Flinders shares soar 33% on delisting agreement

The Takeovers Panel and Flinders Mines have come to agreement on a new proposal for the iron ore explorer to delist under which its biggest shareholder will lose out.

The agreement comes just a day after Flinders said it would appeal the panel’s Feburary 11 declaration of unacceptable circumstances for the company’s proposed delisting, after the panel received two applications from minority shareholders.

The panel accepted undertakings from Flinders to seek formal ASX approval to delist, via an equal access scheme off-market buy-back of 10 per cent of its shares, at a fixed price of 7.5 cents per share, with a pro rata scale back.

Under the previous proposal, Flinders was seeking an on-market buy-back, which the panel said did not permit pro-rating and operated on a first-in basis.

As a result, the panel concluded that the on-market buy-back would likely coerce Flinders’ shareholders, other than its biggest shareholder TIO (NZ), to sell their shares.

Flinders will also no longer go ahead with a proposed rights issue to repay a TIO loan, instead TIO will extend the term of the proposed loan.

TIO will also be barred from increasing its voting power, which is currently 55.56 per cent, from the off-market buy-back for at least 18 months after the buy-back is completed.

Shares in Flinders were up 33.33 per cent to close trade at 4.8 cents each.