Ann: Quarterly Activities Report, page-3

Mate, the only thing that seems rationale to me is that NY finance was lined up through someone other than BEI who were initially tasked with raising funds but obviously failed. So, as a gesture of good will and to maintain a good working relationship for the sake of Townsville, BEI relinquished their share of NY to partners who have actually put work into making it succeed.
However, maybe coronavirus put a momentary hold on funding.
Is all just speculation on my part, but seems logical to me... at least restrictions are slowly being lifted and credit will start to flow again, then we should see if purchasing BEI’s share was a great move or just digging a deeper hole.