Mitchell Drilling

Commiserations to shareholders - what a farce TON has become!  I have been a vehement critic of TON drilling results, reporting and modelling due to numerous "irregularities" and omissions. However I did not think it would come to this and would not wish this on anyone.

IMHO it is highly likely that TON were slapped with a Statutory Demand notice from Mitchell DrIlling (MD) who are no doubt the biggest creditor IMO. Especially considering the significant recent amount of drilling at Ancuabe and P66.

MD were the only "Major Trade Creditor" that did not agree to deferred payment terms as outlined in he CR prospectus. Instead MD held out and in a "Letter Agreement" demanded:

"if the Company does not pay Mitchell Drilling within 3 business days from the earlier of (1) completion of the capital raise to be undertaken by Triton on or before 31 January 2016, or (2) 31 January 2016, the Company will pay Mitchell Drilling 25% interest per annum on its debt, calculated from when the debt was originally due and owing. Should the Company suffer an insolvency event, or request any further forbearance of payment of the debt, the extension of the debt repayment will come to an end immediately, and without notice."

A creditors Statutory Demand requires a company to respond within 21 days otherwise a Winding Up application can be submitted and liquidation follows. Voluntary Administration is a company's defense against liquidation.
http://www.findlaw.com.au/articles/2239/statutory-demands-and-winding-up-applications-150-.aspx

It may be that MD issued the notice immdiately after seeing the strategic update and left TON with no choice but to go the VA route.

Looking at the last accounts:
1. Current liabilities listed trade and other payable $786m so presuming TON were running at that level or higher.
2. Tax provision $2.15m
3. BB departure notice states $$530,116 added to current liability account.

So obviously not much leeway - most likely technically insolvent so TON has NO solid or guaranteed defence to a Statutory Demand.  No doubt the new management and directors have acted in the only way they could after discovering BB skeletons in the closest.

The other possible candidate for issuing a SD is of course BB - how poetic!  The silver lining would be that BB does not see a cent of his $530k considering that he is the architect of this fiasco.