As promised I called both the Nkwe London and Johannesburg offices and I did managed to talk to their investor relations guy. I think his name was Mr Luwengo (or something like that...)
Says that Nkwe is definitely taking out IGC and are trying to wrap up the deal as quickly as possible.
I asked why they have been very slow to date and what are the main reasons. I questioned "was the reason you are not taking out IGC is because you are not sure Xstrata will do the JV agreement due to the collapse in platinum prices?"
The responbse was that Xstrata is definitely still interested in the JV and have 2 teams working on the engineering and logistics of the Bankable Feasibility Study since June 2008.
They claim that they do not want to risk more delays to the BFS by delaying IGC. In Xstrata's BFS the assumption is definitely just between Xstrata and Nkwe.
I asked whether the finance is the big issue. Response was that obtaining the finance has not been easy in the current environment however with the project dynamics and Xstrata's commitment there has been multiple parties that are wanting to do the finance. The issue is how much Nkwe has to surrender to achieve this package. Exact timing was not specified on when they must complete this finance by.
I then talked about the unlisted options and what are his views. I told him that there is rumour in Australia that the reason the deal is not done by now is because genorah are broke and cannot find personal cash to convert their options. Response was "This is not an issue I know about". Then again this fella was probably apart of Genorah so maybe was asking a wasted question here.
I then asked him what about if an Anglo Platinum could move for IGC and leave Nkwe out in the cold and stuff up their project. Mr Luwengo said its a free market and maybe a third party may look at IGC however he doubts its another platinum producer in South Africa. So Anglo, Lonmin, Implats etc are out of the equation. So much for Mr Sage's claims of Anglo, Pallinghurst etc.
Mr Luwengo says "who would move for IGC which only has a minority position without securing Nkwe first". He firmly said Xstrata never even bothered to talk to IGC but Nkwe first since they are the majority holder.
His last words were that Nkwe management is working full spead to get things done.
From the conversation I did get a positive impression of the deal. However I think many holders are losing patience is because of our Hot air Motor Mouth Management
I hope one day karma comes back to our Tony Sage and that he ends up in a prison and becomes the darling mistress for 50 inmates. Maybe he will find a more useful role for his "motor mouth" then
Good luck to all shareholders
IGC Price at posting:
21.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
