brisbane information meeting

I went to the Brisbane meeting at the Marriott tonight.

Some Comments-

BLAIR ATHOL - PB confirmed that RIO would pay $96M for rehabilitation of mine site. Most necessary equipment is ready to operate within 7-8 days. The mine is more valuable because of rail and port access (rare in current times).

SGX- Peter Costello spoke before PB and spoke about Singapore being an energy hub and SGX being a solid exchange.
PB also stated there would be a minimum of 3 banks covering LNC which would give LNC more exposure to institutions in Asia. He mentioned S'pore set the oil price in Asia and would soon set Gas price (currently Japan).
SGX has approved new rules which will allow LNC to include recent revaluations in their B/S (ASX currently will not allow).Because of SGX short trading rules, PB expected a lot less volatility from short trading.

GULF OIL - PB confirmed that 10 wells had been drilled at Cedar Point and results would be known soon. There were photos of one well on the screen. Not sure how deep the water was but the drilling platform was about 10 ft above water level.

CONVERTIBLE NOTES- PB mentioned in his comments that he will never do another Convertible Note issue and confirmed that many of them were initially held by Hedge Funds and caused much volatility.
A question from the floor asked if the change to SGX would trigger an immediate cash redemption right for the note Holders. PB stated that the current note holders were happy with the move to SGX.

NEW SHARE ISSUE -there were questions asking if the cornerstone investors were already selected and at what price. PB had previously stated that there would be at least 16 positive announcements over the next 12 months approx. and hinted that there would be some before the SGX listing.
In answering the Q he said there had been discussions but no firm arrangements at this stage. He stated that they would have to be stated in the application for listing on the SGX. he also stated he didn't want any/much dilution for current S/Hs.

My view is that there will be a number of positive announcements prior to the delisting on ASX which should push up the S/P and so allow PB to ask new S/Hs to pay $2+ for the new shares which could be 50M max. I didn't hear any negative comments/questions at the meeting.