Following are my notes, gleaned both from the presentation, then from the good discussion that I had with Ian afterwards. I checked with him and he is ok for me to share this information with you all. He also gave me his card and said to call with any further questions after I said that the response people had been getting from the company was a bit mixed. He was very generous with his time and very candid in his responses, both of which I appreciated.
NOTE THOUGH THAT I MAY HAVE SOME OF THE DETAILS NOT 100% ACCURATE TO THE NTH DEGREE AND I AM RELYING UPON MY NOTES AND RECALL. OBVIOUSLY ALSO THIS IS NOT ADVICE.
As I said yesterday Ian wasn't really selling the sizzle. As you can all see from the presentation it was much the same as other presentations that Ian has given recently, and he said as much in his delivery.
He was really just reinforcing that the plan is in place and is being outworked systematically to deliver the outcomes that they are seeking.
Stockpile:
Ore is being moved from the mine to the port. There is only currently about half a boatload at port. ABX are wisely delaying the transport to JIT as much as possible as this is a significant cost. Ian is trying to coordinate the delivery with the invoicing of the customer to reduce the financial exposure and minimise the cost of money.
The stockpiles at the mine are going well and will be ready to move when needed.
A decent portion of the presentation was dedicated to the process/methodology for moving the stockpiles and they are proud of the innovation they have developed for this (basically containerise, then turn the container upside down and shake it out at the other end onto the port stockpile).
Shipping:
First shipment is to be within a month.
This is timed to coincide with the shipment from their marketing partner in India so that the loads (to be blended at the other end) arrive at roughly the same time.
The 2nd shipment should happen before the end of the year.
MONEY
As you can see from the preso they have about $1.8m cash on hand.
Ian made the point very clearly and distinctly during the preso that ABX is not planning any capital raising. When I spoke to him after he confirmed this and agreed that they will be able to fund ongoing operations out of cashflow from the Tassie mines.
The first shipment should bring in about $2m revenue into the bank accounts. This will be freakin' lovely.
Dividends and Shares
I forgot to ask the question re divvies. Sorry.
Ian did state within the presentation though that they were hoping to return some money to shareholders when they could. This commitment did seem a bit less strong than previously communicated though (IMO), and was kind of a follow up to a statement/point that he was making about the operation becoming self funding and no plans for raising further capital.
Ian also stated quite strongly in the presentation that they were very proud of the fact that there were only 140m shares issued and that they are keeping the dilution low.
Ian also mentioned that his share holding is about 60 times the size of mine (only 50 time now Ian ;-) ) and that he bought all his shares on the market. His average price is higher than mine too, and probably higher than most of you I would think.
We discussed the recent share price movements, and I posited my theories, and those of these boards in recent times:
1/ that there was concern that the price was being driven down by a potential financier to reduce the share price for a cap raising placement. - The no cap raising statement already scotched this and Ian further confirmed this was not the case.
2/ That someone was driving the share price down with a view for a takeover etc. - Ian said that they did not have evidence of this, but also said that they keep track of activity and there is a regular visitor to their site from a sizeable player in the industry who may be an interested player. Ian said that there has certainly been no discussion of this with any players.
Ian discussed that they were also p1ssed off (my words not his) with the share price movement and had spent some time trying to forensically investigate it. Eventually they tracked it down to a Euro based investor (I am withholding the country) who was constantly selling down their considerable position. Ian spoke to them and asked strongly why they were dumping it, as they have a number of interested investors who would have taken up the shares as an off market placement. The response was that in the country in which they are currently based conversations of this nature are currently ILLEGAL, and that they were selling out of ALL their positions and relocating their base to a different Euro country where this was not the case, and then will reestablish their positions as they see fit. This was VERY interesting.
I have been typing for quite a while now, and this is getting pretty long to read, so I will break it up into two parts. Keep tuned for part two.
ABX Price at posting:
22.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)