I have to say I'm with the naysayers with regard to the announcement of the LTIP in the form presented. I've worked for several engineering companies, one of them publically listed. I've been a part owner in one firm and was engaged in employee shareholding programs in others. I have only ever experienced incentives / bonuses / performance rewards / dividends / whatever you want to call it, provided as a percentage of company profits. Where the company makes no profit, no bonuses are received.
The largest company I've worked for had around 4000 employees and a presence in 80 countries, with fee revenue of around 400mil and an EBITDA of 30mil. The CEO of that company receives a base salary comparable to TB. Admittedly, he gets a fair bit from incentives, but these are calculated based on achieving company profit targets. If the company makes no profit, he gets no incentives.
I really cannot reconcile how a board of directors can make claim for bonuses that are paid from monies other than company profit. The saving grace here is SSNs LTIP requires investor approval to be adopted. It was benched once before due to lack of investor support, no reason it can't happen again - it just needs a whole lot of punters like you and me making the effort to vote NO to the resolutions, rather than the usual "bin it and let the chairman vote as my proxy coz my vote won't do squat" attitude.
All that said, I'm still confident in what is happening operationally and still believe we will see a significant turnaround in pps once the macro economics turn, the NS field is running at full tilt and other projects are developed. Its just very disappointing to see "the noses in the trough" again, especially at a time when the company is poised to become genuinely credible and self-sustaining (after which time, i would invite them to the trough as it would be earned).
SSN Price at posting:
1.6¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
