After reading all the announcements published by AVZ and several posts here, there is no doubt in my mind that AVZ has 75% and Comminere had 25% shares in Dathcom. What Cominere did is ignore the AVZ's right of first refusal of 15% share and sold it to Zijin by breaching the Joint venture agreement's term. So AVZ is right to deny any alleged claim made by Zijin. As for the Dathomir, AVZ purchased their 15% shares in Dathcom, paid the money and transferred the shares accordingly. I don't see any basis for Dathomir to claim that 15%. But as Zijin bough that 15% shares in Dathcom (according to their claim) and now requesting for arbitration to recognize them as the shareholder of Dathcom, comminere and DRC government need to sort this out, AVZ has nothing to do about it. AVZ never owned those shares and did not sale it to Zijin. But obviously this process may take some time.
So, in my view, for AVZ the best way to forward from here without further delay is to amend the deal with CATH to sale 9% shares in Dathcom instead of 24% and lift the suspension and let Cominere and DRC govt to sort this mess out . If AVZ only sale 9% to CATH for USD90m than under no circumstance AVZ share holding to come below 51%. Even if both Zijin and Dathmir are successful for their alleged claims, AVZ will end up having 51% and have the full control of the project. AVZ can tell CATH that after sorting this mess, AVZ will transfer remaining 15% to CATH at the agreed price.
With USD90m from CATH and AVZ's current USD75m finance facility, AVZ can complete a major portion of the project construction and progress the project without delays.
This is all my opinion only.
AVZ Price at posting:
78.0¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
