It would certainly seem that this announcement has stirred up a hornets nest. I was going to just sit on the sidelines, but as I've got a bit of time this morning I thought I'd chuck in my 2 cents. Many of you on here seem to have quite a bit of communication with the company, and although I do not, someone above asked if anyone on this board was one of the larger shareholders in AVL. That is a category I fall under but I'd rather not say how many I hold, as if I did it would become fairly obvious which member of the share register I am.
Anytime you see that there is going to be dilution in a company you have a large position in alarm bells obviously ring. So I took some time last week to take a look at exactly what we were "giving", and to whom. Again I do not profess to know these individuals personally nor what they have or haven't done for the company over the years. I merely took an objective look at who they were and what we were handing over to them. I'd also like to add that it may have been better to make each party in Section 4 their own separate resolution if that makes any sense, but I'm not even sure that was possible.
To me Vince Algar is the right guy to steer this ship. I've heard him talk a couple of times and to me the guy just gets it. He's well aware of all the threats that I personally believe cause 90% of spec companies to fail, many of which are a result of their own success (unprotected hostile takeovers etc). It's not a big secret that compared to his peers the guy is underpaid, and from listening to him talk it seems he joined AVL more because of the amazing resource than the money. Remember he's been involved in taking companies public before so on the "ladder" he's been higher than this already. I remember a while back when he received options I specifically had a laugh because they were so far out of the money and worth about $50K!! Anyway, as far as I'm concerned the guy deserves these OR to be paid the equivalent of his peers (which would be worth and extra @15,000,000 shares per annum). I'd just as soon keep him around to see the finish line with AVL.
To be honest I've got very little idea who Leslie Ingraham or Brenton Lewis are. I do know that they have been involved with this company for a very long time and quite possibly there have been times (when the company has struggled) when they have had to step in and assist in keeping it afloat. Did that involve more than just hours of their time? Did either have to put in their own money to stop the doors from closing? Maybe someone here who has been around longer than I can answer that. Either way I know nothing about them so without the above explained (which maybe it should have in the resolution) I'm on the sidelines here. One only need to look at the share price rise of Atlas Iron while Daniel Harris was interim CEO to know that he's got to be worth at least 6,000,000 shares for his time. That's actually a bit of a joke if someone wants to question this one. His contacts alone will make this a great investment I believe. Hopefully he will be assisting VA in meeting the biggest contacts out there in this space. You see, unlike many others here in seems, I couldn't give a rats if every tonne of vanadium is sold to the steel industry at top dollar. To me the battery market is just gravy!
So all in all I'm somewhat glad these guys are now willing to stick their head in the guillotine with accepting these shares. Before there was possibly of an argument that they really didn't have a decent cut of the pie compared to similar public companies. Now they do! In all honesty we really don't know how they wanted this deal structured anyway. One must also remember that although an "option" may sound like the best thing to present to management, here in Australia that can be riddled with complications. Specifically the fact that options can have a very negative tax implication to those that receive them. I'm no accountant but it's not difficult to look up how and when the tax office puts value on options received in this sort of a situation (google Black Sholes equation). Also don't forget that these individuals don't have the right to walk outside and sell the shares right away. In theory I'm hoping that this is the anchor that keeps VA around AVL for a while. In my opinion he is our MVP in the company and as long as he is willing to accept shares instead of asking to be paid what others are making around him, then he must feel pretty confident in where our share price is going.
OK better keep moving. All the best!!
AVL Price at posting:
1.6¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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