They are very interesting questions. Why does Management typically do these things. Is the issue of these 15.0 cents options intended as a reward reflected in a relatively low Hurdle Rate? .....or more a high water mark which may or may not be easily achieved over the course of the next 18 months.
Or is it more like I had mentioned in my previous post 'an indicator ' of what might be instore in the next nearer term capital raise. And will these latest Directors options be more of a leading indicator in perhaps the next level of FREE attaching 15.0 cent options for shareholders on account of the BIG ask from the last Moblan raise at 14.5 cents which hasn't really gone off.
And in attempting to answer these questions , it doesn't hurt to reflect back on the past performance and relationships with the options as a pointer to what might lie ahead in terms of the future performance.
And I don't necessarily agree that you can simply draw a line of correlation through the OC's and OD options which were mainly on account of previous raises which were largely supported by Management and NOT the retail components of the register. Remembering that those raises were largely under-supported with large shortfalls being ultimately taken up by Management , Insto's and other Top 20 holders.
So in terms of ' Performance ' and more immediate past performance , I feel that part of the reasoning here is definitely on account of the poorer performance and recognition of the Moblan transaction and the raising at 14.5 cents. And you only have to revisit the Moblan rights issue prospectus on 4th October to see that the 14.5 cent issue price was based on a discount matrix of 17.5% to that of the last traded price of 17.5 cents only 3 trading sessions earlier ( allowing for public holidays in Vic , Qld and NSW ) ....and a discount of only 14.7% or an equivalent of 17.0 cents per share to that of the TERP ( theoretical ex rights price ) based on the 1 for 35 dilution.
So what I am saying with this ' Discount ' to the Moblan raise point in relation to the 15.0 cent options is that irrespective of whether one thinks they are to low or to high .....is that Management thinks that they are within more or less the SAME value parameters with the 15.0 cent being approximately 14.25% discounted to the last traded price on September 29th , and around 11.76 % discounted to the Moblan theoretical ex-rights price after the share price dilution and additional capital and asset value added.
So I guess what we can interpret from that based on what Management obviously believes verses what the Market has ascribed is that the 15.0 cent options are in some ways almost an attempt to ' underwrite ' the valuation of the Moblan deal which has so far gone wrong.
At the same time , it's not often and mostly a rare occurrence ( or is it ?...... ) that Management of any company has generally been asked to pay MORE for their shares in a forward looking Capital Raise with FREE attaching options.
However , with Sayona , this has occurred at least TWICE in the last 5 years when Crawford took up 2,750,000 ' FREE ' attaching options in August and September 2015 and then was GIVEN another 5,000,000 unlisted options later on at the AGM in 2015.
In the case of his 2,750,000 obtain in a rights issue , they had a 3.0 cent exercise price and a 30th December 2016 expiry where he exercised ALL of them 9 months earlier on May 23rd 2016 when the SP was only around exercise price after being as high as the 5 cents levels in late April and in the 4's in the earlier parts of May 2016. After that , the SP drifted lower to finish on the expiry date of 30th December 2016 at just below the exercise price. So given that Crawford didn't sell his FIRST amount of shares ever until 7th December 2017 where he sells only 2,100,000 shares for $70,000 ( 3.33 cents per share ). So it was not as if Crawford obtained a windfall gain on the movement in the SP from August 2015 through early December 2017 and just before the rally into early 2018.balance.
Same goes for his 5,000,000 2015 shareholder approved 3.0 cent options expiring 30th June 2017. He converted 2 lots of 1,500,000 for $45,000 on 30th June 2016 & 30th June 2017 ( expiry ) when the SP was just below 3.0 cents in 2016 and only 1.5 cents in 2017. He also had to let go 2,000,000 or 40% of his total allocated previous 5 million of Directors Options which were issued 18 months earlier.
Remember also that He ( Crawford ) along with almost 100% of the rest of the shareholders who participated in the 2018 - 5.1 cents rights issue with FREE 1 for 2 attaching 7.8 cent options , AND who ALL saw their options expire worthless on 30th April 2020 . All 120,235,840 of them.......
So one could certainly argue that this current allocation of 30 million shares to Buckler and Crawford are a bit of a ' Catch Up ' in making amends on years of under performance with respects to previous raises together with the fact the the Moblan raise has also not kicked any big goals for those who took it up.
And don't forget that Lynch and Laliberte both received 2,000,000 each of 3.0 cent & 4.0 cent unlisted options back around the time of .0086 capital raising...so there probably is a sense of ' Evening ' things out over the course of the Directors Journey so to speak. So you can see by the previous calcs that in Crawfords case , if he takes up and converts these 15.0 cent options , his average cost base goes up by 100%.
And so I guess the question remaining here is whether this move is intended to ' Double ' his return from conversion of these options in much the same way as Ordinary Shareholders would or still do expect to ' Double ' their investment from the 14.5 cent Moblan entry .......keeping in mind that their averages will also be lower even if they only participated in just the last 2 raises ....and even less if they participated in the last THREE.
If they ( other shareholders ) did all three to the same level by buying ' on market ' like Crawford did in ' off market ' trades back on 2nd March 2015 where he acquired 50,972,283 shares for $147,820 or .0029 cents per share and again on 3th July 2020 when he acquired a further 21,000,000 ordinary shares ( 8,333,333 Direct & 12,666,667 indirect ) for $126,000 or .006 cents per share........they would ALL be laughing.
So these were Crawfords MAIN inflection points which have set up his current Average scenario of just under 3.0 cents. A price which he seems to have been happy to pay all those years ago. So almost 40% of his entire HOLDING balance before or after his yet to be issued and converted 20 million 15.0 cent options were obtained in just TWO timely ' off market ' trades averaging 3.86 cents per share in isolation of everything else.........remember that 3.8 cent was the TERP pricing for the 1 for 6 rights issue back in April / May 2021......
Interesting as well that the $4,500,000 potentially being raised from Buckler and Crawfords conversion of their 15.0 cent options is more than 2 times that of the amount potentially raised from the conversion of the OD's and only 28.1% less than that of the entire amount potentially being raised from the April 2023 2.0 cent OC's.
I guess the other thing to think about here is that should Buckler and Crawford depending on the timing of when they convert them......if they convert them - is almost as good as ' underwriting ' the $6,285,021 ( as at now ) amount being raised by the OC's in that same year. So potentially should there be no further conversion of OC's between now and then , that would be a further $10,785,021 being raised in roughly the first half of 2023.
So I guess whatever you think with regards to the reasoning's , you can see there is plenty of intent by Management in BOTH supporting the Moblan raise pricing as well as supporting the previous Directors contributions given what the newcomers like Lynch and Laliberte have been able to achieve with their lower price unlisted options and Share price opportunities.
(20min delay)