Boss Energy chief Duncan Craib defiant about director sell-off and Kazakhstan-induced uranium bloodbath

Boss Energy chief executive Duncan Craib has no regrets about a mass director share selling spree that potentially exacerbated the impact of a weakening uranium market. Shares in Boss Energy shed more than 10 per cent on May 28 after Mr Craib and two of its three other board members sold the majority of their holdings, leading some panicked investors to follow suit. The company’s boss offloaded 3.75 million of his 4.24 million shares for an average of $5.63 a piece, netting $21.1 million. Fellow Boss directors Bryn Jones and Wyatt Buck also liquidated most of their holdings for a combined windfall of $5m. Since then Boss Energy shares have nearly halved, but speaking to a media pack following his Diggers & Dealers presentation on Tuesday Mr Craib said the sell-off was not the driver. “I think globally all uranium equities have fallen. So it’s not just Boss,” he said. Mr Craib refuted suggestions that Boss’ share price decline has been worse than its peers. He also reiterated that he previously said he would sell some stock once production started. “When you look world scale, it (the Boss share price) sort of hovers around where most have moved (from May 28).” Since that day Boss’ shares have retreated about 45 per cent, while its other ASX-listed uranium mining peer Paladin Energy is down 36 per cent and the Western World’s largest producer of the commodity — Cameco — has decreased 32 per cent. Asked if he has plans sell any of his remaining stake in the foreseeable future, Mr Craib said “absolutely not”. He also believes the market response to an update by Kazatomprom last week — the world’s largest uranium miner — has been over-egged. Nearly $1 billion of value was wiped from WA-based uranium companies on Friday, including Boss, after the Kazakh miner unveiled a brighter production outlook on the back of improved operational performance. The losses continued on Monday amid a broader market meltdown. Kazatomprom is responsible for about 40 per cent of the world’s supply of uranium. But limited access to sulphuric acid — used to leach uranium from ore — and construction delays to bring online new mines had hampered the company’s performance over the past year. The extra Kazatomprom production is slated to help fill a global supply shortfall and subsequently push down the radioactive commodity’s price. “I don’t think it (the Kazatomprom update) deserved the sort of fall in global uranium prices that people are pointing to,” Mr Craib said. “It’s not nearly enough to meet what the (global) demand requirements are. So it’s probably a two to five per cent increase in what was expected. “Don’t lose sight, like most of Kazakhstan’s production is going to China and Russia. It’s not coming to the Western markets.” In April Boss filled its first drum of uranium from the Honeymoon mine in South Australia, becoming Australia’s first uranium producer in the past 10 years.