I encourage all holders to do a bit of research on Hannam &...

I encourage all holders to do a bit of research on Hannam & Partners and Mr Ian Hannam.

I was going through the latest DNK presentations looking for a 2017 milestones list as we seem to be ticking items off quite regularly (which is great - we're on track). I noticed it the Arlington preso (Feb-17) that we've appointed Hannam & Partners as our Equity Advisor. I don't remember an announcement about it but I do remember the name from the Site Visit and that H&P initiated coverage of DNK recently. In fact, their report was probably the most comprehensive.

Anyway, I looked into H&P and discovered that Ian Hannam (founder of H&P) is the former Chairman of Capital Markets at JP Morgan Cazenove (JV between JPM and a UK investment bank). They called him the 'King of Mining' over in the UK as he's the best deal maker in mining. His story is truly that of an industry gun.

His team at H&P isn't just a list of junior analysts either. They have an incredibly strong team of Partners that have worked across the globe for the biggest companies and pulling together the biggest deals.

Ian Hannam's involvement in our project as Equity Advisor is almost certainly how JPM joined our registry last year and how other very large investors will also take stakes. We literally couldn't ask for a better name representing us over in the UK. I suspect we'll see some other very large players joining us very soon.

So Hamman is working with us and we have Connochie on the Board too. I wouldn't be surprised to see Hannam join our Board soon too. What a coup that would be. Between these blokes and our existing Board, I have no doubt we'll pull together both the debt and equity we need to progress through to construction.

Back to the 2017 milestones, according to Paul, we're aiming to offtake HOAs around the middle of this year. That means in the next 2-4mths, we'll start seeing MOUs being converted into HOAs and then into binding agreements. Finance will be progressed in parallel to offtakes (I dont think it will be announced but it will be progressed) so all things going well, by mid-2017, we'll be a LOT closer to the end game. Offtakes, debt and equity lock down will be that much closer and I suspect the SP will reflect that shift in our company from a 'maybe' to a 'probably'.

http://www.hannamandpartners.com/people/

https://www.jpmorgan.com/country/US/EN/about/investment-banking/cazenove

Interesting article about Ian Hannam and how/why he setup H&P.

https://www.ft.com/content/23f12fe2-351d-11e4-aa47-00144feabdc0

Ian Hannam has set up an eponymous advisory boutique firm only months after the buccaneering investment banker lost his appeal in a regulatory market abuse case.

Strand Partners, the London-based advisory group Mr Hannam acquired two years ago, will be reorganised as a fully fledged partnership and renamed Hannam and Partners, in changes that are set to be announced on Monday.

It comes just a few months after the dealmaker, known as the “king of mining” for advising on a host of high-profile deals in the sector, failed with his landmark appeal against UK regulators who fined him £450,000 two years ago for passing inside information to a foreign government official.

The case has split the UK financial community and prompted Mr Hannam to step down from his position as chairman of capital markets at JPMorgan Cazenove in 2012. “It has been financially gruelling, it has been emotionally draining . . . I can’t say it has been a good experience,” Mr Hannam told the Financial Times. He bought Strand shortly after resigning from JPMorgan Cazenove and has refocused it since from a small- and mid-cap-oriented UK venture into a merchant bank concentrating on natural resources and emerging markets.

Mr Hannam, a captain in the Territorial Army, will cede majority control over the partnership this year to his five partners, but will retain a blocking veto. “Like the John Lewis partnership, which is my model, employees over time can take this over,” he said, referring to the department store chain which is owned by its employees. His partners in the 40 people-strong firm include Tim Hoare, a veteran dealmaker and former head of Canaccord Europe, Giles Fitzpatrick, the former chief executive of Fox-Pitt-Kelton, and three ex-JPMorgan bankers. John Manser, a former banker and current chairman of SABMiller, will continue to be chairman of Hannam and Partners after having had the same role at Strand. Mr Hannam said the rebranding would also be helpful for the firm’s wider focus on emerging markets. “Notwithstanding all the [bad] press, my name is far better known internationally than it is in London.”

The profitable firm is active in Asia and Africa with affiliates in Hong Kong and Southern Africa. Its sector expertise goes beyond mining to include oil and gas as well as financial institutions, real estate and infrastructure. Mr Hannam wants it to follow an old-style merchant banking approach where the partnership is willing to invest its own money alongside clients. He cited his personal investments in German copper fabricator MKM Mansfelder Kupfer und Messing as well as his joint investment with Tony Hayward, BP’s former chief executive, in gas-to-liquids technology company CompactGTL. Some of the highest profile dealmakers – ranging from former UBS banker Ken Moelis in the US to ex-Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley star advisers Yoel and Michael Zaoui in Europe – have set up their own often eponymous firms in the past decade.