Takeovers Panel receives second Flinders’ notice

Flinders Mines' second largest shareholder has submitted an application to the Takeovers Panel to prevent the company from continuing with its proposed delisting, just a day after it received a similar notice from its 12^th largest shareholder.

Last month, Flinders proposed to undertake an on-market buyback funded by a loan from TIO (NZ), which owns approximately 55.6 per cent of Flinders.

The December announcement, which called for the proposal to be considered at a special meeting scheduled for January 22, halved Flinders shares from 7 cents each to 3.5 cents each. 

OCJ Investment, which is controlled by Melbourne-based businessman Chunlin Ouyang, owns 21.98 per cent of Flinders.

In a statement, the panel said OCJ provided several reasons for the submission, including the ability of TIO to vote to approve the delisting, the transaction being designed to avoid Chapter 6 of the Corporations Act, and the inadequacy of information in Flinders’ notice of meeting.                                            

The Takeovers Panel yesterday announced it received an application from Brendon Dunstan, a NSW-based lawyer, who owned approximately 0.27 per cent of Flinders as of September last year, seeking to prevent the company from continuing with its proposed delisting.

The panel is now investigating the submission from Mr Dunstan, who is representing a number of shareholders, which outlined similar reasons to OCJ’s notice.