I was at the meeting as well.
Farcical it was! For an independent Chairman (A QC appointed by the trustee no less) to allow JCs dad to stand up & deliver a testimonial to his son at a very important meeting was rediculous!
Aurora alluded to the fact that even though the Macquarie facility has been paid out they are still entitled to a fee on the sale of big star & northern star, they have seen documentation to the effect & quoted 5% on one asset & 20% on the other. The phone hookup went pear shaped at this point so was not able to be persued by aorora.
The most interesting thing was that James talked around the issue of Macquarie entitlements in the event of a sale & would not clarify if Macquarie had any future rights. These entitlements were listed in the accounts of the southern star sale as "friction costs" ( I may have the terminology wrong here) & were around 5%. He kept going back to this example but would not elaborate on Northern or big star.
James met with aurora twice to get them to vote for resolution 1. They managed to negotiate terms that almost had me convinced to vote yes. They were (this could already be posted / available)
Notes being secured
4 boards seats to note holders
Notes being redeemable at sale, not at reset
Penalty interest if sale drags on
James to forgo salary
James to resign
All of the above came from James himself.
A lot of these were last minute negotiations. Aurora still said no. Why?
It is my opinion that aurora, & for that matter the trustee as well are of the opinion that AZZ do not have the cash to last the 12 months that the board is requesting therefor putting the assets at risk because they can not service them & potentially AZZ ends up with nothing to sell. If we agree to the extension & they run out of money& an appointed administrator / liquidator finds out that they have nothing to sell???????????
I give James credit for offering to relinquish salary & even resign but something is not right. I am kicking myself for not asking the simple question of him "in your opinion will AZZ have enough cash to be solvent for the extension period"
I really fear for shareholders, I am one as well but fear that the absolute best result we can see is note holders get some, possibly all of their capital back but once the assets are sold the market cap of the company will be zero.
Sorry for the ramble
AZZ Price at posting:
50.0¢ Sentiment: Sell Disclosure: Held