Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Morning All,
Lovely sunny morning in Suffolk if a little frosty!
But great news to wake up to, hopefully this is the start of many more to come!
Next stop, ML!
Cheers
TheEast
Morning All,
I guess to be fair it'd be worrying if ICE sales were rising faster than EV's. Interesting point in that article for me is how far the US is lagging behind Europe and China. With the Biden administration putting the US on a greener course, I'd like to see a bit of a surge there. Very happy that Europe is only going to accelerate its already impressive take up, and no doubt China will lead the way in terms of numbers. For all the ridicule that their cheap products are not good, they will no doubt serve a huge market in terms of Asia and no doubt Africa in time with the price point they're at. All good for me- anything which adds to the demand is good..!
Good to see some change here over the last week. Interesting to see if it gains any momentum now.
Cheers
TheEast
Good afternoon Stokey,
Is a welcome move but equally has raised my eyebrows!
Hopefully a pre-cursor to incoming news- would be nice to have a relatively significant announcement after the 160th birthday,
TheEast
I'm optimistic, but doubt very much a JR 'has already been rejected' as the 12 week period to enact this cannot start until the decision has been made by the Minister.
Unfortunately I've seen too many spurious JRs allowed, which in reality have never had a chance of succeeding, but have been successful as a delay tactic if nothing else. That for me is a reasonable risk, if for timing rather than the project itself.
Hi All,
My opinion on all this is to chill a bit. Covid has thrown everything up into the air in terms of timescales, felt especially so in the public sector as so many people are doing other work.
Step 1 is done- DAERA have given their recommendation to the Minister.
Step 2- hopefully the Minister approves the project to go-ahead. We have to take a balanced view that this will be positive given the economics, and that we clearly had a pack of information which says the project can be delivered with an acceptable environmental impact.
Step 3- prepare ourselves for a 12 week period of waiting for a JR- and hope one isn't granted. If it is (and assume it is a possibility), may as well the project on the back burner for now. My view however, is that we have hopefully exhausted the legal possibilities that might allow a JR, and that we're reasonably confident one will not be forthcoming. As others have said below, it isn't a case to demanding one and its granted, there would have to be a reasonably high level of proof that due process was not properly followed. Irrespective- if one was granted- its role isn't to change the decision, but to just review the decision making process followed the law.
All in all, I'm around the 80% confident make that we'll get a positive decision, and this will give a welcome boost to the SP. It de risks the company somewhat.
With other projects, I'm not excited by Defence. Whilst I think we have a good chance of getting large contracts in the future- this is in my '5-year +' bracket. We all know the MOD are shockingly bad at procurement and all governments are shockingly bad at giving the MOD long term certainty and strategic direction. I completely acknowledge that there are good signs, I'm just not anticipating any contracts for a long time. I'll also be very happy to be proven wrong on this point..!!
For me, INFA needs to become self sufficient on the O&G/ cruise and ferry/ renewables as I see this as having a higher chance of success at us winning decent chunks of work. Whilst the booking of £6.5m of revenue is a step forward, it must be painfully shy of where it needs to be for us to cover our overheads/ investment needs and project costs and have always anticipated we'll need further cash raises, but equally have said before I really hope it is on the back of a significantly higher SP than where we are now.
Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend
TheEast
I love sushi,
Try and keep a little lid on your ramping of the past few days...!!!
For all the positive macro-economic and perceived geo-political support (or otherwise) we all know that there are enormous hurdles to overcome here, not least for me the rather concerning quality of the Board and their strategic governance and lack of engagement with the Companies shareholders.
For LTHs, talk of a short term double or triple bagger are beside the point. I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting a multi bagger, and probably also not alone in holding out to the bitter end now.
That doesn't make LTHs concerns on the existential risks to the Company in the short-medium to term, nor the immediate governence short comings any less valid.
TheEast
Morning All,
A mid-term holder here (first in mid 2017), but sold out yesterday, sadly. After averaging down significantly last year I was in profit in a meaningful way and given my stock investments are house deposit savings which I might need this year, this was too risky for me now.
But want to wish all LTH's the very best of luck and also just caution new investors that the Reddit style era of share ramping can be extremely dangerous, and as always, DYOR and only invest what you really wouldn't worry about losing.
Cheers
TheEast
Painful isn't it...!
Anyone want to let Reddit know? My holdings in 88e have gone mad the past 2 days for no good reason. Seriously dangerous for new investors getting caught up but given LTH an opportunity to get out. Maybe we can do the same...!
Morning All,
Good news from JW on LinkedIn...
Congratulations to our team in Appledore who have docked a barge on the Newquay slipway today, this is our first slipping since the recent major refurbishment of this facility and the commencement of commercial operations in Appledore.
Good to see the income stream underway and lets hope this is start of much more to come!!
Cheers,
TheEast
Eagerly waiting for something..! Looks like more than a seller having left the room
Hi All,
Maybe stories like this will force the industry to look at options far closer to home..!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56196069
Hi All,
Good to see some differing opinions.
My view is that we will certainly require more cash raise to pull off any contract of reasonable size. We don't have a huge amount of cash in the bank v our overheads which leaves very little room to execute tenders of any meaningful size. Big contracts will require big cash flow requirements, and whilst some of this will come from various financing facilities, we'll still need to put up something meaningful ourselves. We're a small company with very little collateral, so should be aware of the cash that will be needed, all in my opinion of course!!
Very relaxed about cash raises as long as it is on the back of some news and an accompanying appreciation of share price so dilution is minimised.
Also very relaxed on where we are at, Appledore is good to go, Belfast is already churning successfully through work and we could not be primed to go better than the wider geo-political landscape- huge investment in and scaling up of off-shore wind, a worldwide cruise industry having camped out for a year ramping back up with associated influx of maintenance etc, massive investment in oil and gas wind down forthcoming, govt making the right noises about defence spending and finally a recognition that a ship building strategy is needed, along with a stated aim of turbo charging UK ship-building. Levelling out the regions is gaining momentum and we are located in prime areas needing that so we'll have continual cross-party political support.
There is an awful lot to be confident about, just won't happen overnight.
Cash will be needed but is all part of the growth story and hopefully will be one of the few good news stories about UK heavy industry!
Cheers
TheEast
I half wondered if we might get a rise this morning to see the back of DW..!!!
In all seriousness, I'm now looking for an exit point. Not enjoying this roller coaster anymore, and the macro-climate in the States is putting far too much emphasis on this years activities. Have always taken a long-term view and us being a multi-project business- but confidence in that is being sapped as the anti-oil movement only grows in action.
GLA- who knows- we could go full circle and we might actually be celebrating by Spring...
Morning All,
Only 8 weeks till the end of March tomorrow, so we haven't got long to wait, although it does feel like a lifetime at the moment watching the SP slowly fall away.
ML is an important part of our offer, and hopefully this will go through. I can't see the Government not allowing it- it is such a critical piece of UK (and Ireland) infrastructure, is private sector investment, UK company delivering it etc etc- so much to like about it. Is quite right that the technical work is given the scrutiny it deserves- and have said before on here- coming from a planning/ technical background within property- I've seen 'simple' housing applications take 4 years to get through the system- so the timings of this do not worry me, and I actually dislike arbitrary deadlines such as the end of March. I'd much rather a transparent exercise whereby we can see where the process is at- is it purely a resource issue (probably a big part of it), requests for extra info that our consultants are providing which may well be neccessary to re-consult the various experts on before making a decision. I would also add- I would 100% see this take longer now and have comfort that the decision making process is 100% squeaky clean so we do not get embroiled in a lengthy and costly legal battle post-decision.
With regards to current activities/ cash raises etc. I've always thought that we'll have a rolling cash raise as work is gradually ramped up, but hoping this will be on the back of a rising share price. A yard this size (and Appledore refurbs) carries a horrible amount of overheads and we must be woefully inefficient as a business at carrying out the work we are from a facility this size. Not saying the project work itself is inefficient- but our current overall business. 200 people having a pay cheque each month burns through a lot of cash, very quickly, especially when the contracts we're undertaking are relatively low value.
In my view, it is only the cruise market that is 'down' at the moment- ferries are still operating, defence is still crawling along but with a growing voice of investment, renewables are undergoing the biggest investment of all time and is only growing, oil and gas is still having investment albeit much reduced- but the decommissioning work will be ramping up in the coming years and of course post-Brexit is likely to see an increased need for other sovereign vessels . So- there is a lot out there and would actually like to start seeing some wins from these other sectors to be honest. The ML will do what it will do, but our yards should be teeming with activity from a range of sectors. This should be H&W's key selling point- and something JW has made noises about- time to see some of this filtering to the yard now.
Cheers
TheEast
Thinking the same. Is drifting somewhat
Hi All,
Would be good to see some sort of news to give us a bit of a boost, just drifting at the moment.
Still lots to be positive for, hopefully we'll move forward from the placing and the expected selling from that to build back towards the 50p mark.
Am hoping that with the Covid vaccine appearing to be going well, that Boris will soon have his full attention on building our way back out of these torrid times, and fulfilling his fanfare around British Shipbuilding.
Cheers,
TheEast
Interesting to hear what people did get- HL have finally updated mine today, got marginally over half of what I went for. Positive that it must have been over-subscribed.
Good to get this out of way in any event, as we can now build away from 45p.
Looking forward to seeing what happens with this one this year.
GLA!
TheEast