Fox Marble Share Discussion Threads

[pugugly] 24/2/2020 11:09

Strategy Update: If this was a boxing match equivalent to "throwing in the towel in respect of breaking into the world market for finished slabs (imo)" The major problems amongst others for those invested or thinking of investing are:- *How much more capital will they need *When will they reach cash flow break-even *How much unrestricted cash do they have for capital expenditure *If they have to raise more funds how dilutive will it be (Only need to look at the some 30% discount inflicted by the market on PHC today to suspect might be well under 2p and then a share consolidation (imo) Also - Possible reinforced RED FLAG No mention of, or timeline for, arbitation.

[glennborthwick] 21/2/2020 13:51

hi andy you still in any gold or oilers. Ive done ridiculously well on TXP this year, not so well on Trin. Just bought into HUM and GDP who are worth a look. Lots of their forecasts are based on gold price of $1400 dollars and its currently at 1630 so they should be raking it in.

[andy] 21/2/2020 08:21

Pug, Thanks, and yes I notice he started in the early hours to try and ensure at least some were read before ADVFN will probably delete them. Surely there is some software they can use to prevent either people or bots from flooding the board like this? Re the downticks, there is one incredibly sad individual with nothing better to do with his time that follows my posts around and downticks them, regardless of the post content, or thread. I genuinely feel sorry for that person, their life must be very empty..... Have a great weekend yourself.

[pugugly] 21/2/2020 08:14

Andy - Well moderated - The spammers - Could they be bots? are starting to become a serious problem = Back to FOX - You seem to be attracting a permenent down-ticker - Must be a sign that you may be getting too clsoe to the truth and someome's nether-regions are feeling the pain Have a great week-end.

[andy] 21/2/2020 08:05

Post 878 moderated for spamming.

[gtfc1] 20/2/2020 07:04

I hopefully that talk of investment isn’t now and is when and if we win the legal case. Or like before they sign up other quarries to pay later which I thought they had done to be honest through stone alliance. The two new guys are giving drive and driven,start small, max it out and then grow when making money. I’m expecting very different updates and numbers, I hope these guys know what they are doing and can actually turn it around pretty quickly

[haroldthegreat] 19/2/2020 22:43

perhaps ex broker will help them out ? or perhaps even he has become more cautious with his investments ?

[andy] 19/2/2020 22:23

Glenn, gtfc1, I agree, it sounds as though they might be preparing for another placing, and why not, they have had many in the past so another one is just the continuation of a trend. One wonders if they'll ever make a decent profit and enhance shareholder value? I have serious doubts personally.

[gtfc1] 19/2/2020 20:16

Fox has declared to has enough raw marble from the Kosovo areas for 18 months hence a two asset strategy. The Macedonia quarry was key and the one in Kosovo that they lost the legal battle against, hence two asset strategy. I to think raising? I hope not but more than possible I would think to buy more desirable quarries unless they wait until the legal case is decided? They have acknowledged the past, it has taken a great deal of time and money

[glennborthwick] 19/2/2020 16:29

sounds like a precursor to a fund raise to me.

[pugugly] 19/2/2020 16:06

woodstock17:> Very many thanks for above article. A bit of a curate's egg. Shows the company is still fighting - However "Gilbert saying "the company is keen to develop the business beyond its current two-asset strategy focused on its Prilep quarry in North Macedonia and processing factory in Kosovo." appears to confirm AaronQ's posts that Fox is not working or possibly able to work ANY quarries in Kosovo at the moment - and by inference if this is correct, might give credence to many of the other points mentioned by AaronQ. Does anyone else read this the same way?

[woodstock17] 19/2/2020 15:24

Fox Marble eyes expansion as it hopes to turn a corner in 2020 Fox Marble is developing world-class marble deposits that have long lain idle in the Western Balkans. Despite an ongoing arbitration with the Kosovan government, initiated last year over its failure to protect Fox’ investments, the London-listed company is committed to the region and, according to CEO Chris Gilbert, has its eye on additional assets. The company’s history has been a chequered one. Since it listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market in 2012, the share price reached highs of around GBX25.00 in June 2015, but since then has drifted lower and stood at just GBX2.35 as of February 14. With its marble processing factory close to the Kosovan capital Pristina up and running since 2017 and having expanded in 2018, Fox was close to turning the corner in 2019, when an attempt to take over its assets was launched. While Fox successfully fought off the attempt, disappointed with the local authorities’ failure to provide the support required under Kosovan law, the company launched a €195m international arbitration claim against the state of Kosovo in September 2019. “We [had] no choice but to do this, or we would not have been responsible custodians for our shareholders,” says Gilbert in a telephone interview with bne IntelliNews. He says the size of the claim was “robustly calculated on the basis of losses we have incurred and will continue to incur as result of the failure of the state to apply its own laws and regulations.” While the outcome of the case is still unclear, Gilbert notes previous investor-state actions in Kosovo such as the very similar claim successfully pursued by Devolli Group over an investment in the telecoms sector. Since Fox’s claim was filed, Kosovo has held a general election, in October 2019, and four months later the country finally has a new government, a coalition between the centre-left nationalist Vetevendosje and the Democratic League of Kosovo. Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti took office as prime minister at the beginning of February. While noting that Kurti has never held office before, Gilbert says: “we believe in his approach, which is: we want to clean things up, we want to make Kosovo a place that’s attractive to foreign investors, and we want to be open for business. That’s going to serve us very well indeed … we are confident of our opportunity to pursue this claim and win something for our shareholders, who have been very patient and long-suffering.̶1; Committed to Kosovo Despite the litigation, Gilbert says, “we remain believers in what we doing in Kosovo. We are not retreating from Kosovo because the government have not behaved well.” He refers to the combination of “world-class marble in the ground doing nothing” coupled with an educated, willing, dynamic labour force in a country where the average monthly wage is just over €300. Margins in the marble business are “eye-watering”, says Gilbert. The industry is also highly fragmented, dominated by Italian, Greek and Turkish families, but with no single dominant company. The dimension stone business is worth around €16bn a year globally, but the turnover of the largest player, China’s Best Cheer, is just €300mn a year. As a result, says Gilbert, “accessing the industry is easy if you can find the resource.” A feature of the geology in Kosovo is that it is rich in natural resources such as lead and zinc as well as having a “vast quantity of very high quality, in demand marble which used to form the basis of a stone industry 100 years ago, but failed when the whole republic of Yugoslavia disintegrated after Tito's death. We came along and said we can do something with this,” says Gilbert. Fox Marble’s quarries in Kosovo and North Macedonia contain over 300mn cubic metres of premium quality marble and decorative stone. The region also benefits from good road links, a legacy of the post-war international reconstruction efforts, with most of the marble from Fox’s quarries shipped out from Durres in Albania or Thessaolinki in Greece. Kosovo is part of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), which has a trade agreement with the EU and various other jurisdictions, making it quick and transparent to transport marble across international borders. A sought-after resource White marble from a quarry close to Fox’s in North Macedonia was used to build the Sheik Zaid grand mosque in Abu Dhabi. Fox has established its own reference projects; notably its “grigio argento” marble, dark grey with a gold vein, from Kosovo was used by Berkeley Group’s St George division to fit out the bathrooms in its €15mn penthouses in Chelsea Creek to differentiate them from other apartments in the luxury Thames-side development. “This is a reference project for us. It demonstrates our marble not only can compete with Italian and Greek marble but actually, because we work in a very competitive labour zone, we are very competitive price-wise and our marble has found favour around the world as a consequence of that,” says Gilbert. Another line of business is that Fox’s factory is now processing for third-party quarry owners as it is the only modern factory in the region, with all Italian equipment: “The demand on us for processing is greater than our capacity to provide, which is a nice position to be in." Fox Marble's processing facility in Kosovo. Source: Fox Marble. Beyond the two asset strategy Gilbert is a serial entrepreneur who has come to the marble business after founding successful music companies. Last autumn, he beefed up Fox’s senior management with two important appointments: the company’s new senior adviser Don Nicolson, who has 26 years’ experience at BP and is a former chairman and interim CEO of Spain-based stone quarrying and processing company Levantina — “you couldn’t ask for a more heavyweight, experienced capable pair of hands,” says Gilbert — and Francisco Espinosa, also ex-Levantina, as chief operating officer. While Gilbert cannot disclose exactly what the firm is planning for 2020, he tells bne IntelliNews: “Broadly speaking, we are expansionist in our attitude. We plan to focus on our two-asset strategy to get to the position where we have turned the corner; this is part of our budgeting and planning over the next six to 12 months. In the meantime, we have our eye on some assets which we think can be money producers in Kosovo and North Macedonia.” He stresseds the amount of resource in the region "sitting there doing nothing”, and says the company is keen to develop the business beyond its current two-asset strategy focused on its Prilep quarry in North Macedonia and processing factory in Kosovo. He acknowledges the company’s “loyal and long-suffering shareholders” that have stuck with Fox over the years, and that it has taken longer than expected to make progress. “We have taken a long time to get to the position we are in at the moment — longer than we said we would. We put a lot of energy into it, and it wasn’t immediately visible, but [the results are] starting to flow through now,” he says. “This is a very high-margin business, in a very low-cost region. We estimated that our marble and our project is hugely desirable, and now we have reference projects to prove that. Our job now is to expand on the base that we’ve painstakingly built over time to create a profitable and successful business."

[woodstock17] 19/2/2020 15:23

A great article on FOX has just appeared on Intellinews hxxps://www.intellinews.com/fox-marble-eyes-expansion-as-it-hopes-to-turn-a-corner-in-2020-176880/?source=kosovo

[gtfc1] 18/2/2020 19:49

It’s volume we need rather than a plant running empty. The margins may be small to cover costs. We have to accept we are going right back to the beginning again with this business, generating orders, business to cover cost do they can develop customers, relationships over a longer period to then sell higher margin material. They thought they would conquer the world and never did, spending huge sums keeping it going and actually going no where

[andy] 17/2/2020 23:05

glenn, Well it doesn't look too good IMO, they seem to have gone backwards since the days when they were announcing large orders from Banyan and Eboracum, remember them? At the original presentation in 2012, if I remember correctly, CG said the "big bucks were in the selling of processed and polished marble", not selling raw blocks. Yet they seem to do that mostly, and now they are picking up toll milling work by the looks of it, and as they don't mention the margins, it's unlikely to be that profitable, IMHO.

[glennborthwick] 17/2/2020 21:47

still dont know what to make of all this to be honest

[glennborthwick] 17/2/2020 21:32

hTTps://www.facebook.com/endrit.citaku facebook says works at fox marble

[aaronq] 17/2/2020 10:43

Latest RNS' Reporting from Kosovo. EBA sh.p.k. - is company with no offices in Kosovo. It is, however, registered in Kosovo's equivalent of companies house, and its CEO is Astrit Citaku. Mr. Astrit Citaku - was appointed by CG last year as Director of Fox Marble Kosovo. His brother Endrit Citaku- is employed by Fox Marble Kosovo as CNC operator. Egzoni sh.p.k and Skifteri sh.p.k - small scale local companies dealing mainly with tombstones, neither own nor operate any quarries in Kosovo. Furthermore, Fox's Cervenilla and Surigana quarries are closed. Dubai order -never commenced Factory - working in extremely low capacity. All and any promises for last 2 years have not been fulfilled. So, does Fox sell marble or just shares.? I will post detailed information in due course.

[rumobejo] 17/2/2020 10:42

question is margins good enough to see them through or would they need to raise capital to stay afloat. today's rns mention €300k a year, the one before didn't mention any numbers, so is this an attempt to get a placing away? yes there are couple of insiders holdings rns, but take these with a pinch of salt, as the placing will be more favourable for them anyway to get more chunks. Tom Wini always been hopeful on FOX regardless of how disappointing it turned out to be so far if there is a placing then let's get it done and dusted to move on...

[gtfc1] 17/2/2020 10:07

You could look at this rns from any angle you wish. 325 tonnes per month, 10 ish tons a day which doesn’t seem small to me but covering two shifts at least might be. They are grabbing business, the margins might be small but we want a business not a perfectionist story which the last five years has headed for. They never indicate margin, obviously less or equal to were they went before but is this closer and easier? We all know sending to Italy doesn’t work. Cover costs through helping others in a huge global business, build the name, orders, opportunity in a huge global market and over time squeeze out other companies time at the plant if required. The plant which is partly mine needs paying for, as long as it doesn’t cannibalise orders then I don’t care and we are far from this.

[pugugly] 17/2/2020 09:53

New contract converting customers blocks " The agreements are for two years with an expected volume of 325 tons per month, generating approximately EUR300,000 per year in expected revenues. " OK revenue - Should help towards factory overheads but no indication of impact on bottom line. Rverse message is that not enough orders for their own finished stone to keep factory working full time -

[andy] 13/2/2020 19:08

Harold, No idea of possible revenue or margins again, so not very meaningful at all. It looks like a desperate attempt to generate some positive news, IMO.

[haroldthegreat] 12/2/2020 22:11

rns means what ? The stone will be processed at Fox Marble's Lipjan factory, from existing blocks of Illirico Bianco, Flora and Alexandrian White. The agreement has no minimum order value, but pricing is based on a minimum volume of 2,000 square metres, which the Company expects to supply over the course of this financial year means we have a potential new customer . we hope they will buy 2000 sq m , we will charge them this bulk rate . = if they do not take 2000 we will already have charged them for a lower quantity at the bulk rate. if they do not take any more there is nothing we can do about it unless they have signed a contract that they will pay a higher rate if they fail to achieve the total of 2000 pa we are back to meaningless rns again . it was like we exhibited at a trade exhibition some time ago . So what !

[pugugly] 12/2/2020 12:24

Andy - Looks like another 500,000 on Nex at 8:12 - But maybe ADVFN glitches - No response yet from "Advfn problems" on previous disappearing transactions. Whatever the reason agree with you someone appears to bailing out - No news yet on arbitration progress - Surely a timeline should have been published by now.