Yes it’s me. I have followed the ‘progress’ of kfe with interest...

Yes it’s me. I have followed the ‘progress’ of kfe with interest since my departure.

hotcopper has proved a useful but sadly often woefully off the mark forum.

i don’t know how long you have been a shareholder so forgive me if you have already lived this pain.

we did get a corner stone investor about two and half years ago. At the time a group of shareholders had exercised their right to carry out a 249d. It is important to mention that at this point IB and KJ has not come out as on the side of the 249d. As I secured the offer subject to documentation and dd I told this to the board. For some mysterious and completely impossible to work out reason this information was leaked to the ASX who told kfe to suspend itself for 48 hours and close the deal or announce we didn’t have a deal. The deal was about a month of dd and documentation from being ready, and 48 hours was an impossible timeframe. So the investor walked away. I am still friends with the ceo and got him back I’m in May 2019, but I kept it quiet while for dd and documentation (once bitten) but was fired before it was finished. I asked the ceo if he still wanted to invest in the new team and he declined strongly.

the agbaja project is good but not world class. The metallurgical issues are (in my opinion) fixable but the process will never be low cost. As an import replacement project it makes sense but that means payment will be in naira. This makes it hard to borrow dollars to build it. This doesn’t kill the deal but means the pool of potential finance suppliers is small.

kfe has never been properly represented in Nigeria. On the ground the project has a great asset in the form of alabi. He is a good man. But the project needs good men like alabi but also needs a couple of ‘cage fighters’ to fight is corner. Potential investors know this and want it fixed before they come in and local potential providers of this role and want a lump of the project for free for the tranquility they would bring. The potential investor referred to above was a Nigerian living in America so brought foreign capital with local clout, which is why I courted his investment so carefully. When I told him we had local influence he just laughed!

kfe has some long term and loyal shareholders like Tim Lebbon who has participated in most of the financings. It also has some muppets. Sensible institutions do broad and varied dd and I know of at least two potential investors who have been scared off by some of the names on the shareholder list. Again, this doesn’t kill the deal, it just reduces the capital pool available.

i hope this isn’t too depressing. I in no way want to suggest the project is dead - it is not dead. But, and it’s a big but, it needs a team with: west African project operating experience, deep and broad access to multiple pools of international finance, local and regional influence, advanced steel processing knowledge.

I am not sure what the new team can do, I am keen to hear their ideas.