It's good news, theweatherman; I agree with adamtaylortcd. IMO it's an important next step in the current labour market, although the stock market so far has failed to realise that. That's now an opportunity IMO - see below. I can understand some immediate disappointment that we haven't yet appointed a suitably driven CEO to get after the assets but we must take the necessary time in a tight labour market to get the right person.
I've got a large holding and bought more this morning after the announcement. I'll continue to nibble if further weakness but I don't expect it to last long because there's not much paper around and our assets are under-priced by the market IMO.
People
FWIW, here's how I see it:
- Stephen Ross - good appointment as new Chairman. He's experienced, capable and market savvy and has a good contacts. He's fresh blood in the sense that it it a step up for him, which he's quite capable of handling.
- Former Chairman, David Turvey will remain on the Board in a Non-Exec. role, so his considerable experience (especially with kaolin - and with lithium, I gather) and skills and contacts are not lost to us, and that's important.
- (now Executive) Director Mena Habib - also capable and market savvy and has plenty of drive, good people skills and important contacts, so another good appointment. He knows how investors think.
This team deserves a decent crack at it. I'm confident they're hungry enough. I'm keen as to get things going but there was a lot of inertia before, despite the asset potential, so that has to be overcome. The revival clearly has started; now we need to get the turbos to kick in.
Projects
We have 4 sets of assets: lithium (Argentina); base metals (Argentina); kaolin (SA, adjoining and near Andromeda) and base metals in the Musgraves (SA). Quick thoughts on 3 of these:
- Lithium - a key attraction. We're hugely undervalued, as Henry Walton is rightly alluding to. These have to be pursued vigorously, as evidenced by the performance of (a) neighbours AGY (which has more than tripled in 6 months), (b) RIO's $825 million purchase last month of nearby Rincon Resources Ltd. and (c) our peers - see screen dump.
Here's a screen dump from this morning. This is my lithium watchlist, filtered by market cap. We're the cheapest That's bizarre given our other assets too (brief comments below). While one or two of those Li stocks are way overpriced IMO, it supports my view that PNN is still way underpriced.
I'm confident (now Exec.) Director Mena Habib will get after this. In addition to his drive, I understand from others that he has good connections so I'm happy he will be used more ...
The new Board realises the under-pricing also, so no criticism intended but we do need to now complete the various bits of work to get the market to properly value us. We need to re-present ourselves and build credibility among a wider audience. There are still some wounded shareholders from the prior management. I see this as semi-urgent, while the market is bouyant.
I've got a large holding but given our value I bought more this morning after the announcement. I'll continue to nibble if any further weakness but I don't expect it to last long because there's not much paper around.
- Kaolin / halloysite?: We've got great dirt; well located with known high quality kaolin on it. Thanks Henry Walton for your excellent posts some while ago re this. It's also been mentioned that there is expected halloysite too. If and when this is demonstrated - and if the quality is good - I expect significant further buying given the ~$500M market cap of our neighbour Andromeda.
- Musgrave Ranges: another high potential project area that I expect to be dusted off by the new management after undeservedly sitting moribund for too long, You don't get JVs with RIO unless you have very high potential dirt.
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