RE: Havieron27 Mar 2020 16:43
Hi Paddy,
Thanks as always for your fantastic posts.
With regard to your 15:51 today, could I discuss a point please.
As a starter:
‘’(Additional Farm-in) within a period of 12 months from the date following satisfaction of the Stage 4 Commitment (Additional Period), Newcrest shall have an option exercisable by written notice to the Company for it or its related body corporate nominee to acquire an additional 5% Farm-in Interest at fair market value.’’
As the months have gone by, I have come back to this additional 5 per cent feature of the agreement many times. At the time of the farm-in, I took the view that this final 5 per cent option available to Newcrest had been made available as part of the excellent relationship allied to the business interests of both parties. I also considered that the agreement had been reached after a period of intense negotiations based on information available at the time.
Now, I accept that perhaps the full extent of Hav was not known then but equally I believe that CB probably had an idea of the potential of the discovery as no doubt would his counterpart at NC after wading through the available Ggp data and initial drill results. The fact that NC entered the agreement with the commitment they made means that they knew this was going to be big.
The thing is Paddy would the agreement not have contained further proviso’s at that stage which would more easily have allowed NC to take 100 per cent of Hav if the circumstances warranted. It seems clear to me that Ggp wanted badly to retain a portion of their discovery and it also seemed that NC were ok in agreeing to that. Equally, I have always argued against any form of hostile move by NC and also believe an acquisition is unlikely.
In conclusion therefore, whilst I accept that business agreements can be fluid and I would never be so naive as to suggest that NC would never make an offer for 100 percent of Hav, I do think that any refusal of such an offer would not necessarily lead to a strain on the relationship as they seem to be on v good terms. I honestly believe that Ggp will do a ‘Hav repeat’ at some stage (hopefully sooner rather than later) and that NC will want to do business with GH again.
Just me thoughts Paddy.
Kind regards. UR