Win for Flinders minority investors

The Takeovers Panel has declared unacceptable circumstances in the proposed delisting of the Flinders Mines, giving minority shareholders of the company a victory in the feud.

After two applications were lodged with the panel last month opposing the move, the panel today said the delisting was likely to coerce Flinders’ shareholders, other than its primary investor TIO (NZ), to sell their shares into a market that was not sufficiently efficient, competitive and informed.

It also said shareholders of the iron ore company would not have reasonable time to consider the proposed on-market buyback announced as part of the delisting, nor enough information to assess its merits.

The panel stated it was continuing to consider final orders or undertakings that would enable the delisting to proceed subject to ASX approval.

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

In January, the panel announced it had received an application from Brendon Dunstan, a NSW-based lawyer, seeking to prevent the company from continuing with its proposed delisting.

As of September last year, Mr Dunstan was the company's 12^th largest shareholder.

One day later, Flinders’ second largest shareholder, OCJ Investment, submitted an application to the panel to prevent the Flinders from continuing with its proposed delisting,

OCJ, which is controlled by Melbourne-based businessman Chunlin Ouyang, owned approximately 22 per cent of Flinders at the time of the submission.

Shares in Flinders rose 15.62 per cent to trade at 3.7 cents each at 12.45pm AEDT.

Footnote: Two days later Flinders said it would appeal the panel's decision.