Petropavlovsk Share Discussion Threads

[mattjos] 11/8/2020 14:11

Steve,

The company is effectively under Strokov's control now & he does not have the best of reputations.
It's clear for all anyone to see what it is that he sees in the opportunity & objectively it is a big opportunity to roll POG into/under the UGC umbrella.

To date, it has suited his purposes for POG to retain its listing but, this may not remain the case & there are several obvious moves he could make to ensure that POG breached some Listing compliance regulations.

I'm not saying this will occur but. it I'm quite sure that Strukov and his advisers will have it down as one possible course of action.

The company is probably in the best shape than ever before but, there are obvious uncertainties here & the possibility has to be considered of ending up holding equity during a period of suspension - during which time further actions may be taken to weaken the position of minority holders.

Yes, he may equally decide to simply pay up a decent sum for the stock he does not yet own/control & look at the overall 'average' for the transaction. just get the job done asap and move on.
But first, I think the game plan is create an expended period of delay and frustration during which the price is likely to keep dropping & then put everyone out of their misery with an offer at a small premium … at which point many PI's will simply be thankful to take the cash on move on.

(As for my choice in the sector, I don't believe appropriate to discuss here)

[undervaluedassets] 11/8/2020 14:03

erm ... before we lose our collective cool ... I think most of this morning is about the price of gold coming off a bit nothing more..

see FRES, CEY, POLY etc etc ... all down 4-5% ... All the goldies are off...

[darkinbad] 11/8/2020 13:57

Typing on the app is not great. The last sentence was meant to say that hopefully our aims of getting the best value out of POG are all aligned.

[darkinbad] 11/8/2020 13:55

Value will out in the end. I don't believe that all the shareholders who supported Everest are beholden to UGC. I think they may all have their own agendas and it was convenient to come together to take down a common adversary or someone preventing them from maximizing their gains. We don't yet know how they intend to achieve that and UGC's reputation does nothing to inspire confidence in the minnows but hopefully they are aloofness withhopefully

[darkinbad] 11/8/2020 13:46

Doesn't show great integrity.Perhaps the board has been a little too cosy and a shake up was needed. Based on the public complaints today, I'm assuming that Prosperity will continue to hold - would they knowingly create more friction that reduces the share price if they were a seller?If they remain as a shareholder the board will be kept under scrutiny, which should help transparency.In the short run I see further falls in the share price so I have halved my position, with some sadness after nearly 10 years but longer term I still see significant value

[riskvsreward] 11/8/2020 13:02

Strukov only has about 24% of the shares, so a lot of other share holders voted with him! It is clear what is in it for strokov. It is hard to understand why the other share holders voted for the share price to go down! Even for Everest.

[troy] 11/8/2020 13:01

So Alya was selling last week ! You can't tell me that's coincidence. How many has Pavel got ?

[j777j] 11/8/2020 12:33

Insiders dumping sharesForensic investigation about to startWas the shareholder vote legitimate?Is the whole thing a Russian scam?

[pogue] 11/8/2020 12:18

To me Strukov will now try to orchestrate what he has always wanted since buying his stake namely to merge UGC with POG and use the POX hub to process his ore cheaply. He put a lot of energy into changing the board he is not going to let anyone else have control off it.
Now if he does this at a fair price that will be good for shareholders if he does not it wont. You have to decide what you expect to happen. Personally I would not touch with a barge pole now, I was going to buy back in if the vote went the other way, that does not mean a positive outcome cannot happen just in my view the odds are against it heavily. If anyone has any experience of things working out well in similar circumstances in Russia or proof of Strukov's good character, nothing I could find put him in a good light, I would be all ears as I think there is a lot of potential with POG and would like to add it back to my portfolio.
GLA

[galeforce1] 11/8/2020 12:02

He's a lovely bloke, Mr Strukov.

I'm sure he'll now appoint some lovely and very principled people to the BoD whose absolutely top priority will be to protect the interests of smaller shareholders over those of himself.

[celeritas] 11/8/2020 10:18

Temi, IRC, payments to third parties for refractory ore, procurement.
This won't be straight forward, who is going to appoint the ceo, cfo, coo and many other directors to meet corporate governance. Strukov just wants to process his ore, why does he need to buy the co when he can just about control it.
The new CEO is going to be very interesting.

[midasx] 11/8/2020 08:52

The coup started with shareholders voting against the TEMI deal.

Most PI's were happy the deal did not go through with payment in discounted shares.

The deal looked and smelt a little strange with payment going to an unannounced connected third party.

I think the writing was on the wall going forward. The focus of the investigation will be the TEMI deal IMHO. Regardless of the outcome the proponents have already been ousted.

We move forward with a very successful company, the Manager of the POX plant is still producing gold from refractory ore. The make up of the board has no bearing on the positive fundamentals of the company. Only the perception has changed along with losing weak UK based shareholders who are probably being replaced with Russian shareholders who can see an opportunity.

Some still hold the perception of the cold war in that the Russians are always the bad guys lol. Strukov gave a very reasonable interview in the Times. An association with UGC under the appropriate terms could be very beneficial to POG. He may try and takeover the company, regardless he will have to pay to do so at a price agreed by shareholders.

I topped up this morning!

[seppsuess] 11/8/2020 08:22

If 24%-Strukov engages in too destructive measures the other big hats will stop him-hopefully

[fieldhouse] 11/8/2020 08:18

I think the bond conversion to shares gives a positive aspect.
There must have been a lot of discussion behind the scenes with the big players as to what they all wanted.

[weemonkey] 11/8/2020 07:58

Well I bought yesterday and will buy again today if price is cheapDon't care who the board is. Strukov don't own it does he. . Got to buy it first. Company is firing. Production is up. Debt is down. Gold at highs. Share price still nearer all time lows than highs. All good.

[route1] 11/8/2020 01:30

Their collective CV,s seem to be high quality.Let's hope that they will guide the Company to a much brighter future,without any more deceitful moves,orchestrated by the new'Boss'

[mattjos] 10/8/2020 23:47

Plenty of stunts they could still pull here … several of which may result in suspension of the equity from the markets.
I can't see this as currently investable .. a punt maybe but, an investment? Not for now and not for me.

[stevea171] 10/8/2020 22:32

These 4 directors need to come forward and make a statement to the LSE tomorrow about how they will move management of the company forward.

Strukov does not own POG with 24%.

Also at what point is the Take over panel going to come up with a ruling on Strukov's concert party?

Fellow major shareholder Prosperity Capital Management called the meeting result "disappointing" and said it would keep fighting.

"We do not intend to stand by as control of our company is surreptitiously transferred to Everest and UGC, the latter of which claimed that it wanted a board comprised of truly experienced, diverse, and independent directors which we now clearly do not have," said Prosperity chief investment advisor Alexander Branis.

[stevea171] 10/8/2020 22:28

"UGC said that it would appoint a recruiter to find a chief executive, chief financial officer, chief operating officer and more non-executive directors."

What gives UGC authority to do any such thing?

Surely it is down to the 4 non-execs confirmed in place at today's meeting to organise what direction and what needs to be done.

NOT Strukov with a 24% holding.

[grbaker] 10/8/2020 22:13

Well, Prosperity wanted the audit... they get their wish...

UGC wanted a new board... they get their wish...

(Certainly, based on the voting pattern there was support of both their actions).


See you all when the next hammer drops here - it's never a dull day when Petropavlovsk heads to the polls!

GLA.

[celeritas] 10/8/2020 22:06

Pog is now only worthy of a small position until corporate governance is restored and UGC's intention is clear. I do wonder what the forensic investigation will turn up as all hasnt been clear for years.

[stevea171] 10/8/2020 22:02

Petropavlovsk rebels win tight shareholder vote
By Alex Hamer

Petropavlovsk's (POG) future is up in the air after rebel shareholders fought off a comeback attempt by the now-former management.

The gold miner's management called the extraordinary meeting in order to vote back in directors kicked off the board on 30 June. Company founder and long-time chief executive Pavel Maslovskiy lost his spot in the shock move then, and has now failed to get back on to the board. Former chairman-designate Fiona Paulus decided in the intervening weeks that she did not want to take the top board spot.

After the meeting on Monday 10 August, the board, with four members, has now committed to a forensic investigation into all transactions and arrangements over the past three years. The overhaul comes at a time when gold is at record highs and production is climbing.

The vote was very close, with the key resolution passing by 50.58 per cent to 49.42 per cent. Most of the former directors voted off in June received around 45 per cent backing. Even if they had been appointed, the aforementioned resolution 18 - which got through with 50.58 per cent support - would have kicked them off anyway, as it was designed to remove any director not appointed at the 30 June meeting.

The winners are Petropavlovsk's largest shareholder UGC, a fellow Russian gold miner owned by billionaire Konstantin Strukov, and Everest Alliance, represented by Nikolai Lioustiger.

In a statement, UGC said that it acted against the board because it was not up to scratch.

"UGC’s clear objective as a shareholder in Petropavlovsk is to seek to enhance the independence of the board of directors and the commercial effectiveness of the management team, thus ensuring a rigorous focus on the company’s core business and operational efficiency," the company said.

UGC said that it would appoint a recruiter to find a chief executive, chief financial officer, chief operating officer and more non-executive directors.

The previous Petropavlovsk management said that UGC wanted to take over the company without paying shareholders fairly.

Under Mr Maslovskiy, Petropavlovsk had a near-death experience while financing and building a pressure oxidation plant to process the refractory ore. But in the past year its share price has tripled from 10p.

This is the second time Mr Maslovskiy has been ousted. Everest Alliance came to his rescue in 2018 before turning against him and existing management this year.

Fellow major shareholder Prosperity Capital Management called the meeting result "disappointing" and said it would keep fighting.

"We do not intend to stand by as control of our company is surreptitiously transferred to Everest and UGC, the latter of which claimed that it wanted a board comprised of truly experienced, diverse, and independent directors which we now clearly do not have," said Prosperity chief investment advisor Alexander Branis.

The new directors are James Cameron, Maksim Kharin, Charlotte Philipps and Katia Ray.

Advisory firm ISS had said before the vote that shareholders should back the former directors to come back and reject Everest's appointees. Both Everest and Prosperity have made complaints to the UK Takeover Panel.

Petropavlovsk's share price was down 2 per cent on the news.

IC View

Petropavlovsk needs more directors quickly, an auditor and a sense of sanity, frankly. Despite a long explanation, UGC has still given little credible reason for doing this and Everest remains as inscrutable as ever despite written statements about Mr Maslovskiy and co.'s failings. They have not proposed any real strategy beyond cutting costs and it is unclear what will happen to the company now. Sell.

[grbaker] 10/8/2020 21:56

Google web cache of Celeritas' link just above is available here...