question about pitcher partners august update, page-18

My thoughts on MON:

It was quite clear for at least 6 months that the MON mines were seriously under-performing in terms of production and development.

It was quite clear that MON's cash-burn was very large, thus requiring the capital raisings and borrowings

The borrowings were disclosed the Appendix 5B statement's, although in my view the company should have been provided more detailed and regular information on the borrowings, and the conditions attached to them

During the last few months, MON's ability to get cash was really only underpinned by TTY, rather than the broader market. At some point, the TTY board would have to ask whether the support of MON was in the interests of TTY shareholders

Apart from the above, it was clear that the share price would be under pressure during the June quarter because of the need to issues shares and convertible notes for the Harmony deal.

Sure, MON had big ambitions and made various statements that seemed to rely in its key people to 'do deals' and 'turn around' operations, but objectively this was a high-risk strategy in an increasingly high-cost and risk-adverse general financial and market environment.

Overall then, people buying MON shares were also adopting a high-risk approach. Maybe administration wasn't the most likely outcome from above, but its not that suprising it ended in a lot of pain.

angud