Kbrown if anything this could be a bottoming out signal. Reg would have known more than anyone what happens to a small oil business with no income that needs money to develop their newly found oil assets. The current SP and uncertainty is not pleasant at all but the facts remain;
The banks and tier one lenders were always going to need a certain level of SH equity before they would stump up which always was going to mean a cap raise and the inevitable company vulnerability.
Brokers operating on behalf of the FAR would have been doing the rounds gauging SI interest while at the same time, possibly lending shares to shorters hand over fist along with other large volume shareholders wanting some rental returns on their holdings.
Shorters worked the SP down making money for themselves and ensuring that the SIs got a very cheap buy. Shorters would have been in on the cap raise in order to have access to discounted shares to cover their positions.
34242 was always complaining about hired help on this board and he had good reason to do so because internet forums are a proven and well known venue for scaring the loose hands to help shake the tree.
All of the above is standard practice and legal(except of course if the cap raise broker is bound by agreement to NOT lend shares whilst assessing the cap raise). This happens all the time, not a lot shareholders or the company can effectively do about it.
Where we have every right to be angry is in the timing of events. Leaving the cap raise to the 11th hour(actually past midnight) is VERY bad form because, as mentioned before, Reg et al. would have known what was coming.
That is the clusterf@#k that I dont like, and why I now want to understand more of what went on between WPL's JV finance efforts(as Base has told us correctly we were in fact, through PE, biting the hand that was going to feed us) and how FAR were not reasonably prepared at an earlier juncture to know that they were going to have to go it alone, which would have allowed FAR to cap raise in an earlier higher SP environment.
Management have told me the relationship between them and Meridian is very sound. I now wonder what the relationship between Tim and FAR is like. I get a feeling that he may have been worked over a bit here (dilution-wise) just like the rest of us.
The cap raise was not easy to participate in (as other SIs will confirm here) which leads me to believe that a deal with the devil may have been done here. Either to satisfy a very large warehousing customer, shorters or other unknown play.
As I said earlier maybe Reg buying in now is a sign that the worst of this BS is behind us now.
In any event I will be attending this years AGM because the roadshows seem to have come to an end with the newly institutionalized register. I want answers and I want them to be answered in public and on record. This team have done some very hard work and they have ticked some very large boxes for a small oiler and we seem to be on the road to become a top 10 Australian oil producer, which is excellent. So some clarity on the PE and the finance timing would not be a big ask to have explained because at the end of the day the combination has impacted the company in profound ways and reflects on the ability to have full faith in management.
There may very well have been extenuating circumstances around all of the above but we will never know unless they come clean.
A slightly disillusioned CV.
FAR Price at posting:
3.3¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)