Former Fortescue Metals Group chairman Gordon Toll will head transformed West Perth-based company C@ which has entered into a $100 million scrip agreement to acquire Core Mining and its subsidiaries.
C@ today said it had entered into a heads of agreement that sets out the framework to acquire two highly prospective iron ore projects in the Republic of Congo and Gabon.
Under the deal C@, formerly an optical products and services company, will issue $100 million worth of scrip priced at 1.2 cents each, or 24 cents each on a post consolidated, 1-for-20 basis.
C@ did not reveal what Core Mining's interest in the company will be.
Shares in C@ have been placed in a trading halt and last traded at 1.3 cents.
All debt held in Core will be converted into ordinary shares prior to the completion of the acquisition, with the exception of up to $US1.7 million owed to a Core director, which will be repaid by funds raised through a share purchase plan.
Patersons Securities has been appointed as lead manager to the SPP. A target has not been set for the capital raising.
The transaction is subject to due diligence and shareholder approval, where a name change will be proposed.
It is also subject to current members of C@'s board to step down and the appointment of Gordon Toll as chairman, Socrates Vasiliades as chief executive and Wayne Rossiter as chief financial officer.
Two non-executive directors will also be appointed.
Settlement of the acquisition is expected at the end of January next year.
Mr Toll resigned from FMG in 2007 due to his increasing commitments in a number of international businesses.
Earlier this year, C@ dropped its plans to become a carbon capture company after it could not come up with funds to acquire the CARBONDYNAMICS project.
The project involved a world-first approach to carbon capture using large scale olive and eucalyptus tree plantations to sequester carbon, produce food and biomass energy feedstock.
