ceo matthew hogan in the uk, page-29

My responses in brackets




Ocean Equities is a waste of time
SNIP
Really! They produced a large part of the funding for the company by finding a major investor (not exactly a shortage of funding options for iron projects over the last 3 years wouldn’t you agree?)

have they provided buying support in the past?
SNIP
We don't know - perhaps you should ask yourself who has been buying over the last month - someone has unloaded in a big way (Yanks???) which required considerable buying on the other side. Hopefully that is ending and we will see a nice bounce. (I have my own knowledge of who has been buying and it has nothing to do with OE, and no i wont share that information. Trips to London have not resulted in buying support in the past from what i can remember)

have they got us any where to date?
SNIP
Yes, excellent financing and consistent follow through. If others join in well and good - but I would not go around knocking a top class research firm who consistently supports the company.
(I agree their research is excellent, probably best i have seen on a junior in the industry, but one must ask why are they the only firm doing research?, time to find some new support outside of OE. At the same time I am very pleased with their ongoing support)

are they going to help us sort out infrastructure?
SNIP
Of course not - any more than any other broker/investment banker - get real (was merely suggesting that these are currently the critical issues that need resolving and i dont see how going to London is going to get us closer to an outcome for this)

are they going to help progress the project in anyway?
SNIP
If they find new money – Yes (like I said, still plenty of places to get money for iron ore projects, namely China. Given they are the reason the iron ore industry is not in tatters some would think it would be wise to build relationships in this area. Certainly the majority of other juniors have and well lets say they are mostly outperforming UMC)

are they going to buy any iron ore off us?
SNIP
See above - of curse not - pls name an Australian broking house wanting to take physical delivery of IO (again, merely pointing out the fact that London isn’t the best place for management to be at the moment)

are they going to take over UMC?
SNIP
NO - stupid question - name a broking house or banker who would ... (i dont need to explain this aswell)

I cant see how this trip to London is helpful, the answer to all those questions is a big NO
SNIP
How do you know? Have you bugged them?
I dont know, do you? given your regularly in the UK are you really providing a subjective opinion? Do you know the OE team quite well? Just a wild guess

I am sure OE are sick to death of seeing the same presentation as we are
SNIP
I am sure OE are delighted at the continued upgrading of the resource which vindicates their support over what is now several years. If you are sick of this excellent story then it's easy - sell and find other things to play with. (my intention of this post was not to have a go at OE, they are very good at what they do. It was merely to point out that maybe management should be focusing on more important things. OE can only do so much)