Delt SP currently in the toilet. If RBD working with his approval and bid goes through at current offer/RBD sp, worst case scenario for him is he has a significant shareholding of a larger group that managed to buy the smaller groups assets on the cheap. Quite possibly he sees that as a greater risk/reward proposition.

Obviously the higher the RBD share price is the more attractive the offer is to any undecided shareholders who IPGL can bring round to their way of thinking.

Could we see IPGL start buying RBD shares in the market? Certainly he has the resources, and possibly the motivation. Assuming he is convinced by value of WN it seems a plausible strategy for him.

"Reabold is currently only minded to proceed with the Possible Offer on the pre-condition that a recommendation from the Board of Directors of Deltic (the "Deltic Board") is ultimately forthcoming. Following initial conversations with a number of Deltic's largest shareholders, Reabold had recently commenced preliminary discussions with Deltic to seek such a recommendation"

This sounds like a politely worded warning shot to the board: "We can do this the easy way or the hard way"

If my reading of this is correct and they pull it off, it will prove the value of having city types managing an O+G (investment) company, rather than O+G industry veterans. I hope so as that was the core of my investment thesis in the first place!

To me that RNS is thinly veiled and quite punchy.

Deltics largest shareholder is a self made billionaire City grandee who could buy and sell RBD for breakfast. He must be one of the shareholders S+S have had discussions with. And if he is on side then presumably his views will carry a lot of wait with the other major shareholders who own over 50% combined.

The Deltic BOD can unequivocally reject RBDs advances all they like - if the majority of the shareholders wish to proceed, they will do so. This is what happened with Touchstone a couple of years ago.

Of course, it could be that S+S are being played, and RBD is merely a useful vehicle to flush out a higher bid for Deltic.

Either way, something to keep the interest high while we wait for West Newton to progress!

I'm invested here and have been for about a year, reasonably large position as % of portfolio. And am jumpy about recent falls.

But whenever I think about selling, I keep coming back to my original investment case - I bought into their chat that attractive opportunities were available in derisked asks because there was not a lot of cash available for investment in the industry. The 'window' as they called it.

Surely WN is exactly this.

More cash required for testing because it is different to what they projected - bigger and better. Partners are cash strapped and there is delay whilst they all get their funding in place.

RBD have taken advantage of this opportunity to invest more cash in a further derisked asset. This is exactly what I invested for in the first place.

All the talk about majors in a bidding war seems a bit far off. Surely if this was already on the radar of an oil major they would have taken a big chunk of the 24m placing, i.e most of it. And we then we'd have a n RNS saying Moneybags Major is 25% shareholder in RBD?

This interview is very interesting - just look at the body language and facial expressions, particularly Sachin. He can barely stop himself grinning, like a kid who knows what he's getting for Christmas!

https://www.brrmedia.co.uk/broadcasts/5d6f83c42760173908009cda/reabold-resources-corporate-update

I remember an interview with S&S a few months ago when SP was in 0.6p-0.7p range, and when asked about any planned future investments, they basically they said at that point they would struggle to find a better O&G investment than RBD shares!

If share price continues to be slow to react perhaps they will announce buybacks!

Agreed, it seems to me that both WN and Parta are now as derisked as you can get in as far as both have confirmed gas discoveries in excess of initial expectations. Yet the share price remains a fraction of the value ascribed to even the initial pre drill assessments of these two assets.

Something does not add up. Any ideas?!

@Harry - so that would suggest a book value for RBD of £1.43 billion?!!

So approx 25% of West Newton. If talk of 125 million barrels of oil is confirmed in forthcoming CPR, then correct me if I am wrong but RBD is looking at £250 million book value on WN alone?

Can somebody remind me again what does RBDs equity share of Rathlin equate to % share of West Newton?

Notes from the community liason meeting December 2017, discussing the planning permission and conditions:

"Temporary road closures have been applied for around the site for an 18-month period"

Seems possible to me Rathlin applied for the 18 month closures in the initial planning application, should they be needed for extended testing. Hence the response "this had already been approved." And also possible Rathlin suggested at last nights meeting they might be intending to use that permission.

Full document at http://www.frackfreeeastyorkshire.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/2017-12-06-Rathlin-Community-Liaison-Committee-Meeting-WN.pdf

Thats what I would hope yes.

An IPO they know is coming down the tracks would be good news.

If there was any chance that RBD were receiving $5m + year net cashflow from California, I cannot think of any reason why S&S would not confirm that in an RNS. We've heard a lot about the fast route to monetisation, already in production etc etc, but nothing on a $ figure flowing into the bank account. That worries me slightly if I am honest.

I am heavily invested here but not blindly so, and in fairness to Persimmon, the RNS from 13th November you linked says:

"There are several regulatory approvals and notifications still required before the consenting process is completed for the wells. When all the necessary approvals have been obtained, the wells will be drilled as a back-to-back programme using the ENSCO-72 Jack-Up rig and, subject to the approvals being in place, Corallian will commence the programme with the drilling of the Wick well during December 2018. Following completion of the Wick well, the rig will be mobilised from the Moray Firth to the English Channel to drill the Colter well."

Clearly the last RNS to deal with the approvals required said that subsequent necessary approvals needed to be obtained.

I am hopeful that as that RNS suggested Wick required further approvals and Wick has already gone ahead that these were granted and hopefully Colter approvals at the same time. But that's my optimistic reading between the lines. I certainly have not seen anything definitive in an RNS.

There has been a lot of talk about immediate cashflow from VG3 and VG4. Certainly VG3 should be producing by now.

Surely they should put out an RNS with some sort of info on net cash to RBD?