I am being harsh as I am a hard task manager. Of course they had to finance the capex to produce 155 tonnes. No one is denying this (except that they went over 10% because they took their eyes off the ball and started playing politics with our money).
But don't come at me with controllable expenses. How do you think they have found the majority of their savings (as BHP has also found).? They bloated their expenses when things were good. Expense control is not a main concern for most public companies. (AMP another example.) I would venture to say that the majority of Directors in Public companies would not last a month running a private company.
So here are now, things are bad and our Directors are reacting to the situation.
If they had been pro-active they would have done a 1 for 3 capital raising at $3 when the share price was nearly $6 last year. End of debt. I put it to you that you and I would have forked out the $3, but would our chairman been able to find another cool Billion?
They should have fixed the balance sheet when things were good!
I'll repeat again, it is not a desirable position for a public company to have a chairman who has 30% of the share capital.
Pear
FMG Price at posting:
$2.30 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)