News: SLR Harte Gold Announces Execution Of Subscription Agreement And Loan Agreement And Makes..., page-20

It’s looking good but it’s certainly not in the bag yet. For those interested, there is plenty of additional information here - http://cfcanada.fticonsulting.com/harte/default.htm

Interestingly, some of the info I read made reference to the “Appian parties”, which I suspect most likely includes New Gold, and their interest in purchasing the business. Apparently, after Harte issued the press release on 22 November, the Appian parties submitted an offer to acquire the business and operations, as well as provide interim financing, which was obviously not accepted. But given the competing interest, Harte went with the sale and investment solicitation process to try and squeeze out the best possible offer. Appian wanted the “Stalking horse bid”, but evidently their bid had a higher interest rate and also included a material “structuring fee”, while the SLR funding had a low interest rate and no fees.

Of the 240 possible candidates they thought might be interested in the business, they only received 4 non-binding offers by the deadline in August and no binding offers at all by the deadline in Sept.

If Appian doesn’t come back to the table then the stalking horse gets the biscuits, but somehow I think they’ll be back with another offer, in which case SLR will need to increase its bid.

I’ve only skimmed through the documents, one is 1400+ pages long, but plenty of info there if you fancy a read.