thomas4124's Profile

Certified Financial Planner for UBS for 37 years. Have extensive experience in portfolio management using a combination of fundamental analysis and technical alalysis. Retired from financial service industry in 2003, but I remain active in portfolio management for my own account, as well as sharing my investment ideas with a number of investors at no cost to them.

thomas4124's Posts

John McConnell Phone Interview Commentary

Today I had a phone interview with our President and CEO, John McConnell. The primary purpose of this interview was to determine what strategic plans our company intends on implementing to improve investor’s confidence in our management team and their ability to maximize shareholder’s stock value. In no particular order of importance, I have listed below some of the strategies that our company intends on implementing to restore investor’s confidence in our management team and their ability to maximize shareholder value:



Please note that my comments are not direct quotes from John McConnell; however my comments should reflect a close approximation of his comments and our mutual understanding of the issues we discussed.




  1. Improve communication with our stockholders regarding our company’s strategic plans. We both agree that our company has much room for improvement in stockholder communication.

  2. Give some clarity as to our company’s plans to finance mine construction at our Eagle property – additional drilling activity at Dublin Gulch and our Nevada properties, and general corporate overhead. The first step in this process will be a press release in the next couple of days regarding our company hiring an expert financial consultant who has the expertise is determining an optimum method of financing the items listed above – while at the same time – minimizing stock holder dilution and maximizing shareholder value. John and I have discussed numerous financing options that could include any of the following; but not limited to those items listed below: a 50% debt financing/50% stock offering; joint venturing with another company that would provide the capital required to finance the development of our Eagle gold mine; streaming financing with companies like Royal Gold, etc. I don’t want to anticipate what this new financial expert will recommend, but John and I agree that our company will have to do some stock financing in the interim before the major mine production cost become a real issue 12 month from now. Keeping in mind that our company’s burn rate of capital is approximately $3 million a month, we can expect a stock offering within the next month or two, and possibly another interim stock financing several months from now. Market conditions preclude a single large financing to generate enough cash flow for the next 12 month. Keep in mind that our management team has a vested interest in structuring financing that is in the long term interest of all stockholders. Management doesn’t like stockholder dilution any more than you or I do.


  3. Marketing innovation: Our company intends to implement some new methods of communication. John mentioned that our company intends on doing some Business Television promotion for our company. I suggested that our company look into promoting our stock via King World News which has a large international following – see link to that service: http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/King_World_News.html He intends on exploring the merits and costs associated with promoting our company via this media source.

  4. Investors confidence in our company’s management capabilities will move forward should our company actually realize our company’s time line in achieving the following milestones: Receiving permits for the construction on an underground decline at the Helen Zone by the end of this quarter; completing a bankable feasibility report on our Eagle property before the end of the last quarter of this year; commencing drilling at Mill Canyon by the end of September. John has re-confirmed that he expects our company to meet these timelines.

  5. Barrack Gold is expected to announce within the next couple of days an updated estimated of their gold reserves on their property which is located very close to our Mill Canyon property. Rumors are circulating that the reporter reserves will be north of 20 million ounces of gold. Since we will be commencing exploration activities at Mill Canyon we could get an area play where investors could bid up our stock because of its proximity to Barrack Gold’s property. John McConnell mentioned that this event makes him even more excited about our Mill Canyon property.


  6. In the past, our company has tried to keep stockholders apprised of our corporate strategic plans via updated slide presentations on their web site. I told John that reviewing a slide presentation on our web site is insufficient in keeping our stockholders updated as to our company’s strategic plans – its one thing to review an updated slide presentation – and its another thing altogether - giving investors a link to a recording of the conversations that took place when the presentations were actually made. I told him investors would like to hear a recorded version of the actual presentations. I was surprised to hear that is exactly what our company intends on doing. In the month of September, our company plans on doing several corporate presentations – see our web site for the dates and times for those presentations @ http://www.vitgoldcorp.com/index.cfm?pagePath=Investors/Events_Calendar&id=35274 We can expect to see a link to the commentary at the Rodman & Renshaw Mining Conference that is going to be held on September 11 – September 13th.



The bottom line is that I see events taking place that have a distinct possibility of beginning the process of repairing the lost confidence in our management’s ability to keep our stockholders advised as to our strategic planning strategies and its ability to maximize stockholder value.



I will consider our company successful in their new marketing plans when, people like me, are no longer needed to update its shareholders as to what is going on with our company!

about 13 years ago
Next Tuesday: Phone Interview With John McConnell


Next Tuesday I have a scheduled phone interview with John McConnell regarding a list of issues that I believe were instrumental in destroying investor's confidence in our management team and their ability to maximize shareholder value. I have requested that he let me know what steps our company plans on taking to restore investor confidence and maximize shareholder value.

Hopefully, we are seeing a clean-out of selling in our stock. A major sign that we have actually put in a market low would be if out stock actually closes up on the day after setting new lows. Technicians often call this development an "Outside Day". Outside days are days where the chart bar is both higher and lower than that of the previous day. Outside days therefore mark greater volatility in the stock price for that day. They often indicate a sea change in a stock's trend. We would need a close at C$.59 today to classify as an outside day.

Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/outside-days.asp#ixzz1Woav389I

about 13 years ago
A Stock Offering Shold Come as no Surprise!

Our company's cash position on February 28th was $26 million. John McConnell recently informed me that our company's burn rate was $3 million a month. It was further indicated to me that when our company's cash position nears $5 million, we will be close to another stock offering to replenish our cash resources to fund operations for future corporate needs. Unless our company substantially reduces their burn rate, we can expect our company's cash position to drop into the $5 million range sometime within the next month or two. I know that our company would hope that our stock would rise before year-end so they could reduce the amount of dilution that would take place on a stock offering. It doesn't appear to me that our company can complete a bankable feasibility study before they have to come to the market for more money. IMO, there exists a conflict at the present time between potential investors in any private placement and Victoria Gold. Institutional investors, IMO, will be more willing to step up and offer the funds we need before any potential good news is released - such as a bankable feasibility report. IMO, the sooner our company announces another stock offering the better - even though our stock is dirt cheap- I believe our stock's under performance has been significantly impacted because of the uncertainty regarding further stock holder dilution. Once that uncertainty has been alleviated, investors can once again focus on the prospects that our company is actually going to be a gold producer over the next 18 to 24 months.

about 13 years ago
Catalysts That Could Move our Stock Higher by Year-End

1. Additional drilling results at Eagle and Dublin Gulch - Based on last two batches of drilling results reported this year, our company will probably report new drilling results by the middle of November.
2. Our company announces approval for all permits required to build the underground decline at our Cove's Helen Zone. According to our web site, on a worst case basis, all permits should be approved by the end of September.
3. Commencement of drilling at the Helen Zone or Mill Canyon starting at the end of September with drilling results by year-end.
4. Completion of Bankable feasibility report on our Eagle property by year-end.
5. Major catch up move in gold stocks relative to the price of gold bullion.
6. Clarity as to how our firm is going to raise funds required for mine development, drilling activity, corporate overhead, etc.

IMO, investors will be willing to pay a much higher price for our stock as a result of achieving these milestones.

about 13 years ago
thomas4124
City
Rancho Palso Verdes
Rank
President
Activity Points
2198
Rating
Your Rating
Date Joined
11/03/2007
Social Links
Private Message

Followed Hubs

Symbol:
VIT
Exchange:
TSX-V
Shares:
496m
Industry:
Website:
Victoria’s transformation and growth has been significant over the past twelve months, including the completion of two major corporate transactions adding a total of 4.4 million ounces of gold that are National Instrument 43-101 (“NI 43-101”) compliant to the Company, and successfully completing the Phase 1 drill campaign at the Helen Zone located at the Cove project in Nevada, USA.