Thalassa Share Discussion Threads

[catswhiskas] 26/9/2016 11:24

Don't get sucked into these until at least Henderson are out if they start selling down 10% gawd knows where this will go.

[gfrae] 26/9/2016 11:16

THanks, I see you are watching these too!

[tiltonboy] 26/9/2016 10:54

They sold 222k.

[gfrae] 26/9/2016 10:41

Are Henderson selling ? or have they just gone over 10% because of the buy back ?

[catswhiskas] 23/9/2016 15:19

This could be a bit tricky for the share price Henderson are sellers and still hold over 10% THAL currently don't have a mandate to take those out of the market as it would exceed the authorised buy backs up to the value of £1000000.Depending on what Hendersons plans are but if they are sellers this could indeed sink sub 20p as there's likely to be very little appetite for the shares.

[catswhiskas] 22/9/2016 13:06

Might be worth a punt sub 20p !

[jmf69] 22/9/2016 08:08

Another 520k bought back

[eeza] 21/9/2016 17:46

MM's aren't philanthropists.

If they were all sells the share price would defo be down.

[catswhiskas] 21/9/2016 17:35

Ouch what's with the massive volume 15% of the issued share capital traded all reported as sells and the share price is up looks like the last of thals institutional holdings have deserted the sinking ship unless some of the trades at 36p are buys.

[masurenguy] 16/9/2016 13:03

"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 12:33

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 12:12

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 20:28

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 19:52

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 18:11

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 13:41

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 12:41

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 12:24

ST talks THAL (and LSR) in todays IC column

[sphere25] 13/9/2016 11:21

Bookbroker,

I'm not daft enough to be invested here.

Hope this helps.

[owenski] 13/9/2016 09:26

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 07:53

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 07:46

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