THE official stock exchange listing of Osborne Park-based rural merchandiser FarmWorks Australia has highlighted the seemingly sluggish passage of corporate plans at two other agribusinesses, AACL and Rewards Group.
FarmWorks joined the ASX on Monday, through a backdoor listing with former Sydney IT company ETT, a move which appears to have been greeted positively by the market. While the proposed deal was announced in October, the listing plan was officially given the go-ahead in mid-February, with a March 3 listing originally proposed.
In comparison, AACL, a Subiaco-based funder of broadacre cropping via managed investment schemes, has been slower off the mark.
AACL announced its official plans, which included an $11 million fund raising, at the start of February, though the float had been mooted for some months. It initially expected to be listed on the ASX by late February.
However, it had to issue a supplementary prospectus on March 10 to update investors on changes to a loan agreement and amendments to terms and conditions of certain share classes.
AACL’s corporate adviser Aaron Constantine, of Patersons Securities, said he believed the fund raising process was on track and that the company would list soon.
Just what is happening at Rewards was less clear at the time WA Business News went to print.
The company also operates in the MIS space, raising funds to grow trees and horticultural crops around Australia. Rewards had proposed a merger late last year with its associate, listed ARK Fund, but abandoned that for a $28 million capital raising and ASX listing. Last month, it took another tack, dropping the listing idea to seek up to $45 million from institutional and sophisticated investors that would keep the company private.
The funds were to be used to clear around $20 million in debt. In addition, Rewards has guaranteed $9 million in debt owed by ARK Fund to National Australia Bank.
Furthermore, Rewards owes an undisclosed amount of rent to ARK Fund, which extended its deadline for repayment to March 15, a month after an earlier deadline expired.
It has been a tough year so far for MIS players. Melbourne-based Forest Enterprises Australia requested an extension to its suspension from the ASX this week after revealing it is in discussions with potential investors to reduce its debt and sell assets.
The failure last year of major MIS players Great Southern and Timbercorp has cast a pall over the market, which also has to deal with tight restrictions on bank finance normally used to fund investors in the tax-driven products.
Banks have been shaken by the collapses and the complications in unwinding the complex corporate structures. Elders Forestry, formerly ITC, remains in litigation with the liquidator of Timbercorp over the companies’ Albany Port-based woodchip joint venture.