Great post – and as you say it does seem unsual.
I am not involved in this in any way, but your research does raise another possibility.
We know that:
AVZ has a great BOD, and a strong following by investors.
The announcement of this funding facility was timely, and then has been in the background, always available, but never utilised.
Perhaps Locke is a company front for bringing together investors, that may have independent wealth and a lot of money on the table with their AVZ shares having purchased in quantity during those times when AVZ was trading at less than 10c.
There must be a number of identifable investors with $2-10m to lose and prepared to put out $200K-$1m and contribute the funding capital (with some return) if the other option was losing your $2-10m.
I recall from some X posts around the time of the last board meeting when there was a director challenge, seeing well informed investors holding 8m shares, and others who ran for the board with from memory 20-30 m shares. They have a lot to lose !
This is far better than attempting to raise this capital from all share holders or going to the open market and paying a premium and at the same tiem paying it when you may never need to utilise, but you have to get the funding before you are in crisis (or the premium is even higher).
So perhaps AVZ has access to a line of credit they can call on if needed, provided by a group of motivated investors, through a rarely used shell company.
If this is what is happening, well done to the board and all AVZ shareholders win.
