Well...that was a disappointing result after three years waiting...though putting on a positive hat - at least the arbitration is over (essentially), and we can get rid of another market hating uncertainty.
With regard reflection on the pursuit of the arbitration, I would like to see management perform an honest assessment of how they conducted and performed within this dispute, the effect it has had on our ability to act within the JV, what effect did it have on our financing attempts, and as appropriate recognize the effect the process has had on shareholders' share price.
IMO, FAR was right to initially pursue the arbitration. The question that needs answering is why, or should FAR have continued with it all the way to the end? Whilst the internal argument was that it would be business as usual if we lost, the reality is it created uncertainty over a very long period, assumedly affecting the share price negatively, and which in turn contributing to a very disappointing level for our latest major finance raising. All the way along WPL/COP were saying they had little case to answer...today they have been proven right. I would like to understand what FAR was viewing 12-24 months ago when it became obvious WPL/COP were, in addition to being confident, also being successful in delaying the arbitration. FAR, and I assume FAR's legal team, were saying they did not understand the strategy? Why could FAR's legal team not see what WPL/COP was doing? Was the delaying simply to put enormous pressure on FAR's share price, to potentially bring them to the brink? If so...?
Part of making good decisions is to know when to back off! But here we are today...a decimated share price and a loss in the arbitration.
It is not my opinion that management should necessarily be moved on (at this point)...they have a lot of experience in our major project which would be hard to replace. It is however my opinion that management needs to look at itself and review how it is making decisions, inclusive of what can appear to be an arrogance towards its retail shareholder base by not always addressing information detail on items that can change or become difficult...I refer here to the silence we have endured over long periods with items such as RISC update (still waiting), DJ, the extra % on The Gambia (that was supposedly ours), general missing of stated deadlines eg. TOR etc. Management gives the impression it loves to give positive vibes but are very reluctant to address changes or items that are not so comfortable...this is resulting in a growing mistrust of what management is saying.
I hope today is a new start and management can put their efforts into progressing the underlying project and importantly, progressing the share price. The first thing they can do is give an explanation to us of the ICC result, and importantly provide a strong re-assurance that even with the current very poor share price, all financing and project activities are locked in and the future will reward those who are patient.
dodds
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