asic complaint

This morning’s pathetic announcement was the final straw for me.

Here is my draft complaint. I would appreciate your input/feedback. I’m pretty much at the 2000 character limit, so I can’t add anything else, but let me know if you think there is anything I should change or that I should mention when someone from ASIC calls me back. I will submit it first thing tomorrow morning.

----------

I have a number of concerns related to Hanlong Group’s farcical takeover of Sundance Resources Limited (SDL):

1 - Hanlong making (& SDL accepting) a takeover offer in the absence of funding. This should never have been allowed in the first place, let alone be allowed to continue as long as it has. After 18 months Hanlong has yet to prove that they are able to fund the deal. At what point are they required to abandon their takeover offer? How many deadlines do they need to miss before ASIC intervenes?

2 – The circumstances under which SDL has provided updates to shareholders is not consistent with their claim that they are working hard on the takeover. SDL almost exclusively provides updates only after deadlines are missed, after they have been widely reported in the media, & after extended trading halts & suspensions. If they were as close to the takeover as they claim to be they wouldn't need so much time to come up with explanation after every delay, they would know what was going on.

In my view they are deliberately holding back price sensitive information from shareholders in breach of their continuous disclosure obligations & I want to know what ASIC is going to do about it.

3 - I believe Hanlong has deliberately employed delay tactics in order to take advantage of deteriorating market conditions, force down the takeover price (from 0.57 down to 0.45) & demoralise shareholders so that they will accept a lower price & not push back against even further delays. At what point does this behaviour become illegal market manipulation?

4 - There is no evidence that SDL has done anything in the 12 - 18 months since the initial offer to benefit shareholders. They appear to have worked exclusively for the benefit of Hanlong. Despite being in a significantly better position (thanks to increases in reserves & the granting of mining permits) they have actually allowed the price to be negotiated down. What, if anything, can be done about this?