SI6 (ASX) BCL saga

Originally posted by Walter123 ↑

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

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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

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Mmegi

Business

"Tati Nickel ordered out of liquidation

Nickel ordered out of liquidation
The High Court on Tuesday broke new legal ground by ordering Tati Nickel Mining Company out of liquidation, in a move that its liquidator says is "unprecedented, incomprehensible, unfathomable" and which could trigger a stampede by creditors owed P1 billion by the mothballed operation."

Quite an interesting development....my initial reaction was that the court had simply tired
of N Dixon-Warren /KPMG dragging the process out, then some of the judge's summary seemed to show there was less surety about the interested parties, back to due diligence up to another 6 weeks, then calls for final offers (again) , on and on ad nauseam , then I noticed the judge was Mr Kebonang, so? Of course the former minister of mining etc was the lawyer Sadique Kebonang (now having problems of his own) and my suspicious mind leapt about, but I have no doubt all is straightforward, nonetheless.
At the same time I also wondered why the judge did not simply echo the process court took earlier when placing BCL in final liquidation instead of taking Tati (and presumably the BML JV documentation holder BCLI) out of liq. completely and placing it back in the hands of the government as major shareholder. That would presumably mean the Botswana govt's holding company (previously but no longer run by Paul Smith) would be the holder again? Dixon-Warren obviously thought the court, having rejected his staff's (reads to me as if he probably wasn't even present at court....??) plea for another extension, would place Tati into final liq., not hand it back wholes bolus to it's owners inclusive of all it's debts and assets, but no staff, directorate or management.
Clear as mud in a beer bottle.

http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?aid=75264&dir=2018/april/13

Another annoyance for SI6 as it means further delays and confusion regarding the future of the JV.

Regards to all.