Invictus Energy sinks -58% as much-touted Qatari gas deal falls through with little explanation

Two things often happen whenever I write about Invictus Energy (ASX:IVZ). Firstly, I dare to write about the company in a way that acknowledges what it actually is – just another microcap oil and gas explorer operating in a tenuous African jurisdiction headed by a smooth-talking CEO who has a disproportionately loud cult of personality behind him on the HotCopper forums.

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Secondly, I often receive a lot of hate mail from those same HotCopper forum power-users who have a very powerful loyalty to Invictus. An unwavering loyalty, a loyalty that knows no bounds – perhaps, the kind of loyalty that leaves users saying things like ‘bugger, another delay!’ in the face of what was meant to be a life-saving deal for the company falling through with little in the way of explanation.

That deal saw entities linked to the Qatari Royal Family aiming to snap up a ~20% stake in the company for around $40 million, which also had in the original small print potential further access to US$500 million in the background.

(Let’s ignore the fact that for a company which consistently sees a lot of HotCopper users commenting on the stock through every day, sometimes intraday liquidity is basically dead, leaving this finance journalist at least to wonder where exactly all these commenters are trading, if not their beloved IVZ?)

That’s neither here nor there, and the stock does have its detractors, too.

But one really must spare a thought here for the retail shareholders – perhaps its true believers – who aren’t addicted to the volatility of day-trading, who aren’t interested in who the CEO is (because ASX-listed explorer CEOs aren’t exactly a rare breed), and who genuinely believe IVZ could revolutionise Zimbabwe’s gas market.

Which is still a possibility; it’s a possible commercial reality that could happen. I am not trying to jinx the company. It’s just that I’ve been writing about IVZ in various roles for over half a decade, and I don’t need to do anything to jinx Invictus, because they already seem to be cursed in some kind of manner.

“Following extensive discussions, the parties have been unable to reach an agreement on a suitable structure… the company advises that the terms and conditions being sought by [Qatari parties] were not acceptable to Invictus,” IVZ wrote on Tuesday.

The more pertinent question, perhaps – for all involved – is for how much longer patience remains acceptable to shareholders. Still, looking at the forums on Tuesday, it appears many of Invictus’s shareholders mightn’t feel panic.

Or they’re masochists, which, hey, free country. This finance journalist is far from prudish.

IVZ last traded at 5.7cps today.

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