Eastern takes Finders to panel

Finders Resources’ largest shareholder, Eastern Field Developments, which is currently making a hostile takeover bid for the copper miner, has submitted an application to the Takeovers Panel requesting the company disclose details regarding its Wetar project and revise the independent expert report.

Eastern Field, which is a consortium of Indonesian investors, has raised concerns with the Wetar project’s production levels after output was 41 per cent below its 7,000-tonne nameplate capacity in the December quarter.

“The applicant submits that information relating to the current levels of copper cathode production, actual recovery levels of copper cathode and current levels of working capital has not been provided to Finders shareholders,” the panel said in a statement.

“In addition, it submits that the independent expert’s report has been prepared on the basis of material technical assumptions, including as to forward looking matters, which are optimistic and have not been fully tested, and that new information or circumstances have arisen such that the basis on which the target’s statement and independent expert’s report were prepared is no longer valid.”

Eastern Field has made a 23-cents-per-share bid for Finders, valuing the company at about $177 million, and recently made the offer unconditional.

Finders has rejected the offer, with a report by independent expert Deloitte valuing the company’s shares between 31 and 35 cents.

The Indonesian group is now seeking final orders that Finders provides corrective disclosure and a revised independent expert’s report.

Eastern Field is also requesting that shareholders who have provided non-acceptance statements regarding the takeover offer be released from those statements.

The Indonesian group recently increased its stake in the company to 26.3 per cent.

Shares in Finders were flat at 24 cents at 2pm AEDT.