- INVESTORS are always looking for the next big thing, and speculative oil and gas explorer Jacka Resources seems to tick a lot of those boxes in the wake of a billion-dollar takeover offer of what was a fellow minnow in East Africa.
Since early March, shares in Jacka (ASX: JKA) have shot up almost 50 per cent, although at 19¢ it still only has a market cap of $47 million. It raised just over $14 million last month at 13.5¢ a share and investors now include Contango Asset Management which declared a 6 per cent stake last week.
Development of Jacka's offshore prospects in Nigeria and Tunisia, West Africa, is well under way, with modest cash flow expected as early as next year from the Nigerian site. But it is possibly its onshore exploration in Tanzania and Somaliland in East Africa that is more interesting.
Advertisement: Story continues below It's high-risk stuff. Until recently, East Africa had never had a discovery of note due to very little exploration. But this is changing.
London listed oil and gas minnow Cove Energy is in the middle of a bidding war that has seen its market cap jump from £270 million ($A412 million) this time last year to its current level of £1.1 billion. Royal Dutch Shell, Thai energy group PTT Exploration and two Indian companies all want its 8.5 per cent stake in Mozambique's Offshore Area 1, which operator US group Anadarko Petroleum has said could contain 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Jacka can only hope for such an outcome. Its management are ex-Hardman Resources, so they know a thing or two about takeovers (having been acquired by Tullow Oil in 2007 for $1.5 billion).
Forrest's Poseidon Adventure
TODAY is the last day you can be a part of the $20 million share issue for Poseidon Nickel (ASX: POS), being underwritten by its chairman, Andrew Forrest. The shares closed on Friday at 17¢, and the 10¢-a-share issue price reflects a doubling of the shares on issue post the transaction.
The company has a lot of history, both in its name and in its prospects. The original Poseidon Nickel shares went from $1.85 in September, 1969 to $280 a share five months later.
This version of Poseidon is redeveloping the original's Mount Windarra and Cerberus nickel mines in Western Australia . Both deposits are low grade and will need to be bulk-mined.
Investors are sweating on the feasibility study, which is being spellchecked. This will determine whether this company can get the $160 million or so it will eventually need to develop the mines and mill, and become Australia's next nickel producer.
Bell Potter's Trent Allen has a 31¢ price target and says that if anyone can get the bank financing for this amount, it's Forrest. But with the nickel price having declined about 20 per cent since early February, it could take more than Forrest's undoubted skills to revive this Poseidon.
By Richard Hemming (Brisbane times)
(Richard Hemming (r.hemming@undertheradarreport.com.au) is an independent analyst who edits a fortnightly newsletter: undertheradarreport.com.au.).
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