Old Direction Fanciful Finance, page-17

Cottee started his presentation yesterday questioning any Plan B. I took that as a crack at New Direction because OptionCo was happy with Plan A and only wanted a change in board members.

Plan A (which Cottee is following - ignore the Scheme debacle for eth minute) is producing and selling gas to the Eastern States at a time when demand is at a peak and a real sustainable downstream business producing a "boring annuity" for shareholders can be built. This is the promise Cottee says he wants to deliver.

I asked Blind Freddie what was the best business opportunity for CTP going forward - he said focusing on the simplest and quickest way to making profits and building value, that is, producing and selling as much gas as we can to the Eastern States via the NGP! I had to agree with him.

IMHO Cottee rightfully questions Plan B. So if ND includes JH at the helm and getting rid of Cottee and the board Plan B must NOT have the current gas supply plan as it's main game? So are they going to go back to the future of largely exploration?

What ND doesn't fully understand is that a sufficient number of large shareholders will block any move to change the current business model or management. Therefore, at least for the short to medium term any more 249D attempts will be blocked.

So sorry ND, you're only going to be a bit of noise unless you can get to those Top 20 shareholders.

Having witnessed the recent Scheme and 249D processes I think Cottee has benefited from the alleged knifing at Nexus and thrived on the challenges. I think the Scheme process caused him a huge amount of damage, emotionally, and he lost focus for a while.

He's cleverly spun the Scheme vote around as now being a mandate to go forward with Plan A. He's also convinced the insto's and Johnny Come Lately big hitter punters that the only way they'll get their money back is by backing his Plan A.

The ace in the pack for Cottee is he has convinced enough of the new Top 20 shareholders that he, Plan A and key management all go together. He's convinced them they are an inseparable team and that if he goes, key management will follow him.

The silver lining here for shareholders is that Cottee has only bought time. He still has to deliver and the clock is ticking.

There will be some directorship changes to improve (perceived) board competence and appease the masses but at the end of the day it will still be the Team Cottee show until (if and when) a monumental stuff up occurs or the Top 20 stop believing him.

Denny Crane!