Amerisur Resources Share Discussion Threads

[grahamburn] 04/1/2017 17:20

To be fair, due to the highly geared taxation of share options, directors of any publicly listed company invariably realise sufficient of their exercised options to meet the tax due on exercise.

I challenge any poster to find more than a handful of instances, if any, where a director of a company has not done just that - and I do mean ANY company, small or large.

So, IMHO, criticism on here in this particular instance is misguided and unfair.

[al101uk] 04/1/2017 16:29

Owning assets that are highly correlated with your earnings is generally frowned upon in financial theory I believe. It's akin to putting all your eggs in one basket.

Given the situation though I agree, it would have been a nice token gesture this time around to stump up the tax via other means and a very profitable token gesture too if we're to believe the planned busy year ahead.

[lucyp00p] 04/1/2017 15:45

The thing I found most disappointing about Clarke and Harrison dumping 1.5 million shares each to cover their tax liability was that they must have felt the 26pps they got was fair value, rather than use whatever other resources they had available to cover the bill. Presumably JW was not obliged to dump any of his due to his non UK resident tax status although one would like to believe he may have consider the prevailing price to be cheap and trousered the lot. Bwdik

[somnus101] 04/1/2017 12:35

TOBY T
Published today
Date April 14 2015 shown under picture of GC referring to picture or to article?

[tonyrelaxes] 04/1/2017 12:27

tt

We have come to expect delays in releasing news - in this case to the media?

[toby tots] 04/1/2017 12:10

That was April 14 2015.

[somnus101] 04/1/2017 11:59

from The Times 4 Jan
AMERISUR DIRECTORS SHARE PAIN AFTER INVESTORS ...ATTACK
Disgruntled investors in Amerisur Resources have crossed swords with the board over growing concerns about the oil and gas explorer’s corporate governance.
Last week the AIM-listed Amerisur, which operates in Colombia and Paraguay, had to slash director share option packages — which were first announced in February — in the wake of shareholder discontent.
Giles Clarke, the chairman of Amerisur, who is best known for his role as chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board and for founding Majestic Wine, has had his long-term incentive plan award reduced from 7.28 million shares to 1.5 million.
Nick Harrison, the chief financial officer, has been awarded 1.5 million shares, down from his previous grant of 5.46 million, and John Wardle, the chief executive, has had his LTIP award reduced from 12.74 million shares to 10.14 million.
One top ten shareholder said the main concern was that, initially, the share awards had been linked to an oil pipeline project that would allow Amerisur to transfer oil to the coast at a much lower cost but which had fallen behind schedule.
“I didn’t like the LTIP at all and I am very glad to see that they have made a significant alternation,” he said. “The share options on the pipeline project were almost bordering on outrageous. Management have promised that this pipeline would ready for the past year and they have not even been able to start it yet. They have been overly optimistic on timing.
“It also didn’t help that this has all coincided with a fall in the oil price and Amerisur’s share price, which hasn’t put people in a good mood.”
Another investor said: “This is not a badly run company. John Wardle is running a very good shop, but there is some concern about the influence of the non-executives. Stephen Foss only joined in January and his first course of action was to award a very generous share option scheme, which the company has now had to row back from.”
Several retail investors have also expressed unease about the remuneration packages for the non-executives, such as Mr Clarke, who was paid $357,000 last year. Amerisur also paid Westleigh Investments Holdings, a company in which Mr Clarke and Mr Harrison have an interest, $159,348 for rent for the group’s head office in Cardiff and accountancy and other services.
Mr Foss, the senior independent director, has embarked on a charm offensive to meet investors. He said that the company was well run with low overheads. “Amerisur has grown rapidly and delivered significant returns since 2007, when it was a small, loss-making company called Chaco Resources,” he said.
“On the recent LTIP share award, I have consulted shareholders representing over 50 per cent of the share register and we have listened and acted. The continuing direction of travel on corporate governance at Amerisur is positive and the board looks to the future with confidence.”
In the past few years, Amerisur’s fortunes have improved from its “penny dreadful” day as Chaco Resources. The present management team, led by Mr Clarke, Mr Wardle and Mr Harrison, has been in place since 2007. Last year Amerisur turned over $199.5 million, made a pre-tax profit of $47.5 million and ended the year with net cash of $95.6 million.
The pipeline project is under way but, because it crosses several countries, it is a politically delicate situation to navigate, which has led to delays.
Shareholders in Amerisur include Rex Harbour & Associates, Investec Wealth & Investment, Axa Investment Managers, JP Morgan Asset Management and Hargreave Hale.
Shares in Amerisur rose 3p to 28p.

[dayway123] 04/1/2017 10:26

Amer has rewarded repeated failures, misleading statements and kept those responsible at the helm. I don't believe enough has been done to address this problem and GC should step down.

[toby tots] 04/1/2017 10:18

From Bowled over by investor anger
An oil company chaired by Giles Clarke, former chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, is to review its pay policy and practices after criticism from an unnamed investor.

Amerisur Resources, which operates in Colombia, has appointed a third-party consultancy to look at remuneration. It said that Mr Clarke had indicated that he would no longer receive share options in the AIM-quoted company. The only option awards this year will be issued to a number of employees in the South American country.

The announcement follows anger last year about share options granted under a long-term investment plan to Mr Clarke, John Wardle, chief executive, and Nick Harrison, finance director. The investor also said it was wrong to publish details of the plan two weeks after the annual shareholder meeting.

Amerisur said yesterday that it would submit the new remuneration report to a shareholder vote at the AGM in May.

Mr Clarke and Mr Harrison sold 1.5 million shares between them last month to cover tax and costs following the exercise of share options granted under Amerisur’s 2012 incentive scheme.

Shares in Amerisur closed flat at 26¾p.
today's Times

[charlieeee] 04/1/2017 09:30

It made sense to reduce production when profit per barrel was non-existent (not helped by the OBA delay), but management clearly need to ramp up again quickly, as well as getting OBA capacity sorted out.

The profit per barrel target is more important than the BOPD target and for that reason, an update on sorting out the OBA route bottlenecks is as important as drill results/associated increased production.

[foiledagain] 04/1/2017 09:23

G iles does not seem to pay a lot of attention to shareholders, not even institutions.

R ex sent a little message in his disposals and looks as though others have too.

E asy money when Non execs allegedly came from the same office as a relative.

E ssential that this independent third party is actually independent this time!

D emonstrate that you under promise and over deliver.

[blackdown2] 04/1/2017 08:56

As stated before, this crew has been in post for nearly 10 years and we have yet to reach 5,000 bopd. Not that impressive.

Time for a change of ownership.

[charlieeee] 04/1/2017 08:44

Well, I was quite vitriolic about the options and part dumping them to pay the tax, but it will have been the bigger shareholders who will have really administered the "Chinese burns", as their annual performance bonuses will have been impacted by the timing.

The RNS, of course, was good, but the Evening Standard spin gave it the effect of "naming and shaming" a member of the establishment. So, the focus was on those options which he did not give up and that clearly did carry a price for GC: loss of "face" and an indelible connection with the fat cat CEO camp, not exactly the current flavor of the month.

Meanwhile, the drill bit turns and we can hope for some positive news on progress towards the increased BOPD target for 2017.

[lucyp00p] 04/1/2017 08:38

I doubt they read this at all. If they do, happy new year JW.

[francis55] 04/1/2017 08:15

They clearly read this feed which worries me because this feed should not be how the business is ran, they should know how to do that themselves...

[tonyrelaxes] 04/1/2017 01:05

Here it is but with a different photo.

[tonyrelaxes] 04/1/2017 00:57

Page 41 of Evening Standard tonight (I miss having newspapers I can read, so I am pigging out!) has an article headed "Energy firm bows to investors' anger over chiefs' pay".

Basically the RNS in more readable form, plus a photo of GC not looking straight.



Won't help his knighthood, "next year Rodney!"

[al101uk] 04/1/2017 00:03

Today's broker note-
Amerisur Resources plc (LON:AMER) had its price objective raised by investment analysts at Peel Hunt from GBX 21 ($0.26) to GBX 24 ($0.29) in a note issued to investors on Monday.

Has someone at Peel Hunt been reading my recent posts? That's within a whisker of where I came in. The only problem with that is that I calculate what should be a good entry point, it reflects how I view the company and then makes more critical assumptions to get to a price that should include a margin of error and a notional profit margin. I understand how they got there (check my assumptions), but wow, that's a very negative view on managements ability if that's their fair value estimate in today's market.

To sum up:

$60 oil for the next 8 years (from memory)
Run reserves down to 0, with no revisions from discoveries, production profile or further understanding of the field.
The pipeline and liquid assets booked as revenue in first year (in other words liquidating at cost).

A blind monkey should do better, but if a blind monkey came in and challenged the leadership right now, would you bet against him ;-)

Very interested to see who the new appointments are, should reveal a lot about the future corporate governance of the company. More than happy they are bringing in a third party to recruit.

The line on "more than complying with AIM regulation" was a horrible admission of completely missing the f'cking point. Just because you hang around with crooks doesn't mean it's OK to be a slightly less bad crook (if looked at from a certain angle with your eyes squinted).

Good corporate governance isn't about doing what the rules say, it's about understanding how shareholders should be represented and what your duties are towards them (among other things). I can only assume GC is blissfully unaware.

[oilandgas1] 03/1/2017 19:14

U.S. natural gas futures plunged 10 percent on forecasts for milder weather later in January.

Oil down due to Libya productionbincreases
Soaring Libya Oil Production Throwing A Wrench In OPEC Deal $USO


About time Amer changes some management .. the right level of pressure has come to bear, now we need some real news :

1) moving to 7.2kbopd production when??
2) 5kbopd through OBA - 2.2 now!
3) 4 well drills in the next 4 months with a schedule e.g. spudding dates etc
4) engaged in talks to get other oil into OBA in 2017 q1.
5) Pad5 to pad9 interconnection
6) Roda upgrade one pumping station & new pumping station?
Jan17: Plat-20 720bopd?
Pad-8 news ?? And CPO5 & PUT 12 updates

[tommygriff] 03/1/2017 19:07

Hi Francis, no just come across the snippets on Twitter.

[valentine] 03/1/2017 17:49

Brent down 2℅ us selling after recent optimism and rise. Wtfdik? Taken to cleaners aujordhui?

[lucyp00p] 03/1/2017 17:41

What just happened to the oil price?

[valentine] 03/1/2017 16:54

Up on the day eh? Colombia sell out to canacol. Canadian oil co. Or GTE in interim of course. JW stays as CEO et al. Shell no longer a factor. How much and when? GC to buy his own cricketing nation and live happily ever after?

[spudders] 03/1/2017 16:07

Trots, sounds about right, same thing happened to me with DGO a while back. Just as it eventually gets going us patient lth's get shafted again. Best of luck 🏇

[trotting12] 03/1/2017 15:38

The for sale will be up this year ,, just watch for more shareholder friendly sounds from the bod?