VRL (ASX) BCL saga

Originally posted by Walter123 ↑

A sniff of progress? 1.5 steps forward, 1 back.

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4

1 By CHAKALISA DUBE Fri 06 Apr 2018, 18:00 pm (GMT +2)

: Tati Nickel could soon change hands

TNMC liquidator, Nigel Dixon-Warren has in recent months been trying to sell the Mine to no avail. Prospective buyers have in the past either pulled out before sale negotiations could take off or failed to put convincing offers to buy the Mine, which closed in October 2016.
“The indicative offers are more promising than the previous ones we have had. One of the three companies that have bid for the mine is a prominent player internationally in relation to mining. The other two companies are also well known and have relatively strong international links as well,” Dixon-Warren told BusinessWeek in an interview.
“Once we have assessed the indicative offers, we will choose the one that is worth pursuing and look at the possibility of completing the sale of the mine timely. I however do not want to speculate on the time it will take to sell the mine,” he added.
Dixon-Warren declined to divulge the names of the three companies that have tabled indicative offers to buy TNMC.
“Their names cannot be revealed at this stage because of a confidentiality clause signed with them.”
He also said he was not ready to name their country of origins.
Last month, 20 companies were given an opportunity to scrutinise details about TNMC with a view of tabling formal offers to buy the Mine. Only the three companies mentioned by liquidator tabled offers.
There is a likelihood that TNMC, which is a subsidiary of the BCL Group, will go into final liquidation on April 9, 2018 if it does not find a suitable buyer or if the court does not find convincing reasons to keep the Mine under provisional liquidation.
Although it has taken long to sell the Mine, TNMC is the BCL Group’s most lucrative asset, with reserves ready for cost effective extraction.
The Botswana Mine Workers Union and other stakeholders have regularly expressed displeasure at the length of time it has taken to sell mines under the BCL Group.
The unionists have gone as far as to accuse the liquidator of deliberately delaying the sale of the Mine in order to garner more fee income. On the other hand, the liquidator has maintained that offers to buy the Mine are not sound.
BCL Mine in Selebi-Phikwe was placed under final liquidation last year."

If nothing comes of this latest and the Court throws TNMC (and of course BCLI who hold the JV interests with BML/SI6) into final liquidation it will delay things even further -if that were possible- and thus make it even harder to clarify the future (if any) of the JV, and make it even more difficult to get something meaningful going.

Regards to all.

mce-anchor

Expand

Maybe a bit hard to see where this is going as I personally would have thought if the liquidator could not get the provisional liquidation extended again, then the court (as it did with BCL earlier) would simply place both TNMC and BCLI into final liq., instead of which it seems the court has removed TNMC (BCLI?) from liquidation totally, putting TNMC back in the hands of the original management.
The only reason I can imagine for the court doing this would be a slap in the face of KPMG for perhaps dragging their feet on the whole liquidation....continuous due diligence exercises, further requests for offers, etc., so the court may want to see some real progress rather than granting extension after extension?
Is it relevant to SI6? Absolutely, as BCLI are the JV representative/equity holders on the BCL side, whilst Maibele North deposits and Airstrip Copper and Dibete geographically lie pretty much midway between TNMC mines and Selebi Phikwe BCL mines, so that ore transported from TNMC to the BCL smelter pass nearby Maibele, making it attractive as an ore source, I would have thought.

Home / Latest News← Back

Botswana's Tati Nickel Mine out of liquidation after court ruling

11TH APRIL 2018

BY: REUTERS
SAVE THIS ARTICLE EMAIL THIS ARTICLE
FONT SIZE: -+

**ORONE – Botswana's High Court has taken Tati Nickel Mine out of provisional liquidation, dismissing a request for more time to negotiate with potential buyers, the liquidator said on Wednesday.
Tati – a subsidiary of the liquidated BCL mine group – has since October 2016 been under provisional liquidation, which was twice extended after liquidator Nigel Dixon-Warren asked for more time to pursue a deal with investors.

The High Court took the company out of liquidation on Tuesday following the lapse of the last extension.
"The decision effectively places the company back into the control of the directors and this is highly prejudicial to the creditors," Dixon-Warren told Reuters on Wednesday.

"The company was insolvent when it was placed under liquidation and it remains so now. Tati has no means to operate as going concern."
When it was placed under liquidation, Tati had incurred a cumulative loss of 1.6-billion pula ($165-million) and owed creditors one billion pula, with its former parent companyBCL being the largest creditor at 800-million pula.
Dixon-Warren said he would urgently appeal the court's decision to try to protect the creditors' interest.
He said at least three companies had submitted indicative offers to buy Tati and he needed more time to conduct due diligence on them before asking them to submit firm offers.

Best wishes.