This is an a synopsis and excerpt from this mornings AFR column.
It seems to me that RC's priority is to resolve the southern states gas shortage and he believes the only way this can be done is through Mac financial support. Please read these final few paragraphs of the column. It seems to me that RC is saying, screw the current shareholders who have been loyal and patient, now it is time to get into bed with Maquaire and see how big this thing can be, with little empathy toward current LT holders.
It may just be me, but god these last few paragraphs pissed me off. Draw your own conclusions:
Central has the resources but nothing like the capital to make that gas available by the time the pipeline is ready in late 2018. Given the public markets currently do not know how to value stranded gas like Central's, access to new equity was going to be hideously expensive. So it has been obvious for sometime that private equity was where Central's fate would eventually lie.
There are many who now claim to be lone voices in predicting the gas crisis that is now upon us. We have been channelling warnings of market disequilibrium by 2016-17 for five years. Our original informants were ex-Origin boss Grant King, ex-Santos east coast gas boss James Baulderstone, ex-BHP Billiton boss Marius Kloppers and the man who sold BG Group the coal seam gas territories that inspired the first of Gladstone's three liquid natural gas projects, Richard Cottee.
These days Cottee steers Central Petroleum. And, while those who know him might wonder how it will work, it seems Cottee might well stick around once the Macquarie deal is done.
"Macquarie certainly said they would love me in the morning," Cottee said on Friday with very typical irreverence. "So, let's just say we are still dating. But, there have been no definitive discussions about the future. That comes next. And because there is no offer, yes, I was asked to vote on the approach and it was endorsed unanimously, so obviously I supported it."
Cottee is classic petroleum industry maverick. And Macquarie is, well, Macquarie. So the potential of cultural difference lies very real. But Cottee appears as driven to stay should Macquarie secure the business.
"I have a missionary zeal about this one," he told me on Friday. "I am keen to bring this gas to market, I am keen to see a solution to the problem [the supply crisis] and I am arrogant enough to think I could be relevant to the solution."
This could be an awful lot of fun to watch.
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