Good afternoon
Just in case you ahve forgotten about our resources conference on the 23rd of Feb in Zurich, here is the link.
Unfortunately, Jake Klein of Evolution had to cancel his presentation for very important, personal reasons...we will change this in our document on Monday.
http://www.schroeder-equities.com/conference/
Good afternoon
vry strong manufacturing numbers in the States as well as in Europe yesterday were not enough to hold up markets...Investors are getting concerned about interest rates. Today, strong labor market numbers from the US, and also Average Hourly Earnings increasing quite strongly, underpinning the positive consumer confidence
I guess nobody expects interest rates to really shoot up - and I believe, that strong earnings in the current enviroment should outweigh moderate increases in rates....But today it certainly feels as if we might be in for a little correction generally in equities markets - finally! It might be only a short one!?
Goldmans bullish on commodities - calling oil / iron ore/copper higher, based on solid growth around the world. Gold is weakening on interest rate concerns.
Congo ( DRC ) surprised the other day with new mining taxes....higher royalties, and a super-tax, if metal prices trade 25% higehr than the ones used in a feasibility study. It´s not done yet - Kabila has to sign - and everybody from Glencore to Ivanhoe are trying to talk him out of it. Would be bad news for Ivanhoe´s mega copper-project, which has to be financed at some stage, and certainly others as well.
A litlle bit of profit-taking in the metals so far today...that might change during N.Y. trading, given the positive economic news over there.
Evolution - Mr.Sawiris reduced his stake by 16 Mill shares alltogether, by terminating some option strategy he had put in place about a year ago. His holding is now down to 20% of the company. There is nothing wrong with profit-taking, I guess! Incredibly enough, EVN powered ahead today, and is very close to a chart break-out. the stock has now recuped much of the underperform against the otehr mid-sized producers in Australia - the stand-out, though, is still St Barbara, which came out of severe financial difficulties jst 2 years ago, shooting up by more than 1600% over 2 years!
Finders - good preview for their result today. They generated 72 Mill US$ in EBITDA for 2017, as yet unaudited, with production of 25.200t at AISC of 1,66 US$lb. Their problems in the last 4 month or so have been well documented, and at full production of 28.000t they will be very close to 100 US$ in the current enviroment for copper prices. The company has not made a forecast for current Quarters production - but I expect this to be the last, slightly weaker Quarter than normal, as the plant is normalizing. I hope, that Barry Cahill will update us with some real numbers on the 23rd of Feb in Zurich!. The share price has rarely traded at the takeover price of 23ct - yet no alternative bidder has emerged as yet. I am sure, that many potential players are shying away from doing business in Indonesia!
Have a nice weekend!
WS