Voting went pretty much as expected. The presentation was as per...

Voting went pretty much as expected.
The presentation was as per previous AGM's, with a slide show, commentary and questions at the end. Brian Allen did the first half and tag teamed with Stewart Elliott during the second half.
BA highlighted the financial success over the last 12 months, with increasing revenue and profit from existing operations. Overheads being controlled contributed to that.
Emphasis now is on establishing a wider footprint for the company, leveraging experience in construction and operation to identify growth opportunities for next 20 years. He also emphasised how the "software" side of things was the hardest to manage. He highlighted the "people" issues, especially in Indonesia and to some extent in the Philippines, that were unpredictable and never on our timelines.
Standard Chartered drew a lot of commentary. BA went in to quite deep detail about the internal problems they have experienced and the fact that they lost their entire project debt team, with whom EWC had been working closely with, negotiate the phase 1 funding arrangements (see slides). BA suggested that this had cost the company many months in delays - I put it at more like a year, possibly more.
He skirted around the issue of the convertible notes and seemed uncomfortable about focussing on that - actually commenting that that was in the past.
He highlighted that we were "within an ace" of getting the financing sorted with the DBP and expected it to be completed mid December. Financing for Sengkang LNG is progressing, but there has been quite a bit of haggling and stonewalling on LNG pricing. The banks involved had been scheduled to visit the site on the day of the AGM, but (luckily) this has been postponed due to a key director having a commitment dropped on them at short notice, for the near future. BA expected this to be sorted before the end of December. BA sees no impediment to all three financings being sorted before end December. He committed to keeping the market informed if that changed.
BA stated that when the first stage of the Pagbilao power, LNG hub and Sengkang LNG are commercialised, that they will contribute US$100-150 million in revenue from June 2016. He said that the board see this as the turning point from the last 10-15 years.
The Pagbilao power expansion is likely to be funded through debt with the existing banks. They are keen to get the equity out of the Philippines and "return" it to the company.
Gilmore is now back on the radar, with BA and SE suggesting it could be progressed independently of everything else if they source "separate" financing, and Standard Chartered are now working on that too.
BA and SE expressed a desire to bring in a wider mix of investors through other exchange listings Phase 3). It would help by being seen as more "domestic" by host countries and potentially enable capital raisings for 2nd LNG hub and a 2-3x Pagbilao power expansion.
Photos show lots of senior officials of banks , government and interested parties. The intent to sell power on free market has probably slowed down financing. These people now see the progress, the fact that it is nearly done, and have come around - BA highlighted this is the first ever power station development with free market approach and no "adverse" contract pricing. He eluded to internal resistance from competitors in Philippines to what EWC has achieved. SE described our projects as the business tourism bus stops of Asia.
Mandiri appointed a consultancy to review the LNG project. They strongly recommended what EWC were doing. Mitsui came to see EWC about 5 years ago and said they did not believe what EWC planned was possible. They came back 4 months ago and "apologised" - they are extremely impressed with what EWC have achieved. Capital Group have also been on site.
BA constantly reinforced that EWC were "ahead of the game" in Philippines and Indonesia in terms of what they were achieving/had achieved, because they felt they had focussed on markets first rather than just "production".
SE then spoke to the existing assets and what they were contributing, but reinforced that the Sengkang power station was BOT and that the contract ends in 2022. He stated that they were trying to negotiate that, but that may not be possible. The LNG plant, however, is not BOT and will be required no matter what - either as export or import.
SE described the Standard Chartered negotiations and loss of personnel as "brutal". SE then got BA to read to the meeting, a letter from the Managing Director of Projects from Standard Chartered dated 18th Nov 2015. This letter effectively acknowledged the adverse impact that the internal Standard Chartered changes had had on EWC and to my mind represented as close to an apology that one could ever get in writing. It also completely and unambiguously reiterated Standard Chartered's support for EWC and potential involvement in the actual funding. SC referred to themselves as a "core partner" of EWC's.
Sengkang LNG dredging is progressing with our own brought in kit. (The dredging is to remove spoil that was used to provide a platform to build the jetty on). Loading arms in place etc etc. They reinforced just how big this jetty is for Indonesia, with break aways and quick release hooks not put in anywhere else locally up til now.
SE reinforced the unmet demand of 60 million people without power in Indonesia and Asia generally. He spoke to the Philippines desire to reduce coal and was serious when he referred to the influence the Pope had in his commentary about reducing pollution and especially coal fired power (Philippines having a high Catholic population).
EWC have signed a preliminary agreement with Siemens for the supply of 5000MW of power in Indonesia in to the future.
SE referred to Strike, but cautioned on the water and the low domestic prices for gas.
Then there were quite a few questions. One was around what approaches EWC had had to "sell out" or partner. SE said Mitsui had approached us, but that SC was valuing our assets at substantially more than what Mitsui was talking.
Completion of Pagbilao power is funding dependent (as is everything), but they are still aiming for end March. There was talk about what price we would get for the electricity and SE described how we would manage that. SE again reinforced how they had spent a lot of time developing that market and how power demand would be insatiable for the next 20 years.
Sengkang LNG is still planned for end June. SE and BA pointed out that in practical terms, the second 500,000 TPA would be added almost immediately, as everything had to be in place for the initial 500.
Abbott Point is on hold, largely due to internal Qld Government reasons and the east coast (Gladstone) gas market sorting itself out before EWC wants to progress further.
There were a few other questions after this, which I have no notes for.
I would have to say I found the meeting a little "subdued", only in the context of there being more a "steely resolve" to complete the projects as soon as possible and to finally see the first part of the vision implemented. ie. rather than any particular "excitement". I got the distinct impression that the effort involved in working through the Standard Chartered "ripples" (as BA referred to them) - which were perhaps more "brutal" than ripples (as SE referred to them) - has sucked a bit of energy out of BA and SE. But that was just my impression - they were still totally focused and unwavering on the goal and its imminent success.
I came away very assured and probably the most confident for a while that they will finally come close to hitting targets.