There has been a lot of talk about Management lately so what has FAR and its Management achieved since the begining of 2014 , which as I have mentioned previously covers the period from pre discovery to now and also covers the start of the oil price collapse which has been by far the biggest player in oil Companies recent fortunes...
In a nutshell they have set FAR up with a chance for a good future, before that FAR with no income had nothing but hope and a future of dilution without adding value untill it either had success or went under and we can thank previous management for optaining the lease and the current management for taking to the next level..
Convincing COP and CNE to cough up $US 200 mil odd to drill two prospects was vital to getting the ball rolling and as a direct result of the success have raised the shareprice from the mid 3c range then to our current 7.7c range, despite considerable dilution acheiving it. Nothing spectacular but in context of oil having more than halved in that time and almost all oil Companies dropping in price, not a bad result either, of our JV partners CNE dropped from 270p to 208P and COP $ US 70 to $ US 41.50 in the same period and I don't believe either of them had any CR dilution to endure .!!
Once the JV had formed the control of our fortunes were always going to be largely in the hands of the drill bit and the JV, all FAR could do, given success is announce resource upgrades, raise funds to stay in the game , promote to instos as much as possible , strengthen the board , strengthen the register and look for other opportunities, all of which was achieved in very difficult times...CN and BC also now have several hundred thousand dollars of skin in the game and havn't the freedom we have to sell without serious consequences to the shareprice and reputation...
As a consequence we now have two large discoveries in a new province, raised our resources from nothing to 84 Mmbbls 2C with more to come, teamed up with some serious players and also leave us with cash for approx 3 more wells plus an impending DOC and with that settled finally some saleable and bankable assets and a new block to farm out plus considerably more shares on offer...
Managements primary brief is to maximise the value of any assets the Company has, that process started with farming out and the drilling of our leases , barring a TO it is a continuing requirement for the forseeable future, most of that value can only begin to be realised after a DOC and thats when I expect them to be more pro active in pushing what we have thats when their abilities will really be put to the test....
One could argue untill blue in the face whether things could have be done better and it would be very rare if they couldn't have but they have delivered oil in spades and also a future , we will never know if it could have been better or worse, its now what it is...consolidation has been mentioned and Management have commented on that previously and believed it was inevitable but the market needed to be in much better space before that happened and the major players who have supported the Company in raising funds appear to have agreed...or if not have still fronted up anyway..IMO consolidation will happen when they need to borrow from offshore..the history of consolidation in small Companies in recent years has not been encouraging...
For those of us who purchased post discovery it was always going to be harder as the shares then carried a discovery premium partly driven by hype and Farjoys blocking stake in a Company with long wait to either sale or production.
So that leaves the biggest bitching point on HC and with many Companies, options and salaries , punters have expressed their view on that and Management have also put their case forward , which importantly was backed by the larger holders and they are going to be our likely source of funding going forward...so it boils down to individuals opinions as most things do but IMO will have had less effect on the overall shareprice than on punters blood pressure...
Personally I think Managers of all Companies are paid too much but that will only change with a total market wide change in attitude, in the meantime we are left dealing with either highly paid good Management or highly paid bad Management and to date the Management of FAR have delivered whats required for an Oil explorer , Oil and lots of it....the shareprice in the end will not only look after itself but always will, the market always does its own thing , however value , if its there, will will be recognised eventually or else we will be taken out...
So I'm happy with Management and wouldn't hold if I wasn't but certainly not in love with them and will happily put up a defence on their behalf as they can't enter into a dialogue on HC to defend themselves against faceless and often vitriolic detractors plus much misinformation however there are many agendas and many who want the shareprice lower so it will continue, it saddens me to see so much crap when much has been achieved and delivered in a relatively short time ,unfortunately much of that can only be reflected in the shareprice over time anyway..its been a bitch of a time in the markets for many in this sector..for those who bought in pre discovery in the 2 - 4c range well done , the biggest gains are always had by those in early or the smallest losses if it goes breasts up...
I'm undecided if we are undervalued or fairly valued currently but certainly see us very undervalued going forward....
Cheers Whisky
(20min delay)