Mum and dad investors who have stuck with this company have made...

Mum and dad investors who have stuck with this company have made a lot of money, it is arguably one of the most successful gold companies on ASX and that is a fact.

We are now under the control of the decisions of a non-judicial government panel as a consequence of an application made to it by a shareholder who’s decision seems to be backfiring on them as it caused shares to be vested in AISC who could potentially dish these shares out willy-nilly to investment banks and brokers to do what they like with. It is clear from the low volume on which this stock trades that the likely effect is over supply and a destruction of the stock price so one has to ask one’s self what the real motivation of making this application was. Then as a result of the application made, NST make an offer for the JV interest at a valuation that is ~$850 million less than what the market values it’s own share at based on the JV’s contribution to NST’s overall production and most probably hundreds of millions less than the true valuation based on economic models of the expected future cash flow for the mine. Not only that, the MD of NST states in a public announement that the offer is “fair and sensible” for TBR and RND shareholders. The words fair and reasonable have very specific meanings when it comes to valuations of companies and mineral properties. I wonder if he got any legal advice on this play on words?

What needs to happen is that the board needs to put the whole thing before a judge in the Federal Court for judicial review, and not just a review on the narrow aspects of the takeover panel’s decision. The court should look into the whole affair, why ASX/ASIC sat on their hands in respect of the crossholding for 8 years when they knew about it, they need to do discovery on the communications and correspondence that led to the application to the panel and also try and draw NST into the proceedings to seek discovery on the background to their offer.

Shareholders need to be protected and the board should be doing its legal best to seek answers as the whole thing looks very strange from an external perspective. Issuing expensive new shares for a project in a very unattractive jurisdiction is not the answer. That’s throwing the baby out with the bath water as far as I’m concerned. Time for all the laundry to be properly aired.

As far as the money spent in Ghana goes, it’s all been spent on the ground (from what I can tell) and the ground is very promising, but the company has been milked by some hopeless South African drillers for years and nothing is done about it. Esh