Not sure if you guys are over it already, but there are some upcoming changes to the ASX listing rules (currently in a brief consultation phase) that could impact the shell end of the market (and thus, some people's strategies) from July 1st.
The ones that standout to me in this are:
- There may be suspension from trading for back door listing transactions from the date of the announcement of the transaction rather than the date of the shareholder meeting. This would mean, a shell you've been holding for months, waiting for payday to arrive, would not be sellable once a project is sourced and announced to market but instead immediately suspended until recompliance has occured. Doesn't mean you couldn't still clean-up when it re-lists but it would potentially limit the pump that follows in the days after an acq is Ann when the details are less clear.
- The assets test currently requires either the NTA test or the market capitalisation test to be satisfied. It is proposed to increase the NTA test from $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 and the market capitalisation test from $10,000,000 to $20,000,000. You still only have to satisfy one or the other. On a typical back door listing for a raising at 2 cents, there would need to be at least 1 billion shares on issue at re-quotation so as to satisfy the market capitalisation test. If this is not satisfied, the NTA test will need to be. Since most recomplying shells will fail the NTA test, this would have an impact on the MC test and mean more funds having to be raised to hit the $5M threshold. Poorer projects would probably not get over the line but i think this is a good thing. It would also hinder the likes of shells like OOK and CR8, who bolt-on a phantom project, in order to recomply and enable admittance.
