Member Info for workingstiff

Temi is worth less than we paid for it. What a surprise!

UDF How do you get to $700m net debt? Is this a restatement of the interest bearing pre purchases as debt?

Tiger - don't leave just yet. So Hermitage went down because they tried to get between officials and their pay offs, according to the western media. Meshcheryakov went poking into records (of payoffs?) at a Moscow subsidiary and is now being looked at by a federal investigation group headed up by Putin.

He wouldn't pull that one again, would he? I seem to remember there was a lot of fallout after Hermitage.

TigerByTheTail - what an appropriate name for someone who invests in Russia!

I looked at what I could find on Article 330 of the Russian criminal code - Arbitrariness. From what I could see it doesn't appear to be a particularly serious crime, and one which is normally levelled against an individual(s) rather than an organisation.

I don't think this will be the knockout punch, but accept that it could be the start of a campaign.

Raiderstvo is the Russian version of corporate raiding. It can include the use of physical force and/or corrupt collusion with state institutions for the purpose of gaining control of a company, either to take it over or to strip its assets.

If this is what is happening - is this someone new? is it Strukov inspired - completing the task he set out on in the summer? Or is it Pavel, back off the canvas for round 3?

If POG's corporate affairs is still functioning them major holding RNS's might tell us something in the next few days. Or we may just see the shares hoovered up by anonymous Cypriot shell companies.

..... has just bitten the dust. The offer has gone unconditional and the new owners have declared their intention to delist from the London market.

Uncertain times for UK investors in Russian miners.

In normal circumstance you would. However, if the short positions were opened by convertible bond holders who have since converted, then they can close the short without needing to buy shares.

"The translation of the Moscow Post article makes pretty grim reading."

Indeed. I suppose the only positive interpretation one could put on it is that such an openly critical article might be government inspired - a warning shot across Strukov's bows, as it were. Putin has been known to deal harshly with oligarchs who overstep.

The number of shares in issue has increased by around 20% since the price reached 41.6 before the ruckus started. This is something to consider when looking at the share price today.

"The bonds were below face value and Pog had before bought some back . obviously a good thing to do BUT they stopped doing it."

I'm no particular fan of the 2 P's but to be fair I think the banks stopped them from doing it at that time. In late 2013 / early 2014 POG was heavily in debt to the banks.

With the benefit of hindsight I think the two biggest mistakes they made were the 2010 bond issue (rather than a rights issue) and guaranteeing IRC's debt. A cynic might say that the first mistake was down to the fact that they were both major shareholders at the time, and didn't want to see their holdings diluted; and the second mistake was down to nepotism - their sons worked for IRC. To some extent we are still living with these mistakes.

"I thought new management would be happy for third party concentrate to continue, as a lot of it comes from UGC"

Perhaps that is why the flotation plant has slipped to Q2 2021. It has moved down the priority list.

I had the impression (perhaps wrongly) that processing third party material was in part something of a stop gap to cover the running costs of the POX Hub until the flotation plant was up and running. In any case I think that - in broad terms - the new lot are tied to the strategy of the old lot for the foreseeable future. Not necessarily a bad thing provided Pavel wasn't telling us too many porkies. If they have the wherewithal to pay a little dividend - even 0.5p - that might change the mood music surrounding the share price.

Gold hasn't kicked on the way I thought it would this year. Despite all the nonsense we've seen in the US this year the dollar's strength as the world's reserve currency, the fiat currency of last resort, is holding it back. This might change if the US Election results in some rancorous dispute. Particularly if the GOP manage to hang on to their majority in the Senate.

The clock is ticking. At some point the appetite for risk amongst investors will increase. We need to see that the new management are in control, and that the operational staff are aligned with them.

The bad news keeps coming

POG need to get some positive news out there.

DTG - It has indeed had a nibble at $1865 in the last few minutes. It has pulled away for now. Credit Suisse has said it could go to $1765.

Kenj - maybe the new guy and his supporters think the last lot were siphoning cash out of the company. Maybe it's about more than the bond issue.

"The large share holders who supported USG wanted? Punch ups with the work force."

Some of those who have been working for POG will see this as a hostile takeover, and will resent and resist the changes. In my working life at different times I was on both sides of hostile takeovers. You get this, although admittedly it usually doesn't get reported in the media.

I see the RNS as the new boy putting his side of the story out there.

Very strong finish today, especially for a Friday. Finished the day close to the high. The volumes weren't massive but maybe there is a dividend announcement on the way.

The latest pronouncement from the US Fed - lower interest rates for longer, higher inflation to be tolerated, suggests that gold will be a good bet for some time to come. What we need is for the new management to get serious and stop messing around. The new CEO needs a reputable auditor for the business, not a bunch of heavies. He needs to be recruiting names to the board, not bullying staff.

This company - you couldn't make it up

I suppose you could argue that Peter Hambro didn't have any mining experience when he started the company as CEO. In the early years POG was successful, before the fall in the gold price in 2013, and the stonking debts Hambro had racked up almost killed the company off.

I take your point though. From what you tell us he doesn't appear to have the CV that wold make him an obvious choice.