Hi All,
Some comments regarding yesterday’s AGM for those unable to attend:
Other than Shaun Scott (Chairman), David Lymburn (MD) and Les Capelli (Non-Executive Director) there were roughly 20 people in attendance, including two representatives from Ernst & Young (Auditors), at least one representative from Monadelphous, AnaeCo’s Company Secretary Tim Hinton, AnaeCo staff members, visitors and shareholders.
After Shaun Scott opened the meeting, David Lymburn basically went through the presentation as released to the market, answering questions during and after the presentation.
I’d describe the mood from management as ‘tempered confidence’. They certainly wouldn’t have wanted to come out smiling given the drop in the SP over the last year; however there was a real sense of underlying confidence that the WMRC project is on the verge of completion in the very near future.
David stated that from AnaeCo’s perspective the commissioning of the plant is now complete, and advised that discussions are underway to revise the criteria which must be met for Practical Completion to be achieved and the Contract closed out. He further stated that this revised criteria may supersede the requirement for the plant to undergo performance trials (in whole or part), and that AnaeCo’s preferred stance on this issue is to have a revised, final punchlist (in lieu of the performance trials), the completion of which will satisfy the final contractual requirements and release AnaeCo.
With regards to the screw presses, David advised that these were being upgraded to reduce the dewatering time from nearly 2 days to around 1 day.
As stated in the presentation, the plant is planned to be restarted this month.
Regarding new projects, we were advised that the WA project listed on page 9 of the presentation is in fact the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council in Perth.
AnaeCo representatives have met this year with Veolia in the Eastern States (Veolia Australia) as well as in Paris (Veolia France) to discuss the utilisation of AnaeCo technology by these companies. AnaeCo has also been in discussion with parties in UK and elsewhere in regards to sourcing suitable JV parties for future international projects (AnaeCo are looking for a party to JV with similar to what Monadelphous are doing with the WMRC. Monadelphous are partnering with AnaeCo within Australia).
David clarified that the Chinese entity currently finalising details to purchase the major portion of the Monadelphous loan is separate to the entity (Dynagreen) which AnaeCo has been in discussion with for commercialisation of DiCOM in China. He also emphasised that this Chinese entity looking to buy into the Monadelphous loan is involved in the waste industry themselves and is not looking to be a passive investor, but rather has a significant interest in the technology. He further stated that all three parties (Monadelphous, the Chinese entity and AnaeCo) are keen to conclude the details of the deal ASAP, hopefully before Christmas.
Several questions were asked at the end including:
- specifics of projects in the Eastern States (David explained that resources would need to be freed up by completion of the WMRC in order to most efficiently cater for this potential new work);
- the possibility of damages claims against the manufacturers of the equipment involved in the cause of delays (David stated that claims were being pursued by AnaeCo for the water process tanks, and that Monadelphous were separately dealing with claims against suppliers of other mechanical equipment);
That’s the bulk of my recollection of events.
Cheers
Freighter