Hi rredman,
I've been watching this one for a while and thankfully I haven't bought any. To my knowledge the company has never said that stage 2 with Vandasia isn't going ahead, what they have said was that there were delays and that they were continuing discussions.
In one of my previous posts I was extremely critical of the deal structure as it was as it revolved around Vandasia buying a whole heap of options from those close to the company. Firstly IMO this was a complete conflict of interest. Surely any funding from Vandasia should have gone into the company's coffers and not into the pockets of those holding unlisted options. In any event those options I believe have now all lapsed (on the 19th January) so phase 2 of the Vandasia funding couldn't occur any way.
In any event IMO this is just one of a tsunami of problems facing Sunbird at this time, the other things catching my eye are :
Underlying commodity price, down
Demand for energy, down
Plight of Eskom, down
Sunburn's debt levels, up
Sunbird's management overheads and salaries, up
The valuation of Vandasia's stage 1 investment, down.
In relation to Vandasia's investment, IMO they must be feeling really good about the money they have put in so far. They could hardly forget about it because every announcement that has been made since Vandasia was first mentioned, there is constant referencing to the "issue of 20,367,127 fully paid shares at the equivalent of AUD$0.277 per share, which is at premium of whatever it was at the date of every announcement". Well at today's price, Vandasia have put their money in at a approximate 300% premium to market, not to mention the fact the Aussie dollar is falling by the day so I'm sure they must enjoy reading about the premium they have paid in every announcement, and how silly they've been made to look. Makes you wonder how different stage 2 is going to look compared to what's been announced?
Further, Eskom is in severe financial plight and have been bailed out by the taxpayer. Like all bail outs their use of funds I believe would be highly scrutinised and IMO their propensity to take on major projects against the backdrop of falling commodity prices would be every unlikely. Eskoms future looks uncertain and is a drain on the SA economy.
I wonder how long this is going to go on for before maybe a change of direction to say Sunbird technologies?
DYOR
Expand
