Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Hmmm ... Not sure yesterday's update will entice too many newbies !!!! As I have said before it's not easy to do business in a war zone. I wish things were different as the dairy industry is a global growth sector ... Shame about the politics here.
This was the case all day today.... I added a few more this afternoon in readiness for results in the morning. Hopefully we can use the news as a springboard to put us back above 45p which is where we should be IMHO. Wooly target remains unchanged at 47-49p but I am really hopeful that I might need to revise this higher once the latest data has been digested. Any thoughts regarding possible dividend increase ? To be honest I would be happy if they dropped it altogether and used the cash to pay down some debt. Mr Market loves a debt reduction plan (yes indeed he does) !
January, I completely understand that under normal trading conditions this company would appear chronically undervalued.... however it seems that the political landscape in this region is muddying the waters somewhat ?? Unfortunately Mr Putin has taken the first steps toward igniting a war similar to that seen in Georgia a number of years back, as was suspected Russia has designs on seizing control of Crimea and quite possibly Eastern Ukraine, all that can be hoped now is that the inevitable invasion of this European state will be undertaken without bloodshed. Then the political heavy weights will mobilise... USA & EU larger member states (Germany, France, UK etc) will all be threatening to apply trade sanctions and other such guff ...fact is that Putin could not give a flying feck what the rest of the Western World think of him or his nations actions ... he has got China on side which ultimately is the biggest hammer in the tool box ! As I said previously, difficult for business to opperate smoothly in a warzone !!
Financial Times - Vladimir Putin placed Russian armed forces on alert on Wednesday in a show of strength over the political direction of Ukraine that rattled financial markets and brought a swift warning from the US. Mr Putin ordered a surprise drill by forces in western Russia, including areas bordering Ukraine. Sergei Shoigu, defence minister, insisted the exercise was "largely unrelated to events in Ukraine", but John Kerry, US secretary of state, nevertheless made clear that any sign of intervention would not be acceptable to Washington. IMO - Cloud hanging over the entire region : What happens to business in Ukraine if Russia decide to initiate some sort of modern day land-grab, or even if they were to cultivate an East/West civil divide in Ukraine ... its tough to trade dairy products in a war zone ???!!!
What is the word on the city streets in relation to EPS forecasts for current year ? Seems to be one or two larger sells creeping in over the last few days, do you feel that this reversal from 47p low is a genuine change in sentiment or merely a short term breather leading into results ... I took a small punt the moment I saw 20MA turn bullish ... I am tussling with when to close that position hence would be good to understand what data is out and about so to speak ! Nice blog by the way.. Dodgy photo though !
Good to hear that you out and about (in the field) Kenstaff ... It really helps to see the physical in order to fully appreciate and understand the theoretical IMO. Looks like our boys have lit the blue touch paper in the Potteries recently with a planning application to drill and extract over part of our Stoke licence ... Get ready for NIMBY alerts galore as this is quite near to residential developments !! This is potentially fantastic news as far as new projects go because if you cast your mind back a few months the MP for Stoke was on BBC Question Time spouting that the town council had big plans to extract coal mine methane and supply local business with affordable heat and energy... Looks like the master plan is under starters orders !!! BTW - I particularly liked the intimated target SP in the Independent at the weekend... Very interesting indeed. Do we have any Scottish punters in here, I have not had chance to get up to see the AD outfit that we helped set up North of the Border ... Anyone else been there yet ? BWA - Time to push past 44/45p chaps ..!
Not too long to wait until we hopefully get further insight into life without 'Free From' brand. 24th March is Results day .. Management might also update regarding current run rates and forward projections.
Very nice write up in today's Independent... http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/derek-pain-whether-its-methane-or-shale-alkane-knows-how-to-put-its-foot-on-the-gas-9129977.html
WOW this one is way off the radar of most punters although I feel that there is scope for the company to turn things around this year... If they play the market well. Russia is the primary export market for Ukrainian cheese, officials are suggesting that Russian domestic production will reduce by as much as 4% this year which will need to be imported from somewhere ... Makes sense to buy relatively local I would think especially as strong trade links already established. Dairy powders are where the clever money is being invested all across Europe and further afield just now, Chinese demand for infant milk formula is off the scale, they are paying TOP dollar for these products as are global health and well being manufacturers, so Whey Protein is almost driving the cheese production strategies of some major players in today's markets. Hmmmm ... If only there was a company who made lots of cheese from which to harvest whey and also had dairy drying capacity who were a key player in a low cost geography with established access to 3rd country markets ... ??? I will keep my eyes peeled and let everyone know when I find one that you can invest in at huge discount to NAV and with a PER less than a third of what it should be !! Blimey someone bought £1k of these this morning, if it was you ... I think you will be rewarded well but it may take quite some time (refer to my opening comments re: liquidity and radars). Still watching this one, it has legs IMHO. Cheers Wooly
Nice of this director to advise the markets promptly of his share sales .... jeez, what else is being witheld / hidden ? There is a saying .... something to do with rodents and ships ...? Slippery slopes in here, all eyes on next update IMHO !!
I automatically assumed they would redeploy existing surplus engines, oh how wrong I was ..... Our Power Response operations, which are connected to mains gas, run peak winter load and offer Short Term Operating Reserve ("STOR") facilities to the National Grid. The overall STOR market is growing and in response to this we are adding to our engine capacity in this sector. Alkane has continued to improve its service performance which together with growth in the market has meant that we have seen Power Response revenue more than doubling compared with 2012. In my opinion STOR is where the money is at in the short term (CMM pays the day to day, power response is the cream on the cake and our licenced assets are the cherry on top) !! Remember more news to come soon... they been roasting marshmallows over a massive fire at a farm in Staffordshire for four days last week ... yum yum !
Not invested here .... yet ! Just been doing some research in food sector stocks and have shortlisted this one and Finsbury Foods as both being potential recovery plays through 2014. I am reasonably upto speed with recent dairy market goings on in Western Europe but have very little undrstanding of how this game plays in the former Soviet block ... any updates or insight would be most welcome guys ?! At first glance this feels like an absolute bargain, but then again maybe it looks that way for good reason, anyway thecway I am reading the dairy markets going forward, the lack of milk experienced through 2013 will unlikely be repeated in 2014 plus feed costs have reduced significantly in the last year, so if energy prices were to ease also .... kerching !!! Bear in mind EU milk quotas are abolished in 2015, so everyone will be able to compete in the world market without fear of penalty for overproducing, I think I will dig deeper into relative costs of production in Ukraine and see how these guys really stack up for the longer term. Will keep an eye on this BB ... interesting indeed !
Well, we certainly had a vigorous shake of the ALK tree today, dropped us 12% at one stage with only 200k shares traded by that time... Tut tut bad form gents !!!! I sold another chunk of PPC (about two or three months too soon i think) in order to free up funds with which to grab some more ALK, try as I might they would not let me buy any without going to negotiated trades ... Even when I broke my purchase into tiny chunks they would not play ball .... Bear in mind the price had been slashed on virtually no volume, maybe AIM is running the same software that caused Lloyd's customers not to be able to withdraw cash - LOL ?? Listen fellas (and femellas) of the city ... Play it with a straight bat !!! You have been told twice by the Woolmeister now in as many weeks !!!! At least Dick Turpin wore a mask ... Legalised mugging going on all over the show today. What was the 40p trade all about near close - I am almost lost for words.
Thanks Kenstaff... I try my best ! Read the article (and your comment attached below it) ... Have to say that I am a little bit disappointed with you ... Why no mention of ALK ???? ... LOL only kidding mate. In all seriousness, I am somewhat deflated that the whole 'Shale week' thing seemed to bypass ALK to some extent, weird when you consider the potential that we have sat beneath our acreage ??? PS - I am mulling over the Shell comments that have been muted here - my first/gut reaction was to nod my head in agreement ... But what the heck do I know eh ??? I am absolutely firm in my opinion that current SP reflects current operations only ... Moët in there for potential reserves IMO ... Markets need to wake the flip up and smell the coffee in here !
I tipped this as a screaming buy more than once in the 20p's ... Unfortunately, I am now of the opinion that FIF will now drift back toward those levels over a number of months UNLESS they can reassure the markets that the new Group (without the free from brands) can deliver solid earnings ... I doubt they can !! Agree that there is a good chance of FIF being taken out by another company, although it maybe PE rather than a group (private or public). For me the future of this stock hinges on the next set of results - post disposal !!
Update : 22nd January 2014 We have now received the permit to proceed with the well clean up and testing works at Nooks Farm. The purpose of these works is to test the flow rate of gas from the well. By taking readings this will enable us to estimate the quantity of gas that we can recover from the reservoir and hence establish if we have a viable project for the power generation phase. For environmental reasons, the gas that exits the well will be burned off rather than released to atmosphere. The flare that burns the gas will be screened in order to minimise the visual impact. The actual flaring operation will be carried out during the week commencing 27th January and is programmed to be carried out over four 12-hour daytime periods during that week. In advance of this our engineers will be on site from Friday 24th January and will work through the weekend to assemble and test the equipment. These works will be carried by industry specialist contractors and have been reviewed and approved by the necessary regulatory authorities. Ahhhh ... perhaps another reason why Mr Money so intent on shaking out a few more for himself ... sneaky !!
Mr Money is being a cheeky wee monkey with his tactics here... sliced pleanty at 49-51p and now trying his best to bully newbies and marginal holders out whilst deterring significant volumes of buys now that the shale news has gone quiet !! Be under NO illusion, ALK are worth every penny of Liberium / Geranium / Arburetum (Or whatever they call themselves) 44p target price ... day to day business activities will support that no bother !! WHAT ABOUT OUR SHALE & CBM ASSETS ???? ... Play the game with a straight bat Mr Money - Thanks. Once they have replenished at 43-44p we should hopefully see a rise into full year results news (Early March ??) Wolly's still holding tight ... GLA.
Morphine Firstly, a very warm welcome to this BB ... I hope that you see better returns with ALK than your previous investment. Secondly, I am unsure how much research you had done prior to investing but it might be worth spending an hour having a really good read through the previous posts in here and also take a good hard look at the Alkane Energy website (Theres a link on the ALK share price tab). Regarding temperature of posters, I am warming up nicely with a very large whiskey in hand - LOL Seriously though ... you will soon gather (When you read the BB history) that I am hugely positive re: ALK and I have been since 2007/08 when I first invested here... just dipped my toe at first but then slowly topping up over the years as my research progressed and my confidence in the potential of this little gem grew and grew. WARNING - The BB is not the busiest and we can experience long spells of illiquidity / SP stagnation (although that is changing as we build our profile as a PROFITABLE alternative energy business with significant conventional hydrocarbon potential (We have a large portfolio of licences onshore UK). Anyway - Great to have you with us and hope to hear your thoughts about all things ALK. Regards Wooly
IIs doing their bit and crytalising some tidy profit too also... nobody ever got poor by taking profit ! Would have been nice if the media had mentioned ALK in all the Total investment hype, but really pleased for those who saw some propper full on boom time action over in EDR and IGAS... well done if anyone made a few quid there ? Wooly holding tight, but would be lying if said wasnt tempted to slice a very small chunk at 51p.