Apollo Global [APL 0.01, down 5.0%; 97% avgVol] [link] responded to the PSE’s inquiry on its operations to say that “some of our anchors were cut loose by strong winds and waves”, and that while the “recovery process is underway”, the “Amihan weather has made it challenging for divers to retrieve them.” APL also said that it’s “finalizing repair and maintenance work while resupplying for the upcoming operations”, doing an inventory, and “awaiting the arrival of parts ordered from China”, which APL helpfully notes were likely delayed “due to the extended holiday break for the Chinese New Year.” APL’s stock is up over 50% year-to-date, but despite that, is still down over 90% over the past three years.
MB bottom-line: With all the chaos in life, at least one thing is certain: APL will always do whatever it takes to look busy while doing nothing. I mean, who would want to do underwater mining? That sounds like hard, unforgiving work. It’s way easier to just play minesweeper and collect wages and board meeting stipends than it is to actually rip iron ore out of the ocean floor and ship that to China for profit. It’s been 1,463 days since APL first said that its ship was “in position” to begin mining in its area, and since then it’s conducted a follow-on offering, bought a boat, had its major shareholder sell a substantial stake, repaired the boat, got a new CEO, resupplied the boat, upgraded the boat, acquired new mining territory, and repaired the boat. The one thing it hasn’t done is any of the real work that it said it would do.
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