amj23, maybe with an open mind and a little more thought you can see more positives than just the few "commercial" outcomes (which we all agree would be much better if it was publicly disclosed).
First, the annual shareholders meeting: If you really cut to the chase, ERHE is an asset holding company. There shouldn't be a lot to discuss or vote on for that matter for the typical annual meeting. Yes, you and several other vocal shareholders may want to go and voice your strong objections to the way they run the business but really, with 3 or 4 people in the company and our "Partner" companies with all the operations and responsibilities, there isn't much real business to discuss.
Now, for the "drilling results" and whether Total knows about them or not: Yes, they should know about it and it still doesn't mean ERHE shareholders should (YET). We have known for years that the JDZ would be better off being drilled as a consortium of partners. Because of this, Chevron probably has a close relationship with Addax and Sinopec and therefore they have all the data to date. Chevron, no doubt, has had Total sign non-disclosure agreements for the discussions on purchasing the Block 1 rights and for that, they have received as much results as Chevron possibly has available. Remember, they are trying to get the best price for their 49.5% interests.
Finally, the possibility of a buy out: This should have NO impact on the shareholder meeting that is scheduled for April. If there was a buyer that wanted to attempt to buy out ERHE, there would be a special shareholders meeting scheduled for discussion and voting. Keep in mind, by this point it would be a for gone conclusion as SEO, Chrome, and the bank that owns a huge chunk would have been in discussions and agreed upon the terms ahead of time. The special shareholders meeting (with special proxy mailings soliciting votes by mail and online) will just be a formality unless the price was so ridiculously low that a law suit was started to challenge the legality of the price offered (which, by the way, is a moot point because SEO stands to loose the most with a low ball offer).
Now, you or any other shareholder can spend your time and money going to the shareholder meeting (I would encourage it for the experience if you haven’t ever been to a public companies shareholder meeting) and you can plan on giving them a piece of your mind for how they are running the business. I wish you the best of luck with that but you should probably not get your hopes up to making any kind of substantial change. If you really have a valid change that you want a legitimate vote on, you would be better served by working through management with your proposal than trying to “surprise” them with it. With all of that, I don’t think the company is wrong for booking a “smaller” room than the previous shareholder meeting. I personally would rather them spend more money on things like the presentation last week in Nigeria.
It is in my opinion, that we will all know the results of the drilling and the plans for phase II of the JDZ before the shareholders meeting. With this information publicly disclosed, the share price should better reflect the value of actual results (yes, much higher than today’s price IMHO). When this happens, many shareholders will calm their negative thoughts and hopefully many will be planning their trips to Vegas instead of the shareholders meeting.
Good luck to you.
