Another day where we sit here like stunned mullets, wondering when the long awaited announcement to the market will finally become a reality.
I have to admit, I do sit here and wonder sometimes why I chose to be so over-weight with AOW in my portfolio. There seems to be a tendency for APOG to over-promise and under-achieve, and to show very little regard for shareholders.
- I look at the fanfare last November that touted the East Texas acquisitions that would have APOG "achieving production of 500boepd by the end of 2017" and be "a producing conventional oil business with well over 1000bopd production in 2018”. The result?
- I look at the announcement on July 24th that promised "a US$17m debt facility closing August 2018". We're now approaching mid-October.
- I look at a Trading Halt request lodged 3 October with the ASX that indicates an announcement to be made "before the commencement of normal trading on Friday 5 October 2018, which evolves into a Voluntary Suspension with the announcement expected by "commencement of normal trading on Monday 8 October 2018" - or later.
I've been around the business world long enough to know that sh** happens and that unexpected delays occur, but do shareholders not deserve an explanation why a forecast subsequently proves to be so grossly off target, especially given that every forecast seems to over-promise and under-deliver? And surely shareholders deserve an Annual Report that is less sloppily put together than by cutting and pasting from previous market announcements. I'm not expecting them to re-invent the wheel but I definitely do not expect to find, halfway through the review of the year's operations, a paragraph that starts off: "American Patriot Oil and Gas Ltd (ASX: AOW) (“American Patriot” or “the Company”
has signed . . . . . ". Cut and pasted from a market announcement, and nobody bothers to proof read it and realize that it was appropriate in the market announcement but how ludicrous it looks in the midst of the Annual Report.
For the moment though, and with those gripes aired, I remain optimistic that my investment is well chosen and that TTID - this time it's different. That this time, in place of the dreamy "well over 1000bopd production in 2018” we have, hopefully, a more realistic and achievable growth forecast "from 570boepd in 2018 to 750boepd in 2019." From "closing August 2018" to September to October does worry me, as does an announcement that goes from "Friday 5 October 2018" to "commencement of normal trading on Monday 8 October 2018" to ??, but let's see what the announcement does finally reveal, whether it supports the belief that the latest acquisitions are positively transformational - and funded! - and let's see what production rate they've achieved by 31 Dec 2018.
