Ann: Bathurst Chairman's Address, page-11

First of all, that is quite a trip to get to the AGM...so very much appreciated Viney (&Black cap etc), that you went in to bat for us minority investors.

Frankly, I am underwhelmed.  My impression is that they read hotcopper, understood there is an incipient revolt building from minority shareholders...and sought to nip it in the bud...with sweet talk but little concrete action.  What was the need for so many BRL people to be present in the room?  Maybe because if some raised their voice in anger, there were enough people to "calm" the raised voice down?

Share buybacks: I don't buy their argument. So buying 30% to 50% of all shares traded in the last 1 month is not "manipulating the share price" but somehow putting a 13 cents bid and swooping up all available shares is?  The ASX rules clearly allow that a company can buy up to 5% higher than the VWAP.  That means buying all shares available today at 13 cents is perfectly legal.  The only reason why a company would not buy is to spend as little cash as possible on buybacks.  $500k spent so far is not even 2 days of daily cash flow.  At the time of writing, the share price is at risk of going back to 12 cents, forget about 13 cents.

You put a 30% chance of a January dividend...January is when I assumed BT Mining will pay a dividend to BRL.  So what are they doing with the cash?  If not January, then it means July 2019...and I am dubious they will part with any cash, even then, as they will claim that the L&M court case is still not decided.  For a company which will get at least $110 million in cash flow and at most needs $80 million of that for the court case...it stretches all credibility.  The shares are pricing in an EV/Operating cash flow of 3x.  Tell me any project they can spend money on, that will generate a 33% return on investments?

The company "has grown quickly" yet we don't think of the real owners of the company...other than Singapore...is the message I hear.  Yes, that has been made clear to us, with those Resolutions 7 & 8.  Management and Board knows that their jobs are dependent on keeping the 50% Singapore owners happy so all the actions are not geared towards us, the remaining fragmented 50%...it is aimed at keeping the Singapore gang happy.  

Hedging: so Tacon feels relief that his 25% of hedges is "out of the money" as that means that 75% is "in the money"?  What a clever way to hide total incompetence!  "Mr Tacon...why did you even put those 25% hedges to begin with", would be my retort.  Did you make a single hedge this year, that was "in the money"?  Bet you not.  So they do the next best thing...just leave all talk of "hedging" out of the pitch book.  Now we are down to outright lying.  Pathetic.  

The company has grown "rapidly" but we forget to update our website...the very first thing any potential investor will check.  Yup...and we have not found time to hire an IR person too.  But tell me...why would they need an IR person?  Any call from Singapore is immediately answered post haste.  Heck, if my job depended on it, I would too!  Answer it in the middle of the night if need be...and answered by Tacon and Toko.  The Singapore people don't care about an IR...it is the rest of the world that does.  But who cares about the rest of the world...they can't touch our cushy performance shares boosted comfortable jobs in a company spewing cash which is now ours to keep...not the minority shareholders.

In short, this is what I expected from this board and management.  An unmitigated disaster in corporate governance; the worst in my years of looking at Anglo Saxon companies in the US, Canada, UK, Australia & NZ.  I don't expect any good to come out of these people. It will not surprise me if the share price remains 12 to 13 cents in 7 months time and beyond.  Who in his right institutional investor mind would want to buy them?  Even retail is bailing out now as they smell the coffee...with only BRL itself as the real buyer left. 

I personally am very regretful of buying this one...I wish I had never heard of BRL in my life.  The warning signs were there all along.  It was stupid me who thought that corporate governance could not be this bad.