The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
I couldn't tune in for the Q&A's but I've read some of the comments.
I guess today's info wasn't ever going to shift the dial but what concerns me is that the current agreement factored in the situation that we're currently in, i.e. a delay, but GR says that Canmax are off putting together a new agreement/deal. They will have known the situation over a week ago but we won't hear anything until the end of the month.... doesn't sound like the deal is going to have a minor tweak. Could be considerable jeopardy for holders and/or could signal GR's departure. I think that I agree that Canmax probably don't want to run a mine so won't want to swallow Zulu/Prem whole but they will want Spod as cheaply as they can get it.
This could be expensive for holders - I think they'll take another chunk.
As for GR, I don't know what's worse... knowingly lying or admitting that you're incompetent (which is in effect what he did)!
Long time Snowking! Feeling a bit bruised?
Long term, still massive potential but GR's oversight of this has been sadly lacking... doesn't matter what anyone else has done, buck stops with him! He's cost us all a fortune. Still having your cosy chats with him?
Yes, Clueless and Acker. Canmax must be on board.
I'm wondering if the financial hit won't be as bad as some might think - stopping operations must generate some savings. OK, there won't be income from a couple of small shipments but the upgrade work was already known and expected and funded, if I'm not wrong.
PD101 - can't see GR accepting that or putting it to shareholders. The long term potential is still a multiple of 1.2p.
The more I've thought about the change in plan, the more I think that Canmax are on board and that it was possibly proposed by them or Stark. Possibly, this may have been the plan all along... surely someone would have spotted that they would have to stop operations to do the civils for the new kit a while ago?
Can't see us getting any insight to the financials and who is paying to get the job done. Can't see any imminent need to get more funds either though.
I do expect GR to give an optimistic view on the timescale for the works to be completed and for the 1st shipment. I might be thinking that we've bottomed out and that the title of this thread seems to be in the right ballpark.
Possibly Acker. As you know, I'm not a fan of GR - I'd give him credit for getting the deal re-started with Canmax but apart from that???
I'd like to see better oversight of Stark as well. And I wonder if there have been any personnel changes in any of the teams?
When it gets to the point that a few weeks delay turns into more than 6 months then something has to change! As the major shareholder, one might expect them to act.
I think GR will have had to get agreement from Canmax to the change in approach outlined in the RNS so I think they are probably on board already. My guess is that this change in approach has been on the table for a few weeks. The current agreement anticipated that there might be issues and further delays - not sure if that helps GR. What interests me is whether they will extract a cost when GR is looking for finance - GR's coat was already on a shoogly peg. This time round Canmax have a much bigger holding and could easily take GR out. It really depends on whether GR has kept communicating with them. If he hasn't, he is toast... but, even if he has, Canmax must be thinking that this guy does not have the wherewithal to get the job done!
Acker - my main thought then was to try and get GR out of the driving seat. JV seemed the best way. Up to May, the current approach seemed to be working but as soon as that 1st delay happened (and then GR's trading became public knowledge), I concluded that he was only giving us a snippet of the issues they were facing. GM at Stark has not helped with his 'shooting the lights out' attitude.
Having said that, I think that the decision to focus on the upgrade is the right one. The sp drop has probably been over done - my guess is that there's been plenty of folk who had assumed that shipping wouldn't happen.
Doubt if the Chinese are happy at all so I'm watching with interest!
Might end up with Canmax owning close to 50% in any event.
I'm going to go back a couple of years when I argued that the best approach for shareholders would have been for Prem to become a junior partner (49%) in a JV... GR has resisted any offer/partner which would have left him without control. I'm not sure that he will be able to gather enough support for him to stay as CEO if Canmax decide that they want a change at the top. For me, it would be highly desirable to see GR removed and this in itself would boost the sp significantly.
I guess a sale price has been set as £200m minimum due to the current agreement... I think some of us would find it difficult to turn that down!
Given where Zulu is at then it does seem a sensible change in plan. However, it shouldn't have gotten to this stage in the 1st place and one has to raise a major question around what is actually in the ground!
The approach, avoiding going down the DFS route, doesn't feel so clever now.
I'd certainly like to see a steady rise too.
Referring back to the 25th Sept RNS, it's clear that CLON are already working closely with the Bolivian authorities - it would be a massive boost to the JV (and the sp) if news dropped on the Bolivians allowing large-scale production testing and construction of mobile pilot plants (might not just be Bolivia)... I don't have any special insight into this but I think this news could drop anytime. Proof that the pilot plant in Texas is working may or may not be announced before this but I think that Clon and the Bolivians will be ready to move to the next stage rapidly. I reckon that significant news is going to drop soon.
I appreciate what ASI is saying about timing of field results, etc but I'm more inclined to think that the sp will accelerate when the above news drops and that this news will drop soon.
It also sounded like Clon had or was about to take part in a bid-round on medium-sized salares - news on a successful bid(s) would also be massive for Clon (and the sp).
ASI - I think we're also looking to the relationship with the Bolivian authorities being formalised and developed further. We also know that other countries and organisations have been interested in the tech. We could get news anytime that one or more of these are moving forward.
Some definite news from Ghana should also be coming at some stage although I accept that we've been waiting for years on this.
Hey Acker - hope you're well. Seems that GR's curse has returned! I really wrestled with selling when it hit 1p... have to admit that I substantially reduced... First decent decision I made on Prem!!!
I've referred to this deja vu feeling a few times... can't shake it I'm afraid. It all feels like GR's never learned anything from previous misadventures. Hoping that there is good news soon but.....
Franky - you might get there sooner than you think!
I haven't heard any specific leak about any specific project but I'm getting CLON mgt are very bullish and confident. Suggests to me that there could be very good news coming from Bolivia, Texas and/or Ghana.
I'm not known for my optimism but I really like this company and this could be a multi, multi bagger!
Sharebel - I'm not the shareholder that you refer to but CLON is about to enter a very, very interesting period! I believe that we're getting news on Bolivia soon.
I would not discount some movement on our oil assets too!!
Hold on to your hats!
Haven't commented for a long time and thought that I'd pop back in having seen the CLON comment. Current PREM situation doesn't surprise me at all. GR has no track record of delivering whatsoever - ominous sense of deja vu yet again, I'm afraid. Seems that there's a fall out with Stark and they've decided to do their own PR... perhaps they've concluded that GR is not to be trusted. Still hoping for success here but it's been a rocky road.
CLON's sp performance hasn't been anything to boast about over the same period but I think it's one of the most interesting shares on the market. Could go stratospheric like Prem did!