Korea - WTF is going on?

We were bamboozled

- Korean consortium failed to deliver on investment for Dubbo. Instead of cutting losses and moving on to other prospects, ASM management doubled / tripled down in the hopes of a salvage deal that would save face after all the empty MOUs

- Hyundai has no interest in coming in. Zero. Nor does Samsung and LG. Insiders knew this years ago.

- Korean consortium are simply dealmakers, trying to hand EPC contract to Hyundai construction (the precise opposite of a investment from Korea), but that hasn’t swayed Hyundai automotive’s decision.

- Dubbo languishes and ASM is financing a metals processing plant in a country non-friendly to foreign investment that cannot utilise its own offtake

- A processing plant for Dubbo should always have been in Oz, nowhere else.

- My contention - having failed to secure offtake/investment for Dubbo, the Korean consortium has instead used Dubbo to finance a plant they (ie Koreans) ultimately control and will simply takeover from ASM when IG, DW, Rowena & Co realise they’ve been taken for a ride.

- Dubbo is bleeding cash and in the worst of all worlds. 1) it’s missed the major financing window in 2018-2021: 2) they are pregnant with a partner that continues to overmarket prospects and will ultimately bleed them dry. 3) ASM now is devoting its $$$ / resources to supporting a Korean trading business that will ultimately be forced from their hands.

I called this out months ago and was attacked by the resident PR shills

Happy now?

Solution:

- End the Korean deal. Sell KMP.

- Secure project financing from a US / Western consortium. Sell control or do farm-in.

- 20% carried interest is worth far more from a project that’s fully financed / developed than owning majority in an asset that’s being stripped of value by its offtakers.