Please can you discuss what the expectations are for this years Soco AGM ?
I really hope the management do not intend to repeat what has already been said in the IMS statement. This would be a pointless excercise.
I hope to hear more about TGD and West Africa.
The management team seriously need to put a fire under Soco's share price, £13/share is unacceptable. They can and need to do better.
In reply to kenobi (post #50)
Congratulations!
Im sure that is a reasonable excuse (says he who was so fickle as to be drawn to the lure of the Guinness instead of Soco).
In order to separate our "expectations" - this thread - from reports on what will actually be stated during and after tomorrow's AGM, I have started a new thread for post AGM reports and implications.
Hope this helps.
I am expecting to attend. The worthy minions at Ashursts have booked me space for my treasured bicycle and I hope for not too much rain.
M
Can anyone help a provincial?
How the hell am I supposed to get from Paddington to Appold Street tomorrow morning????????????
""You have to realise: if I had been paid 50% more, I would not have done it better. If I had been paid 50% less, then I would not have done it worse."
Jeroen van der Veer, Chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8090948.stm
I don't think Soco directors should be paid more then £100k/annum. I don't think they would have done a better job last year even if they had recieved $5m each. Nor would they have done a worse job if they recieved £50k.
May I ask you why you started the thread since it appears that no matter what any one says, you just return to your central point. This is, after all, supposed to be a discussion board.
I have'nt seen a convincing case as yet to make me think otherwise. Most seem to agree 2008 was a bad year for Soco. Soco directors made alot of mistakes and took a very generous remuneration.
If i was running a business and i planned to spend millions on a project, I would be sat right in front of it day in day out making sure it is happening on time with few errors. One Soco director is in the states and another is in the UK. If one had been in Vietnam i truely believe there would not have been so many delays or mistakes. Was there not a case where a contractor got fired for wasting time and delaying TGD & Ed went and fired him?
IMO, you have shown little understanding of what has been going on behind the scenes in terms of what is required to run an E&P company, especially where they are tied up in JVs where decisions are taken by a group of partners. In the case of VN work has indeed been going on - seimsic etc etc.
I don't mean to be rude Darron but your etc etc at the end suggests you don't know exactly what has been going on. I understand how the JV works. But my understanding is Soco is no silent partner, they have significant influence & clearly something to offer the JV otherwise the JV would not need Soco. Vietnam Oil has been in decline, they have talked publicly about the need to replace the production in Bach Ho. The govenment are keen to produce more, I don't think it would take a huge amount of effort to get things moving.
I don't believe Soco management have done everything they possibly could to have an active drilling programme. I realise the JV has to agree on key decisions and the Viet.gov are slow at signing of declarations etc but that does'nt excuse the management of being inactive for 12+ months. The truth is they thought Vietnam would be sold by now and they had no backup plan if things did'nt go to plan.
Embarrasing....
Soc would love to monetise Vn but they have their own perception of what it is worth. Last year the market fell to pieces and dealflow basically dried up. We know that there was (is?) an interest expressed in the assets but obviously a deal couldnt be agreed i.e there was most likely a major discrepancy between valuations. The management feel that they could best serve shareholder interests by delivering the right price and if that means waiting till further work is done on TGD etc then so be it. So its back to the constraints of the JV again.
This is all well and good but like Soco it peers in the sector were also affected. It has not stopped deals from occuring nor from them continuing to drill. In relation to Soco peers Soco have performed poorly both Operationally and from a Share price perspective the past 12 months. They are at the bottom of the pack as far as performance is concerned.....
What if POO carried on falling?
So Roger and Ed were conservative and have held off. Cant blame them for that IMO. Frustrating? Of course, especially with so many deal now on the go. Thats life unfortunately. Mind you, DGO and AXC both possibly disappearing will only free up cash for the sector at a time when the number of participants are reduced.
As grown mature highly experienced individuals with over 60+ years of combined experience between them and they have been through Oil booms and bust and recessions the whole shabang! One would have expected them to ACT in the Oil bubble of 2008 and atleast monetise some assets. IMO CNV could have been sold at the height or very close to the peak last year. They made the decision that they will only sell Vietnam as a whole.
If you wanted to take the money off the table in Dec (as your target date) and the marco outlook started to go your way (POO etc rising) why didnt you take the obvious option and sell Soco to buy those with newsflow?
Heindsight is great! Going into 2008 i aswell as quite a few individuals felt it would be a tough year, no way did i think it would be much worse then the 1987 crash. The plan was always to hold a company like Soco or cash that would do well regardless quite simply because the management would have success at TGD and realise the value at a decent price and thus allowing me to use the cash to recycle into the bombed out E+Ps. i.e. Dana at £6, TLW at £4.50, HOIL at £1.50 etc
Just sounds too easy looking back.
Why was a crap rig used to drill TGD? I don't think most people realise that the rig was a major problem for the failure to effectively drill TGD. IMO Soco were out of their depth with TGD and should have paid for the expertise to get the job done properly, on time with less errors. It would have been more cost effective!
IMO people should'nt be complacent at the AGM, Ed and Cagle are a nice bunch of people and it is very easy to fall for their friendly nature. It is important to ask them to justify why they did'nt cut back their remuneration in 2008 for a poor year, the causes for the delays on TGD and to express regret for 2008 & take more responsibility then what was expressed in the results statement. It is important to make them realise that shareholders do think 2008 was a bad year and the performance needs to improve significantly & we don't want another bad year like 2008.
In reply to Isaac (post #57)
If... I planned to spend millions on a project, I would be sat right in front of it day in day out making sure it is happening on time with few errors.
Taking your example Isaac, you have to remember that you're not actually running the project. You'd be more akin to the hapless sub-team leader so beloved of The Apprentice TV programme who runs around doing what he can within the constrains set by the so-called project manager and aggravated by that person's actions.
One Soco director is in the states and another is in the UK. If one had been in Vietnam i truely believe there would not have been so many delays or mistakes.
I guess you don't expect that director actually to be offshore? I would bet my entire holding that none of the directors have the certification to get anywhere near an offshore helicopter, let alone an installation. Which would mean they'd be stuck in the office or "on the beach" as the parlance has it.
Once you're on the beach, the only contact you have is via radio, satellite or just maybe mobile-phone links, depending upon location and sophistication. For all you can do, you might as well be in London, Paris (Texas, obvioulsy!) or Aberdeen. I have made any number of calls through to managers at silly-o'clock in the morning because they always wanted to know when things were going pear-shaped. The pattern was always the same; I'd tell them what was wrong, they'd tell me they weren't very happy about it and then give me the outstandingly-sage advice that I really ought to do everything I could to get it sorted out. Imagine!
Why was a crap rig used to drill TGD?
Ah - they don't fool us by rebadging it the Adriatic XI, eh? We know it's really just the Bay Driller originally used in Morecambe Bay back in the early eighties! Seriously though, I recall the rig-related issue was to do with the pressure ratings of the BOPs and stack, wasn't it? Beyond that, I think most of the snafus seemed to be caused by the service companies rather than GSF, the drilling contractor.
SW10
In reply to Isaac (post #57)
The plan was always to hold a company like Soco or cash that would do well regardless quite simply because the management would have success at TGD and realise the value at a decent price and thus allowing me to use the cash to recycle into the bombed out E+Ps. i.e. Dana at £6, TLW at £4.50, HOIL at £1.50 etc
So what you are really upset about is that your investment plan went wrong and you didn't make the oodles of cash you were sure you would. That's the sort of thing that happens, but flailing around blaming management for everything isn't very productive, and it's very unlikely to help you either avoid similar situations in future, or deal with them when they happen. Time to move on, Isaac.
In reply to djpreston (post #60)
"Oh, sorry, I forgot, you won't actually go and certainly won't introduce yourself, much like JT."
That is why I pointed our the similarities between JT and Isaac. If he does not challenge the directors face to face, he will lose all his credibility.
MD
Yes. All.
Did anyone complain to the directors that they are overpaid for doing insufficient work?
If so, was it Isaac?
MD
Peterg,
Is that the GRAY man ? Hi Mr Gray! :-)
So what you are really upset about is that your investment plan went wrong and you didn't make the oodles of cash you were sure you would. That's the sort of thing that happens, but flailing around blaming management for everything isn't very productive, and it's very unlikely to help you either avoid similar situations in future, or deal with them when they happen. Time to move on, Isaac.
I am not upset at all. It is money at the end of day, no point crying over spilt milk! I have actually been annoyed and frustrated to be honest because of recent share price performance whilst the whole market raced ahead and Soco peers and to some extent i blame management for this for the poor operational performance. I have already mentioned on TMF in the past and have taken responsiblity for my investment decisions. I don't blame management because i chose not to sell up, that is my own fault. I blamed management for what was a poor year in 2008 and for taking what was generous remuneration in 2008.
There are two exciting events occuring in 2009 :-
-Marine XI drilling
- Seismic Reprocessing
If Marine XI is a success or the Seismic Reprocessing is a success to the extent which adds significant value from what is currently not know then i would be happy for management to take a reasonable salary. But if both fail to add any further value or even diminsh value then i would again be annoyed if management chose to take a generous remuneration.
It is quite simple with me, prove up TGD and West Africa and then take a decent pay packet. I do not have a problem with this at all. I don't believe in reward for failure.
SW10 - Thanks for the education, always a breath of fresh air reading your posts.
Darron - Top of the evening to you :-)
In reply to djpreston (post #66)
Hi, good suggestion. At the moment, it's not possible for the Thread Owner to change the thread title. That clearly needs to be changed and we are working on it, so it should be possible very shortly. We will let everyone know once it is. Cheers, M.
In reply to djpreston (post #51)
Thanks Darren, its a joy of course, or will be when I catch up on some missed sleep !
In reply to peterg (post #59)
So what you are really upset about is that your investment plan went wrong and you didn't make the oodles of cash you were sure you would. That's the sort of thing that happens, but flailing around blaming management for everything isn't very productive, and it's very unlikely to help you either avoid similar situations in future, or deal with them when they happen. Time to move on, Isaac.
In Isaac's absence* from the AGM yesterday I took his point up with Rui De Sousa and told him that there were a number of investors who felt frustrated at the share price performance. His advice was immediate and unequivocal - "they should sell".
There are of course a number of reasons why that may not be optimal for most people - I'll point those out in another thread.
* Surprise, surprise.
ee
In reply to MadDutch (post #64);
I asked this question; "Did anyone complain to the directors that they are overpaid for doing insufficient work?
If so, was it Isaac?"
I note the failure to reply to my question in his next post, and thank you ee for telling us that he bottled out. Indeed, you said it all with 2 words; "surprise surprise."
Frankly, the continued winge that the directors have been lazy and do not deserve their pay is not acceptable; and there are perfectly good reasons why that is so.
Time is valuable to me at present (2008/9 has been my best year ever on the stock market) but if anyone is interested in debating the subject, please tell me and I will start a new thread.
MadDutch
