Medusa Share Discussion Threads

[polaris] 22/10/2022 09:35

Read the annual report this morning. Made me more anti-CEO. There is no justification for his increased salary, which excludes pension contributions, cf. previous CEO, Welker, and Teo previous to that. The 7.5 M performance rights are over and above justification too. Remuneration part of report p99-105 is revealing. Look at pay for Villanueva too...

[geckotheglorious] 21/10/2022 19:38

Polaris
Hopefully he'll get us sold for A$1.50-1.75
be glad to be rid of this dog myself. Averaged down suitably that such will see my leave with a reasonable profit to ply into Gold miners in superior jurisdictions.

[polaris] 21/10/2022 19:36

Annual report out and details for AGM - can't say i support options for CEO, even though they are listed at AUD$1.30. What will you do to deserve them?

[polaris] 21/10/2022 07:47

Another random market announcement from X64. Just get the vote over and move on!

[stevea171] 16/10/2022 11:17

X64 row deepens as showdown looms

The bitter brawl over control of Philippines gold miner Ten Sixty Four has deepened after proxy adviser ISS recommended shareholders vote against a board spill.

article in The Australian. subscribers only.

[polaris] 13/10/2022 06:48

Performance rights vested for 437 k shares. Admitted to market today. share price is drifting while the proxy war plays out. The weak AUD should be helping any company that reports in USD. Previous Q results due out in a couple of weeks.

[polaris] 05/10/2022 07:02

xd today and only off AUD$0.03, so up AUD$0.02 in reality. Payment for shareholders will arrive 20th. Mine was today as I trade CFDs and SBs so divis are immediately credited on xd day.

[polaris] 03/10/2022 20:01

The slightest sniff of slowing interest rate rises from the FED and a future potential pivot back to easy money and pog 'does one'. Imagine what will happen when the sniff becomes the inevitable reality. :-O

[polaris] 03/10/2022 09:31

Two director buy notices this morning. Looks like they are trying to address the 'skin in the game' argument.How about some buybacks X64? The share price remains close to cash pile. Build the shareholder value while the disparity remains.

[polaris] 02/10/2022 19:54

He's had an interesting life i see...

Agree that the bulk of the Vitrinite response is trying to play on the shareholder returns aspect.

I do not want my board to play options gambling with the cash pile and gold produced.

The current board must do a lot better but everything is in place.

Dividend ex-date is later this week. Another 5c in the bag for me.

[glavey] 02/10/2022 11:56

Polaris, I'll send you a PM.

[glavey] 02/10/2022 01:46

On the subject of the Vitrinite response [38718 link]:

Given the relatively brief period that PRW and his mates have been involved with Medusa (I use the old title for clarity) to claim to have "lost all confidence" would, in normal circumstances, seem rather hasty and impulsive.

Similarly the Medusa team have previously concentrated on dealing with the Philsaga operations in the Philippines; activities in Australia are a recent aquisition and new to Medusa, but not so to PRW and his various enterprises who were are apparently still are very much intertwined and working 'hand in glove'. Obviously 'PRW & Co. Enterprises' have intimate knowledge and close associations within the x64 Queensland operations as they were the prior owners.

Having installed himself as MD and changed the name of Medusa to x64, events would suggest that PRW then rather thought of the total enterprise as 'his baby' and that he could act in respect of the new x64 (Medusa + x64 Queenland) as he might have done with the old x64 (x64 Q. alone). Arrogance?

The efforts that Vitrinite go to in order to defend the contract issues which the company (Medusa/x64) raised seem extraordinary. We are told: Ranger withdrew invoices (totalling circa A$293k) for drilling work done (for April & May 2022) and walked away from a contract, which had been (allegedly) properly endorsed by the company, without redress; PRW threw in his job; Vitranite settled Ranger's withdrawn bills.

We are not told what Ranger planned to bill of June 2022, but it would be fair to assume that they were still active that month.

We are also told that Vitranite has been and still is supplying labour to x64 Queensland, but not the detail. Should we expect later on to be told that this is also a "Very Low spend"?

Otherwise the response tries hard to be 'all things to all men', adopting a critical 'anything and everything' approach. Medusa is a simple business. It digs a hole, brings out some rocks, crushes and refines them and extracts some gold which it then sells. What does one need to be told - the reporting really isn't that bad. x64 Queensland presently has nothing to report (or at least, it shouldn't have!) Overheads are unlikely to be significantly reduced, we didn't hear PRW squeal that he was being paid too much when he was appointed and there would not be a board imbalance had he not thrown in the towel. This aspect of the report is just a lot of noise and very little substance.

The Queensland Drummond Basin assets are promoted but really all that's known about these is that they were flogged to the company by PRW and his mates. If they are truely that promising one has to wonder why PRW didn't hang on to them. Apparently he's not short of a bob or two and has raised capital for mining operations in the past.

I'm sure that successfully speculating with the company's product, the gold, can be lucrative but is that the business of a relatively small mining operation? We may invest in a gold miner but that doesn't mean we want to don overalls and dig. PRW's background is finance, Arbiter a hedge fund manager, and that seems to show here. These proposals increase risk.

At the moment PRW and his pals still have their shareholdings and their other interests. Having resigned his position why is it he's so keen to get back in? It can't be for the salary and it's for sure not philanthropy!


I'm reminded of a very brief riposte someone made when PRW was appointed MD not long after the ten sixty-four acquisition was first announced "This reads like a palace coup".

[polaris] 01/10/2022 10:29

Not read much deeper than first page of Google on PRW. Anything of note glavey?

[polaris] 01/10/2022 10:28

The letter from Vitrinite is good. I like it all, except the last part about using options and leasing to gamble with our gold. Yes, it will make the central office cash neutral, if it works. Who would the counter parties be to gold leasing and what are the assurances on return? Nothing is free from risk. The call option suggestion has other names… gold hedging and collaring.

[glavey] 30/9/2022 14:58

Polaris, There's a reply out from Vitrinite:



Turning into a bit of a bun fight! ;-)


BTW, have you read up on PRW?

[glavey] 30/9/2022 14:53

Pigeonfeeder,
Thanks for posting the extracts. Seems rather odd to me that if you were the 'man in charge' of a business and felt another party was "trying to grab control" the action you would choose was to stand aside rather than act to protect the business and it's stakeholders as would be your fiduciary duty. What do you think?

[polaris] 30/9/2022 08:55

And official X64 letter to shareholders with proxy voting form. hTTps://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/apiman-gateway/ASX/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02575492-6A1112522?access_token=83ff96335c2d45a094df02a206a39ff4Battle begins.

[polaris] 30/9/2022 02:26

Annual report outhTTps://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/apiman-gateway/ASX/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02575120-6A1112346?access_token=83ff96335c2d45a094df02a206a39ff4

[pigeonfeeder] 28/9/2022 16:12

The company response to the convening shareholders did not make good reading. However there are always two sides to every story and I emailed Arbiter partners and they will indeed be issuing a response which will provide some new information not mentioned by the company. The email I received from Arbiter this afternoon included the following:

"Mr. Welker chose to resign when it became clear that Mr. McGlinn was just trying to grab control and the drilling contract was just the tool he was trying to use"

and

" If the drill contract is the real issue that could have easily been handled at a Board meeting."

Arbiter Partners are the second largest shareholder and have been invested since 2016.

Being substantial shareholders their interests should be aligned with ours.

Arbiter and Vitrinite have been very happy to discuss the issues with me despite not knowing how small my shareholding is. They have provided contact details should you wish to discuss the issues with them.

I am undecided as to how to vote - no doubt we will hear more from both sides.

[polaris] 28/9/2022 08:29

Wonder what the response will be from parties convening the meeting? If you add in the non selling of gold in previous period, which has hurt published figures and SP, this still looks like a hatchet job to gain control of the company by people who are not entirely 'above-board'. Weakness in AUD only helping the value of cash pile, assuming they hold in USD!

[polaris] 28/9/2022 07:54

And the full response to shareholders. First glance says it looks like a syphoning exercise by overcharging for work and was found through a whistleblower. hTTps://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/625624dea6f87c927a3b1737/6333b388c299bb1c42fa8b8d_220928%20Website%20Link%20Initial%20Responsive%20Statement%20to%20NOM%20Final.pdf

[polaris] 28/9/2022 07:13

X64 announcement for proxy voting with link to response. hTTps://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/apiman-gateway/ASX/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02573697-6A1111754?access_token=83ff96335c2d45a094df02a206a39ff4

[polaris] 23/9/2022 15:55

Replacement 249F also out. New date in October for the proxy votes to remove board. hTTps://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/apiman-gateway/ASX/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02572143-6A1111146?access_token=83ff96335c2d45a094df02a206a39ff4

[polaris] 23/9/2022 15:53

The weakness of the AUD against USD means cash pile is worth AUD$0.54 per share now. The dividend payout in October is getting ever cheaper too.