Day the gloss began to come off Newcrest

A Barcelona speech was a turning point for the miner's future, writes Peter Ker.

Most Australians were asleep in bed when Newcrest chief executive Greg Robinson revealed the clearest signs that the goldminer was about to change direction in a dramatic way.

It was mid-May, and Robinson had flown into Barcelona to present to a closed conference of large, institutional investors.

There were no ordinary punters in this crowd, just the sort of professional traders that dominate the company's share register.

A major slump in gold prices had forced Newcrest to announce a review of its operations less than a month earlier on April 23.

But when Mr Robinson strode the stage in Barcelona, he hardened his rhetoric on several important points.

The review of high-cost gold production that was announced in April had suddenly become "stop high cost ounces".

An assessment of new capital spending had become "No new capital in current price and cost environment".

There was also a clear sign that the exciting Wafi-Golpu asset in Papua New Guinea was unlikely to get any development funding in the 2014 financial year.

Fast forward three weeks to the infamous 72 hours in June, when a swath of analysts from big investment banks suddenly downgraded the stock.

Their missives emerged one after the other without public comment from Newcrest, at the same time as the share price sank by close to 15 per cent.

Many market observers found the timing suspicious, particularly when Newcrest broke its silence with a bucket of bad news on June 7.

The creation of that very timely market consensus is still the topic of inquiries by market regulators, but what's clear is that several of those analysts named the Barcelona speech as the event that prompted them to change their view of Newcrest's future.

"Recent presentations have outlined a major change in strategy under way at Newcrest, with the focus shifting to returns and cash generation at the expense of production growth," wrote Citi analyst Daniel Seeney on June 5.

"At the recent Global Metals conference in Barcelona, Newcrest began to articulate a revised strategy of focusing on maximised free cash flows, with consequences for higher cost ounces and further major expansion plans."

Award-winning UBS analyst Jo Battershill also named the Barcelona speech as the day that Newcrest moved the goal posts.

"During the Newcrest investor day hosted in early October 2012, management stated a (gold production) growth target of 5-10 per cent per annum over the five-year plan. The starting point for the growth was the 2.29 million ounces of production reported in financial year 2012," he wrote on June 4.

"At recent investor presentations, including the (Bank of America Merrill Lynch) conference in Barcelona, Newcrest management has re-iterated its forecast growth at 5-10 per cent per annum over the next few years. However, it now appears as if the starting point is the financial year 2013 production number, likely to come in around 2.05Moz."

That realisation helped Battershill realise that gold production, revenues and other measures were likely to be lower in the future. The stock was duly downgraded to a sell.

While slides from the Barcelona speech were published on Newcrest's website, it was never published to the ASX announcements platform, despite it containing information that ultimately proved material to the share price.

When asked why it did not release the slides to the ASX, Newcrest insisted it contained no market-sensitive information.

"The Barcelona presentation only had information that was already in the public domain, mainly via the March quarterly release and presentation which was made April 23 and was lodged with the ASX," a spokeswoman said. "Barcelona contained no new strategies, no new numbers and no new detail. It reinforced a message conveyed at the quarterly and carried the revised 2013 production guidance from March 31." Why the market failed to respond sooner to the Barcelona speech also remains a mystery.

Most Australian-based analysts did not reveal their downgrades until more than a fortnight later in the days leading up to June 7.

There were exceptions: Evans and Partners analyst Cathy Moises downgraded her valuation of Newcrest on May 20 after meeting with executives from the company.

RBC did not downgrade its estimates at all.

Much of the controversy in recent days has focused on whether Newcrest met with analysts in the days leading up to June 7, when the share price started to tank. One email between fund managers, published by The Australian Financial Review, suggests such meetings did take place; "Met with mgmt [management] to gain siting on potential FY2014 production outlook. Bottom line ... FY2014 production downgrades."

But the identity of both the person that sent the original email, and the person who allegedly met with Newcrest executives to discuss key details, remain unconfirmed.

Despite intense focus on whether Newcrest met with analysts in the week of June 7, Newcrest has never denied holding meetings with analysts during that time.

Such meetings are not illegal, so long as market-sensitive information is not shared.

Newcrest has denied offering "selective briefings"; which in substance means the company has denied releasing market-sensitive information to preferred analysts.

The precise nature of the defence offered by Newcrest highlights the careful line that investor relations professionals tread on a daily basis.

Ian Matheson from the Australasian Investor Relations Association did not want to pass judgment on the way Newcrest's investor relations team handled the events of June 7, but he said the Australian industry generally performed well.

"It's sometimes said that an investor relations person is the keeper of confidential information for the company, and also the conscience of the company internally for what is in the public domain and what's not," he said. "We do believe that the rules around disclosure are clear and work well. Investor relations practice in Australia is very sound and is on a par with best practice in the world so we see no systemic problems."

Australia's disclosure rules cut both ways, and companies can find themselves in hot water if the market is too surprised when information is announced.

Speaking at a disclosure debate that took place before the Newcrest controversy broke, Herbert Smith Freehills lawyer Quentin Digby noted that companies do have to monitor expectations.

"You just cannot afford to surprise the market on results day. It's now at the point where if you release your results on a scheduled results day and there is a significant movement in the market price, then you are almost requesting a 'when did you become aware' letter from ASX and realistically the Australian Securities and Investments Commission will be very interested in that as well," he said.

ASIC is looking into the saga. Improper conduct will be hard to prove, but even if Newcrest is cleared, some observers reckon it won't be able to avoid less formal types of punishment, some of which is already being handed out on the stockmarket.

Newcrest shares have fallen on eight of the nine trading days since the June 7 announcement, and only two of those falls could be directly linked to the gold price.

The company is now worth half as much as it was on April 1.

As reported by BusinessDay, Shaw Stockbroking resources analyst Vincent Pisani believes concern over Newcrest is "absolutely" contributing to the sell-down. "If there is going to be any suspicion of wrongdoing, a lot of fund managers would think if they hold the stock knowing full well that there could be an inquiry, then they've got to justify that to their trustees," he said.

WHAT WAS SAID AND WHEN

April 23

Newcrest starts review of business after gold price slump.

May 14

CEO presents to institutional brokers in Barcelona, steps up rhetoric about change of strategy

June 3

Merrill Lynch downgrades Newcrest

June 4

UBS downgrades Newcrest to sell and names Barcelona talk as key reference point.

June 5

Credit Suisse analyst predicts impairments, dividend cuts. Citi analyst says recent Barcelona talk revealed major change in strategy at Newcrest.

June 6

Businessday reports Newcrest will close its Brisbane office and axe jobs within days.

June 7

Board announces cuts to dividends, production, jobs, spending and reveals impairments.

SOURCE: BLOOMBERG