Update from the AGMFirst of all I would like to thank the other HRG stockholders who were able to attend the meeting. It’s great that I can now put a face with the screen name! HRG also had some real gorillas for security…but that did not stop this intrepid crew from telling HRG and Severstal the offer of .22 WILL FAIL.
OK The Russians our illustrious LEADERS did NOT show, not one of them. This was a deliberate attempt to remain out of the line of fire, and leave the HRG folks in a perpetual position of cluelessness. The special amendment did pass. There was a quorum, auditor passed, directors passed etc etc. Dan did the dog and pony show touting the benefits of HRG with a PowerPoint show mostly made up of old slides. But it does look like Taparko's production is running at 100 tons/hr and hitting higher grades, so that's all good.
The Q&A was most interesting, and I believe the audio portion will be available for all to listen. Not that many questions, but Steve really gave it to them...way to go Steve! Again most of the responses to questions like; TSX delisting were skated around without a clear reason why the TSX "will" delist HRG, and what HRG is doing about this (such as go to the Venture). Observations of former BOD members being “allegedly” forced out, Severstal slagging the stock price as soon as it starts to rise, etc etc. Much clapping of hands and solidarity amongst the minority stockholders.
I was able to ask Mr. Glackmeyer directly, “as an independent board member did you supported the .22 bid OR did you support the range (.21 to .36)” I had to ask the question 3 times before he said .22 offer was fair to HRG minority stockholders. He tried to deflect the question and refer to the Paradigm report, to which HRG paid $250,000, talk about that report being worth only a A PAIR OF DIMES!!! I then asked why in their report POG was ONLY $850 and cash costs were over $500 ( was he aware of this), when in reality POG is well over $1,000 CDN and cash costs are down 25%. He could only refer to the Paradigm report and state that it was fair. So at least he is on record, so we need to discredit the Paradigm report and expose the "independent board members" as willful confederates in this farce of an exercise placed there by Severstal and in fact they do NOT represent the minority interests of HRG, AND are not doing what they should be doing….protecting HRG from Severstal. If HRG is so bad, why does Severstal want it so much? I asked that as well…no answer.
It was not possible to ask if Severstal is planning a new mill, because HRG management would not comment on such matters and ooops Severstal's stooges were not there. Spineless!
Nice to meet Vince from the USA, he will add an additional million shares to the NO side!
CJ