A wearable technology company founded by Perth entrepreneur Justin Miller and an Israeli medical cannabis company are the latest businesses planning to join the rush of backdoor listings on the ASX, though the news is not all positive with Voyager Global Group becoming the seventh company forced to cancel an announced deal in the past 18 months.
Perth junior miner Wild Acre Metals is proposing to acquire Nuheara, a developer of wearable technology, in exchange for 130 million shares at 0.8 cents each, totalling $1.04 million.
A further 24.8 million facilitator shares will be issued to Carnegie Wave Energy managing director Michael Ottaviano, who will join the board of the new company as a non-executive director.
Nuheara was co-founded by Justin Miller, who also founded Perth-based IT services company Empired and industrial hearing and communication company Sensear.
Other co-founders are David Cannington, Sven Nordholm and Kevin Flynn.
Mr Nordholm, who is also a founding member of Sensear, is a former professor at the Curtin University of Technology, where Mr Flynn is currently a professor.
In order to comply with ASX relisting rules, Wild Acre will be required to undertake a minimum $2.6 million capital raising at 2 cents a share.
It also plans to undertake a $500,000 rights issue.
If the deal is successful, existing Wild Acre directors William Brown and Jeff Moore will step down and will be replaced with Mr Miller and Mr Cannington.
Current executive chairman Grant Mooney will remain as a director.
The company said it intends to divest its mineral assets on completion of the acquisition.
It expects to be relisted on the ASX under its new name, Nuheara Ltd in mid-September.
Meanwhile, Erin Resources has announced plans to buy Israel-based medical and cosmetic cannabis company MGC Global for $US25,000 in cash and 100 million shares.
At Erin’s last closing price of 1.7 cents, the shares would be worth about $1.7 million.
Erin plans to complete a $500,000 capital raising to be re-listed on the ASX.
Also announced to the market today was the cancellation of a backdoor listing of Sydney-based financial services company Voyager Global Group by local oil and gas explorer Sprint Energy.
In a statement, Voyager director Andrew Chapman said the company and vendors had devoted significant resources to the complex takeover for a considerable amount of time, in an effort to see the transaction succeed.
“The company will now look to assess alternate potential opportunities, including in respect of its existing assets, to maximise shareholder value,” he said.
It is the seventh cancellation or postponement of a backdoor listing by a WA company in the last year.
Wild Acre shares were 118.1 per cent higher to 2.4 cents a share at 12:30pm, while Erin shares lost 17.6 per cent of their value to 1.4 cents each.
