Flinders shareholders reject project sale

Flinders Mines stakeholders have voted against selling the Pilbara iron ore project to private New Zealand company Todd Corporation for $65 million.

At a general meeting today, 877 million votes were cast against Flinders’ proposed asset sale to Todd, while only 206 million were in favour of the deal.

Todd owns a 19.9 per cent stake in Flinders.

“Our shareholders have considered the option proposal with the response clearly illustrating a rejection of the terms of the agreement,” Flinders chairman Robert Kennedy said.

“The board intends to use the results of this process and feedback received from the shareholder base to deliver an outcome that is attractive and acceptable to all our investors.”

Flinders announced the deal in May, around the same time Todd launched a takeover bid for infrastructure developer Rutila Resources for $36.4 million.

Todd (which owns about 46 per cent of Rutila) and Rutila were jointly developing plans for the Balla Balla project, which involves construction of a new railway and transhipment port, with Flinders’ Pilbara iron ore project earmarked as the foundation customer.

An existing alliance agreement between Flinders and Todd remains in effect until the end of the year.

“The company intends to have further dialogue with Todd regarding the alliance agreement, to explore whether there are any opportunities to move the concept forward on a mutually acceptable basis,” Flinders said in a statement.

“Flinders will also pursue other parties and opportunities to develop the Pilbara iron ore project.”