Wow what a blistering indictment of the industry!
His idea for a council of shareholders might get some traction; "fellow large sector investor, Tocqueville, had endorsed the council idea."
"issues including high executive pay, cozy board appointments and value-destroying mergers and acquisitions."
* Can't really include CMI in the high executive pay complaint. CDG has taken a cut in annual compensation and hasn't had any bonuses or more stock distributions since the one set up as part of his employment contract.
* I don't know how well the board fits in the description of "cozy appointments". The LA lawyer who acquired quite a few shares some time back is no longer listed and there is a new fellow, Clark Gilliam, who came on the board as part of the financing deal back in January. W.J. Nance is the Intergroup guy and probably speaks for John Winfield.
* There haven't been any mergers and no acquisitions other than real estate and claims.
"the gold price rose by 20 percent and the price of oil, a major input cost for miners, fell by 28 percent," surprising that the industry as a whole had a big fail. That CMI was and is not able to take advantage of this picture, well, as WJT might say; Bad, very bad.
No outside shareholder council is going to have any bearing on a company that is majority held in two hands, John Winfield and Arnold Van den Berg. But it will be interesting to see if this idea gets traction and what the shareholders are able to accomplish. Could help the industry and benefit CMI.
I am still waiting on the drilling results as well as the new extraction technology, the sale of commercial property and water rights, and news of a venture partnership. These seem like the near term possibilities for CMI. A shareholder led industry wide reformation could take a while.
