Thalassa Share Discussion Threads

[masurenguy] 16/9/2016 12:03

"they are deviating in order to allow the executive gravy train to continue"

You really ought to check your facts before making such comments.

1. In the first place Soukup is a very wealthy man who lives in Monaco so the £220K he draws in annual remuneration is just peanuts to him. That level of compensation is hardly an "executive gravy train" either and also no other THAL director draws more than £20K pa from the company.

2. Soukup owns circa 15% of THAL shares - worth circa £3.4m at todays price - so shareholder value is a much more significant factor to him than the annual compensation that he obtains. He may not care about the small shareholder - few senior executives in most quoted companies do either - but with this stake his interests and those of the small shareholder are quite well aligned. Just one reason why I am currently a 'small shareholder' in this company.

[spob] 16/9/2016 11:33

This company should indeed have liquidated


they are deviating in order to allow the executive gravy train to continue

if you think they care about small shareholders think again

all just in my own humble opinion of course

[tabhair] 16/9/2016 11:12

I found the shareholder letter honest and refreshing.

The whole oil and gas sector is in huge distress, yet the narrative from within the sector itself seems to be that higher oil prices are just around the corner. The reality is that if oil prices remain at current levels for even just another year, we are going to see another raft of bankruptcies. Against that backdrop, a company like Thalassa will continue to struggle. In the meantime, it makes sense for Soukup to allocate capital into other areas. The Papua copper company looks like a total punt, but it is only £400k. The REIT certainly looks more promising though.

[cougar99] 14/9/2016 19:28

But in present conditions then it's any bodies guess when 'a stronger market' arrives .... I saw one article recently where it said M&G had suggested keep cash and stick it under your mattress.

Not a holder in this share but was thinking seriously about buying in - but after further thought will give it a miss for now .... but will remain monitoring in case the mattress gets too lumpy underneath ..... if they are going to diversify so much then change of name might be next?

[hammers976] 13/9/2016 18:52

He's got a lot of personal wealth tied up in the company. If he thought liquidation provided the best value wouldn't he do that? I don't know the answer to that but I'm happy to wait out these lower oil prices and see how they perform in a stronger market.

[catswhiskas] 13/9/2016 17:11

I sold out here at 42p taking a loss .Through no fault of its own it looks as though its core business is going to significantly struggle for the foreseeable future and Duncan certainly did a brave job this morning painting a gloomy but truthful summary of the current situation in the industry .For me I think he should have made the decision to call it a day and liquidated the company returning the cash to shareholders rather than embark in a new direction that unfortunately the market never really takes to.You never know there may be something very exciting waiting to happen at LSR or this will become an AIM has been that just didn't quite make it although it gave it a good try.

[kooba] 13/9/2016 12:41

He's the Chairman.And I personally find it refreshing when executives say it as they see it rather than some sterile soundbite ridden drivel.Whetherspoons recently an interesting read too.

[steptoes yard] 13/9/2016 11:41

Way too much ego in this CEO and not enough delivery. The antithesis of an investors dream CEO. Wouldn't touch these with a barge pole.

[cockerhoop] 13/9/2016 11:24

ST talks THAL (and LSR) in todays IC column

[sphere25] 13/9/2016 10:21

Bookbroker,

I'm not daft enough to be invested here.

Hope this helps.

[owenski] 13/9/2016 08:26

Not a holder, I only check in to read Duncan's narrative, entertaining and educational as always, I'd argue this statement is one of his best. A Director that uses the terms - 'Clown and Numptie' in a results statement against bankers is worth a read.

He's done these extra curricular investments before and done well from them when the core investment business was operating in a poor market environment, and he made good money from them. Unfortunately the market doesn't like deviation so I'd guess we're in for a period of prolonged share price doldrums here. Shame really as the assets are worth well north of an 8m M.cap.

[masurenguy] 13/9/2016 06:53

NAV at 30/6/16 was 77p per share of which cash constituted 44p per share.

Group results for the 6 months to 30 June 2016 showed revenue of US$5.2m versus US$9.9m in 1H15, a decrease of 47.8%. Revenue from Seismic Operations has been generated from the Spring surveys over the Snorre and Grane fields for Statoil. The additional revenue generated in 2015 from the project with TGS in the Barents Sea and late data sales for the 2014 multi-client data set were not repeated in 2016.

Cost of Sales decreased by 60.8% in 1H16 to US$2.3m (1H15: US$5.7m). Cost of Sales as a proportion of Revenue was 43.3% as compared to 57.8% in 1H15 and 49.9% for the whole of 2015.

Gross profit was US$2.9m, a decrease of 29.9% versus the same period last year of US$4.2m. Gross margin increased by 34.4% to 56.7% from 42.2% in 1H15 and 8.4% from the full year 2015 gross margin of 50.1%.

Administrative expenses for 1H16 were US$2.4m, 9.9% less than 1H15 of US$2.7m. ARL contributed costs of US$0.2m in 1H16 (1H15: US$0.2m).

Operating Profit before depreciation was US$0.5m versus US$1.5m in 1H15 with operating margin at 11.2%, from 15.2% in 1H15. Adjusted Operating Profit before depreciation (excluding R&D costs at ARL) was US$0.7m (1H15: US$1.8m).

Depreciation of US$0.4m (1H15: US$1.1m) reflects depreciation on the Group's equipment, the decrease due to the impact of write downs on equipment made at the end of 2015.

Operating Profit decreased to US$0.1m (1H15 US$0.4m). Adjusted operating Profit was US$0.3m (1H15: US$0.6m).

Net financial income of US$0.8m included foreign exchange gains and interest income in the period partially offset by interest and share option expense (1H15: US$0.1m).

Profit before tax, was US$0.9m versus US$0.5m in 1H15. Adjusted profit before tax was US$1.2m (1H15: US$0.8m).

Tax in the period of US$0.2m incorporates an estimate of the tax liability incurred from the Company's operations across its different regions (1H15 US$0.06m).

Net profit was US$0.8m compared to US$0.4m in 1H15. Adjusted net profit was US$1.0m (1H15: US$0.7m).

Net assets at 30 June 2016 amounted to US$26.4m (1H15: US$39.7m, 2015: US$26.4m) resulting in net assets per share of US$1.17 (GBP0.77) versus US$1.61 (GBP1.02) in 1H15 and US$1.12 (GBP0.79) at 31 December 2015, the decrease across comparative periods largely as a result of the exceptional write downs and the impact on net assets as at 31 December 2015.

The Company had debt of US$0.0m at the period end (1H15: US$0.0m, 2015: US$0.0m).

Trade Receivables was US$5.5m as at 30 June 2016, which has since been received in full.

Cash as at 30 June 2016 was US$13.2m (1H15: US$14.4m, 2015: US$20.3m).

Net cash outflow from operating activities amounted to US$(4.0)m as compared to cash outflow of US$(2.8)m in 1H15. The cash outflow of US$4.0m does not reflect the US$5.5m of outstanding trade receivables at 30 June 2016, all of which was subsequently received.

"WGP took the strategic decision some years ago to invest in technology and focus its efforts on developing opportunities that would be funded out of production budgets rather than exploration; on the basis that the oil production sector is less cyclical and to therefore de-risk the downturns. Hence the focus on Permanent Reservoir Monitoring ("PRM") opportunities. Whilst the market has not grown at a pace that would have been expected, it is clear that oil companies will continue a strategy for Enhanced Oil Recovery ("EOR") in the near to long term future, whilst new exploration is deemed too high risk.

The significance of the Statoil and ConocoPhillips Scandinavia AS ("COPSAS" / "COP") contracts should not, therefore, be underestimated. A typical proprietary marine seismic survey may last 4 weeks, maybe longer in the case of a large multi-client type survey. The contracts that WGP has for PRM activity in the Norwegian Sector are multi-year and multi-survey. The barriers to entry are immense - as the whole premise of PRM is for absolute repeatability and elimination of all variances, wherever possible, on a survey-to-survey basis.

In terms of operational activity, in 1H 2016, WGP completed the sixth surveys for Statoil over Snorre and Grane, now into the third year of the PRM contract. I am happy to report that after a challenging start (deployment of new, bespoke, state of the art equipment) operational performance improvements are now reducing technical downtime and increasing operational productivity. Meanwhile, the Ekofisk PRM contract that was executed in December 2015 for COPSAS saw the final design and procurement stages of the fifth generation Portable Modular Source System ("PMSS(TM) "). The first survey for COPAS is scheduled to commence in September 2016, following assembly, shake down and testing of the equipment.

Whilst the pipeline of new exploration opportunities has all but dried-up, the company continues to receive new PRM enquiries and will remain resolute in securing these and maintaining its lead market position in this sector. As for exploration activity - it's truly a case of keeping one's ear to the ground and avoiding the economic suicide which some in the industry are currently engaged in such that they are losing money at the Gross Margin Level! Whilst we might be trundling along the bottom or near the bottom of the oil price curve, we are unlikely, in our opinion, to see any sustained recovery until mid-2017. By that time, there will have been little or no new exploration activity for 3 years or more. As stockpiles are consumed, and global demand outstrips global supply, there will inevitably be a race for new exploration."

[janeann] 13/9/2016 06:46

Yes certainly an interesting read - would have like some justification for the choice of investments especially LSR

[catswhiskas] 13/9/2016 06:44

Probably a few pence off the share price as well.

[kooba] 13/9/2016 06:41

Sure does!Well that's got it off his chest!

[cockerhoop] 12/9/2016 20:47

I'm sure the Interim Statement in the morning will make interesting reading.....

[kooba] 12/9/2016 20:38

Whose Daniel?Believe big players will look at the underlying value of the actual company against a strategy of securing value through a large minority interest rather than checking the price in a tenner!But for those like myself who think DS (Duncan) knows what he is doing it presents the opportunity of getting into LSR at a discount for what he has had to pay for a seat at the table...and I have started buying a few.A couple of interesting suggestions on the LSR bb worth reading...what price an asset backed play yielding 6% plus in this return starved environment??

[gbill11] 12/9/2016 15:36

Someone should tell Daniel the idea is to buy the shares of a large holder who wants to sell out. That way you can get in at a discount to the prevailing share price. Instead Daniel has bought out a big shareholder who wasn't really wanting to sell. Result is he's paid a big premium and the investment in LSR is showing an immediate loss of 10-15%

[cockerhoop] 12/9/2016 12:58

Slightly off topic here but today's RNS suggests agitating to change the investment policy at LSR (which was selling off the properties with a incentive structure geared for prompt sales) to something else - which conceivably could be less activist?

[kooba] 12/9/2016 07:43

Wouldn't mind if THAL turned into Crystal Amber !!Must be one of the best performing funds this year.DS certainly an activist and looks like he thinks he can extract more value from LSR than the current managements plan...which seems to be being executed ever so slowly.

[jmf69] 12/9/2016 06:49

Maybe we'll get more info in the interims tomorrow?

[cockerhoop] 12/9/2016 06:48

THAL has turned into Crystal Amber overnight!

[masurenguy] 12/9/2016 06:37

12 September 2016
Thalassa Holdings Ltd

Acquisition of ordinary shares in The Local Shopping REIT plc ("LSR")

Further to the announcement on 9 September 2016, Thalassa Holdings Ltd, a holding company currently with subsidiaries in the Energy Services and Defence and Homeland Security Industries is pleased to announce that, on 9 September 2016, it acquired a further 6,225,000 ordinary shares ("LSR Shares") in The Local Shopping REIT plc ("LSR") at an aggregate cost of approximately £2.05m. As a result, the Company is now beneficially interested in 19,093,376 LSR Shares, which represents 23.14% of the issued share capital of LSR. Duncan Soukup, Chairman of Thalassa Holdings Ltd, commented: "Following this further share purchase and the resultant wholesale changes to the shareholder register of LSR, the Board of Thalassa intends to engage with the Chairman of LSR as soon as practicable, with a view to reviewing and changing LSR's investment policy approved in July 2013."