Ann: Pause in Trading, page-144

Interesting reading from 2013....RFM told the estimated 2500 unit holders in its Chicken Income Fund that ProTen needed to borrow money at high interest rates, and ''the reason that ProTen has utilised such high-cost debt is because they could not borrow any more from a bank''.Those claims have since proved to be false.In an open letter published on its website, RFM executive manager Andrea Lemmon last week apologised to ProTen for making false statements about its offer.Still, RFM maintains that its merger and listing are superior to ProTen's offer.RFM said on its website that ProTen's conditions were ''unlikely to be attainable'' and if successful would create uncertainty for the 49 per cent remaining unit holders of the fund. ''It is not an offer for all … unit holders.''RFM also said that ProTen's bid was ''below the net asset value of the RFM Chicken Income Fund''.This was despite an independent expert report from Crowe Horwath, which was commissioned by RFM, stating the ASX listing proposal was ''not fair'' and would dilute the value of units in the chicken fund to between 58¢ and 65¢.The ProTen camp has pointed to the high annual management fees RFM charges the Chicken Income Fund, alleging a conflict of interest is behind the reticence of RFM's management to accept its bid.Accounts show that $1.7 million was collected in 2011-12, up 12 per cent from the previous year.On RFM's website it said the listing proposal would lead to lower administrative and management costs, although it did not specify what those savings would be.When contacted by Fairfax, Media RFM managing director David Bryant said: ''We are not able to comment any further.''ProTen has complained to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. An ASIC spokesman declined to comment.Share on FacebookShare on TwitterSend via EmailLicense this article