Once more, we have to go elsewhere for our information, because neither the government nor the consortium has issued a proper press statement
Published:
October 15, 2013 at 12:22am
Gasol has, though. See the link below.
It expects a short payback period with an internal rate of return of 11%.
Work on the project will begin in the first quarter of next year and is expected to take 18 months until commissioning of the first stage, and 24 months until completion (which means early 2016).
It had a pre-existing contractual relationship with Azerbaijan and operates mainly in Nigeria/West Africa.
Floating regasification plants are seen as a way round planning regulations – the planning and permit procedures for onshore plants are a deterrent where time is a consideration.
You will pick up other points.
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http://www.gasolplc.com/media/18640/malta_141013.pdf
20% reduction in electricity tariffs. I think we were promised 25%.
Page 5:
1. “In March 2013 Gasol issued $20m of bonds to a group of investing institutions to back its West African plans. There is a further $80m which can be issued in this way.
First observation. The bond facility totals $100 million. Why does this figure remind me of a similar figure somewhere else?
Second observation. The timing. The finance was announced in March 2013. Ok, the draw down took place on 7 March 2013, but this may even give rise to further questions.
http://www.gasolplc.com/media/17734/gasol_draws_down_us__20_million_on_new_bond_instrument.pdf
Third observation. Why are there no details of the third parties who agreed to the unsecured bond instrument of $100 million and of the institutional investors who provided the initial tranche of $20 million?
By way of information, the bond was listed in Dublin on the Irish Stock Exchange in September 2013.
2. “A cautious view would suggest that an injection of equity will need to be made at some stage, with resultant dilution for existing equity shareholders.”
Now that they have said this in public (ahem), perhaps Shiv Nair, “China’s secret weapon in Africa,” may organise “an injection of equity” by China.
Actually, who can exclude that China takes over part, or majority, control in Gasol plc?
I will not be very surprised if this happens, since, although the document above says that the company is capitalised at £6 million, this is in fact the market capitalisation, whereas the company has a hole in its equity of £2 million as shown in its annual report of 31 March 2013. Based on the accounts of 31 March 2013, the company looks like a shelf company.
The company is operating in West Africa, a region comprising of Nigeria, Ghana and Benin among others. This is a region where Shiv Nair and British Borneo Holdings companies have operated in the past.
I was never very good at numbers. How much of all this is going to be owned by the Maltese government?
[Daphne – Nothing.]
Nothing? As in, part owned by China, part owned by this country, some owned by that company etc?
[Daphne – The new power station will be 100% owned by this consortium, Electro Gas. It will sell its product to Enemalta, but Enemalta, we have been told today, will provide it with workers, which it will pay.]
OK, so the power station will make the power, sell it to Enemalta, which then sells it to Malta while also paying the workers?
[Daphne – Yes, that’s right.]
So, the power has to go from a private owner, through a middle man who is footing the bill for the labour, to get to someone’s home.
As opposed to going from the power station that is owned by the government to the home directly.
I’m sorry, I m trying to find that point where all this is cheaper.
Here is a rough idea of what happened in Bolivia when they privatized water.
It is argued that the privatization process did little with regards to addressing access to water and that the increase in water prices following such measures was met by an approximate 2% increase in levels of poverty. [2]
Following two popular uprisings against water privatization, the first in Cochabamba in April 2000 and the second in La Paz/El Alto in January 2005, the two concessions were terminated. In the latter case, Aguas de Illimani was replaced by the public utility Empresa Pública Social de Agua y Saneamiento (EPSAS).
The public water utility came under severe criticism in 2008 due to water shortages, accounting errors, tariff increases and poor disaster preparedness. Consequently, representatives of the La Paz neighborhood association announced to create their own service provider.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization_in_Bolivia
Has Evarist Bartolo said anything yet or have I missed it?
http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail.html?announcementId=11740034
The agreement with SOCAR Trading SA aka Azerbaijian was signed in December 2012.
The Malta deal is good news for Gasol which is now looking forward to an even better share price thanks to the money we’re all going to fork out over the next 18 years at least.
http://www.youroilandgasnews.com/gasol+plc+announces+a+win+in+malta_95095.html
(…)
Gasol’s West African ambitions remain very promising, but Malta looks a more immediate route to the generation of revenues and positive cash flowuntil the West African Gas Pipeline (‘WAGP’) begins to fill its capacity. Expected revenues from Malta alone are, we believe, sufficient to justify a substantially highershare price.
(…)
The company has been increasingly active since the changes in management announced in the early part of 2012. Prominent among the initiatives undertaken was the signing in December 2012 of a strategic partnership with STSA, the international marketing and development arm of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (‘SOCAR’). SOCAR ranks among the world’s largest companies.
Evarist Bartolo is now busy preparing to accommodate the Chinese “teachers” who will be coming to Malta to teach Mandarin in Government schools – and if this is going to be a compulsory thing, even in private and church schools.
Was Dalli planning to inject money in operating power stations in Africa?
Can it be that he is involved here as well?
So basically if I have understood this well, the new gas strategy will create a middle man/company selling power to Enemalta which will in turn sell it to us. We’ll have five years with a cheaper rate while Labour is in government and 13 years at god knows what rate.
In less than five years the government is planning to decommission the Marsa power station and the 120MW steam units at Delimara power station (referred to as the old plant) despite being possible to keep it in operation till 2020.
And then Malta will have no alternative but to buy its power from this private company and/or from the cable from Sicily. Guess what will happen.
I would love to know who the government of Malta’s crack team of negotiators will be – by my reckoning there are 2 or 3 people in Malta who have the relevant expertise to do this, so here’s hoping they’re involved.
Gasol’s losses are registered at GBP4 million as at March 2013. This is an extremely heavy burden on its capital.
It could be interpreted as a very high risk venture. Usually the stock market does not take kindly to that kind of thing, and since March it has lost over 10% of its share price after that marked spike.
If Nigeria fails (distinct possibility due to unrest) then the project may blow up. Who will save us then? Is Labour in it for just 5 years? A get rich quick scheme?
Labour is starting to look like one big Ponzi scheme.
I always thought it was.
Same here.
The page in the link says it is now unavailable. It could have been removed.
Strange, or what?
http://news.sky.com/story/1155720/energy-bills-british-gas-ups-prices-by-9-2-percent