Member Info for skittish

Chrispye84, sorry to disagree but that isn't how I see it. The 237M shares are not for the tranche cash, but compensation for earlier purchases at 0.4p when the market price of the shares was lower.

The RNS of 6th August 2019 stated "In addition, the Company has also today agreed to settle with the Investor the remaining amounts due that were outstanding under the previous financing agreement entered into with the Investor, by entering into a deed of settlement ("Deed of Settlement"). This will involve the issue of Ordinary Shares to the Investor on the following basis:
· 237,827,207 Ordinary Shares are to be issued to the Investor on the sixth trading day following the entering into of the Deed of Settlement;"

The key words are " the remaining amounts due that were outstanding under the previous financing agreement". There are some more shares to come as ICON does not presently have authority to issue more, and their number and price will depend on the share price following a GM.

Then the RNS of 16th August confirmed that those 237M shares had been issued.

The Q&A of the same date confirmed that after the share issue EHGOSF was down to 5.79% as they had pre sold the shares - that was pretty obvious as volume had reached 500M in the days prior and the share price collapsed to in the region of its present 0.13p, and hasn't recovered since.

To issue the warrants and any remaining settlement shares the company will send a prospectus to the UKLA by 6th November and issue it to shareholders for a GM by 6th February 2020.

EHGOSF are locked in on their 70M until 17th October. They say they want to be a long term shareholder, but their track record suggests they bail almost as soon as they can.

Following the GM EHGOSF will get warrants attached to the £1.375M loan notes. Their price can't be determined as yet.

ICON has recently done three stonking deals and the result has been to cut the share price in half. I'm sure this is due to lack of clarity on the eventual number of shares to be issued.

I'm hoping that ICON will be able to refinance the EHGOSF deal in the relatively near term - I guess it all depends on how many £25K per month retainers they can acquire, so maybe the warrants will never be issued - here's hoping.

I think once there is clarity on the eventual number of shares actually in issue, post financing the shares will rise significantly.

LinkedIn still lists them as having only 7 employees, so I wouldn't have thought expenses are much north of £1M to £2M at present. If they can draw in £120K cash per month they could be at break even. They maybe half way to that now depending on how much of the £1M contract is in shares or cash.

We have a really strong team here. After a slow start they are showing what they can do. The MCM deal says it all - they put in their expertise and get 24% of a cash rich company worth possibly £10M-£20M - valuation based on a 2017 deal.

Here's hoping for a few more deals

Well, I for one am sad that DS is leaving.

I think the decision was taken a few months ago when the excruciating RNS's came out relating to ATOG and EHGOSF. They made agonising reading and must have been even more painful to write.

DS had become the story and that is never good when you are trying to run a company.

Certainly there were errors of substance and of presentation, and the shares are close to joining the 90% club post IPO.

So the GM was his swansong, and following an RNS opening a new chapter in the AAOG journey, it was time to go. Standard story telling stuff.

Quite a few on here remarked how the 5th August RNS had been written by JB (different style, different emphasis), so I think DS was already taking a back seat by then.

I know few will agree, but DS has actually brought the company to a really good place (albeit not reflected in the share price) and this will be reflected in events over the coming months.

We are in a really (really, really) sweet spot both geologically and geographically.

The bit in the annual report about the prospects for the company being very different at the end of 2019 from what they are today isn't just hyperbole.

Views on DS's legacy will, I'm sure, improve over time.

He wasn't perfect, made some mistakes, and maybe more suited to a backroom role rather than smooth talking front of house, but a small matter of the share price aside, he has left AAOG in a really (really, really) good place.

So maybe time to go anyway.

PS. Executives are full time, non execs part time.

I'm somewhat surprised that the Iconic Labs/MCM/The Tab deal hasn't generated more interest generally.

In fact apart from a few very specialist publications it has generated almost no interest whatsoever.

Iconic Labs appear to have got their hands on 24% of The Tab in return for their expertise at £25K per month and a loan of £150K.

It says quite something about their expertise when they are able to pull off such a deal with what appears to be relative ease.

Iconic Labs director Richard Thompson is obviously the money man behind the deal. I speculated earlier that The Tab could well be worth £10-£20 million (possibly higher).

So how is that to be paid? Is Richard Thompson up to raising that amount of money?

I think so.

This is his mother and father taken from this years Sunday Times Rich List.

"174= DAVID AND PATRICIA THOMPSON
Food and Horseracing
£800m ?£70m
Thompson, 83, and his wife Patricia, 79, saved Cheveley Park Stud from bankruptcy more than 40 years ago and today Newmarket’s oldest breeding operation is in fine fettle. Former Smithfield market meat trader Thompson made his first fortune through the Hillsdown food group, selling half his stake for £145m in 1987 and the rest for a similar amount later. We see total assets in four separate family companies of £264.4m, up £67.6m in a year.
2018: £730m, 187="

So no problems with raising cash there.

And Richard Thompson of course has his own wealth and business interests with an estimated value in the tens of £ millions.

I suspect Social Alchemist was purchased for its platforms and the skills of Jono Yates ex LADBible (did he also fall out with them, or just decide to go alone; and what has Iconic offered to persuade him to go with them, rather than simply his own very successful operation?), GayTimesNews I think was simply opportunistic, but The Tab appears to take Iconic into a whole new world of opportunity including the United States.

This site

https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/thetab.com

shows that 31% of traffic comes from the UK, 27% from the US and 16% from India. The Tab is effectively an international platform.

GayStarNews actually has an even bigger presence in the US with 43% of traffic coming from there, although the figures are now going all squiffy as the site hasn't been operational for 6 weeks.

So I suspect that Iconic Labs are building something of considerable size and reach here, much more than Unilad on steroids.

All this has been swamped, news wise, by the legacy issues and EHGOSF share funding, so most investors have effectively switched off, and the share price actually fell post deal.

But it will only be a matter of time before Iconic is recognised as having huge potential.

PS. The 237M shares were "compensation" shares for EHGOSF as they were buying at the .004p "floor" when the shares were lower. All sold long ago.

Is that good or bad? Do you know where the other £180K went?

Either way they (Iconic) appear to be motoring now.

And another thing........

The last financing deal with EHGOSF for £1.375M provided for the following payments following the signing of the agreement which presumably took place on 6th August.

On signing £300K less £75K in fees = £225K
1 months after £275K
2 months after £250K
3 months after £175K
4 months after £175K
5 months after £175K

The puchase of SA presumably used up most (if not all) the first tranche - that is why it was £225K, and not any other amount.

The second tranche - not released until 6th September - was £275K.

Of this £33K was used to buy Nuuco Media from DS. Gay Times News Limited was placed into liquidation on 30th August 2019 following a Resolution on 15th August 2019. The liquidator was looking for a quick sale (maybe others were also interested) but Iconic whilst wanting to buy has no money and has to wait until Friday 6th August for the second tranche.

Nuuco Media (DS) stumps up £33K (obviously the liquidators fees and costs - standard practice) and then DS sells the company on Monday 9th August (the first day after they get the cash) to Iconic for the said £33K as they are now flush with the tranche of £275K from EHGOSF.

A few days later they lend MCM Ltd £150K to be used in purchasing Tab Media Ltd.

They now have £92K left of this months tranche.

By working out how much Iconic spends each month of acquisitions (and they do appear very acquisitive) it should be possible to estimate how much cash they are burning on a monthly basis.

An early use of the remaining £92K, or the majority of it, would suggest that cash burn was zero ie they are at break even already.

It is clear that they have spent the last month lining up acquisitions and, as soon as the money comes in can then complete the deals.

Maybe watch this space next week for use of the remaining £92K?

Further any GM to approve the issue of loan notes to EHGOSF will not take place until between 6th November 2019 and 6th February 2019. I suspect by then Iconic Labs will be a very different company rendering the EHGOSF financing redundant.

Further JQ mentioned in the recent ProActive interview one of the main reasons there had been no "formal launch" was due to lack of cash.

FWIW from my point of view spending the best part of £100K on "a bash to remember" wining and dining a load of executives (yes, I know this is PR) can wait, spending the money wisely on deals is what matters.

If they announce the "formal launch" in the next few days you know where the other £92K has just gone.

Keep doing the deals lads, they truly are stonkers.

Mmmmm......

MCM Ltd enters into a contract to buy the whole of Tab Media Ltd - we are not told how much for.

Contemporaneously Iconic Labs plc lend £150k @ 5%pa to MCM Ltd for "working capital", and gets a 25K per month management services deal together with profit sharing, and at the same time takes a 24% stake in MCM Ltd.

The "working capital" is presumably the anticipated cost of getting the deal through to completion.

But in 2017 Rupert Murdoch and others invested £4.6M in Tab Media Ltd for a minority stake (for argument lets say 49%) which would value the whole at £9.2M. The lower the actual stake the higher the value of course.

www.theguardian.com/media/2017/sep/07/taking-the-tab-news-site-founder-on-how-he-got-4m-from-rupert-murdoch

He also gets Emma Tucker deputy editor of The Times on the board - one of four directors, suggesting the minority stake is actually in the region of 25%, valuing Tab Media at around £18.4M.

Latest accounts show that the company was sitting on £1.3M cash at 31st December 2017. Debtors were £1.2M, creditors just £300K.

So unless the value of Tab Media Ltd has dropped precipitously in the last 18 months or so, unlikely (although not impossible) I'd say, it appears that Iconic Labs have just acquired a 24% stake in a company which 24 months ago was worth £10-£20 million. Today it could be worth quite a bit more.

How much actual value is there for Iconic from day one does of course depend on whether MCM Ltd will be loaded with debt in order to make the purchase, however initial details suggest that this is a truly fabulous deal. Debt of course can be paid back out of profits from Tab Media Ltd.

The lads at Iconic are leveraging their considerable and proven skills in order to build stakes in entities which have considerable value.

This deal alone is potentially worth many times the existing market capitalisation of Iconic Labs.

Jamesons - "careful" is my middle name.

I don't think there is any need to worry that JB and DS will be reassessing their plans - they know everything concerning what is going on in the vicinity of Tilapia ;-)

Mrs Skittish would never let me get away with owning my own satellite.

3 million unique users per month -

https://tabmedia.co/

Potential revenues so far per annum

£1M - unnamed UK based financial services company - possibly some taken in shares

£300K - Tab Media management services agreement

£150K - Tab Media revenue sharing agreement

£500k - potential from GayStarNews

£ unknown from Social Alchemist

£1950K potentially per annum. Of course that is revenue, not profits. Are they at break even yet? I wouldn't think they are so far off, if running a lean operation.

Break even would open up a whole world of opportunities, like renegotiating the EHGOSF financing, or dumping it altogether.

Missed a bit between posts....

"If they've targeted the Djeno is that it could extend for as far as 20km, along the fault line from N2 to S3."

It is really good news that things are underway again at Tilapia.

Everybody here has certainly gone through the wringer over the last few months.

Unfortunately the satellites (and local Tilapia weather - cloudy) have not been very cooperative recently so there are no new satellite images to show what is occurring at present. The last were early August which showed some equipment had been removed from the site, presumably by SMP.

I have however been trying to extract a little more information from the images already available, and have drawn a new map of Tilapia and the surrounding area.

https://ibb.co/pd9T9GF

Tilapia (in red) is clearly shown, as is New Age's Marine III licence target play areas - in purple. It is important to note that Marine III only extends to the shore - unlike Tilapia it has no land based component.

On shore is the Chinese area with all their wells clearly shown.

This is an approximate history of drilling on their licence, taken from satellite images -

E3 – drilled early 2014 (pre Chinese)

E4 – drilled early 2014

E5 – drilled by early 2014

C – drilled April 2017 – July 2017

E1/E2 – drilled Summer 2017

S2 – drilled Summer 2017

S – drilled July 2017 to November 2017

N – drilled November 2017 to March 2018

N2 – drilled March 2018 to June 2018

BN – drilled June 2018 to October 2018

S3 – possibly drilled mid – end 2018

W – possible equipment parking area

From April 2017 to November 2018 the Chinese drilled around 8 wells, possibly initially with two rigs, then with one which could be seen moving from site to site. It is difficult to see that they would have continued to drill if they were hitting dusters.

For identification I've lettered the various wells, slightly haphazardly, as new potential wells were discovered.

N2, BN, N, C, E2, S2, S3 all appear to have retained some equipment, notably a large black area in the top right hand corner of each drilling site. S2 appears to have some pipework,

https://ibb.co/4KYzQ0z

BN is large and actually enters the tropical rainforest

https://ibb.co/Q66DK4H

N has pipework and a 700 barrel tank on it with a flare, and tyre marks indicate the tank is emptied on a regular basis. The Chinese though only presently have an exploration and appraisal licence.

This is a close up of N

https://ibb.co/qFPCCZg

As important as what is on the ground is what is underground. This

https://ibb.co/GpwXG4b

is taken from the AAOG prospectus (with my annotations) showing the basic geology on site. TLP-103CST is in the same location as TLP101V. To the land based side is a fault which presumably is what is retaining the oil in the Djeno formation.

The first image above shows that the Chinese have drilled all their wells N2, BN, N, C, S2 and S3 in a line parallel with the coast - this line is I suspect immediately adjacent to and follows the fault line shown in the AAOG prospectus. If they've targeted the Djeno is that

Part 2/

As we appear to be around 1.5km from the fault line it could have a significant E-W component also.

The fault line also appears to have a surface component with the gorge system which extends south of S3 culminating in the extensive Diosso Gorge several km to the south.

This is a general representation of the faults near Tilapia, showing how they could neatly trap the oil and create a great drill site.

https://ibb.co/cw1N9mc

Of equal interest is the New Age licence area, Marine III where they are planning to drill in early 2020 targeting the Djeno and other plays.

They have no land based component simple geography suggests (as I speculated in a post on 9th June 2019) that they could be enviously eyeing our Tilapia licence area as a potential location for their drill site. The savings to them of a land based location from which to drill could be very very substantial.

The wells drilled on the Chinese licence area around 2014 (pre their involvement) are also interesting -

https://ibb.co/qNmDhYC

E3 appears to be unused, but there is clearly a well head there.

https://ibb.co/r3HxbqH

E5 is even more interesting – a large pad, with multiple mud ponds, again presently appears unused. But a well in this approximate location targeted the Vandji, E5 is a really suitable candidate for this, and hit the Vandji sandstone, but it is unclear whether oil was actually produced.

This is a map of the location with E5 (possibly) shown as the yellow dot slightly to the right of centre,

https://ibb.co/P501Wxh

taken from this 2019 paper

http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/pdfz/documents/2019/51549tukimin/ndx_tukimin.pdf.html

Most of the Chinese licence in their drill area is located either within the Tchimpounga Animal Sanctuary or the tropical rainforest, again making Tilapia (not located in either) a prime piece of real estate for any prospective oil producing company within the locality.

I suspect we are sitting not only on a very large quantity of oil, but also on a prime piece of Congo real estate.

Both of which will, in time become very valuable.

Management from UniLAD (Quinlan and Harrington's arch nemesis) are, as of today, following Iconic Labs on Twitter.

Having studiously ignored Iconic Labs (and Q & H) for almost a year, they are now suddenly slightly interested in what they are doing.

Perception perhaps that there is something more here than simply hot air?

When someones enemies start taking an interest in what they are doing it is a sign that they fear the tables may eventually be turned and that Iconic could become a threat to them.

Q, H & R have a lot to prove versus UniLAD.

Interesting 10 page section in today's Sunday Times on Britain's fastest growing private technology companies - "Tech Track 100".

This year the list is dominated by fintech which comprises 24 of the 100 companies listed, which have growth rates over the last three years averaging 508% pa for the highest to 49% pa for the lowest.

Of course we don't know whether Iconic's customer is in there because we don't know who they are.

Appears to be a good sector to be in however, if you get it right.

New company created today.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/12192040

Regan is COO and Vincent operations director.

Ownership is interesting - 38% owned by Regan, 38% by Vincent and 24% by Iconic Labs plc.

Whilst Iconic Labs is a 24% shareholder, the other two have control, but if they disagree neither has control without the support of Iconic Labs plc.

Nature of business - other publishing activities.

Vincent is also a director of the legacy Widecells entities" Widecells Ltd" and "Widecells International Ltd" whilst Regan is a director of all three together with Iconic Labs IP Ltd and Iconic Labs UK Ltd.

Harrington and Quinlan are directors of Iconic Labs IP Ltd and Iconic Labs UK Ltd together with the overall holding company Iconic Labs plc, but Regan and Vincent are not directors of the plc.

Interesting how they are dividing up the various responsibilities between themselves.

Well it would appear that they haven't made the same mistakes as this setup as a proper PLC with proper lawyers with a barrister as the chairman rather than as unilad was set up by a bunch of hungover students on the back of a beer mat

They didn't have issues with the sales contract previously the only issue they had with contracts was the contract which set up the original unilad business

Statement of capital now up to date for the first time in almost a year -

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10197256/filing-history

YouTube channel also appears to have been added to the website today

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmzQjZjpRGd0QiCfPPh5nZg

as has the LinkedIn page and twitter.

They are also now on instagram - a few minutes ago they had 4 followers, now 12.

https://www.instagram.com/iconiclabs/

I think it is a case of "Standby for Action!"

Matters progressing at Companies House

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08150010/filing-history

Until yesterday Iconic Labs was only following Liam Harrington and Jono Yates on Twitter.

Today they followed another nine

https://twitter.com/IconicLabsUK/following

Make of this list what you will.

Anyone care to suggest a theme that links all these?

Filings at Companies House suggest legacy issues are all but sorted, because they wouldn't be taking ownership of the subsidiaries if they weren't.

LadBible paid £17M.

They had already bought the judgement debt of £5M which UniLad owed, enabling them to buy the company on the cheap.