IMO there is enough information (or should I say, miss information) to pursue a number of challengers against the Directors and officers. Whether this be a formal complaint/please explain through to litigation. I expect a number of parties like myself (and their respective lawyers) are having a very close look at all communications and information provided to shareholders, whether this be via phone calls, email, Twitter, media interviews or ASX announcements.
There are a number of serious concerns around information provided or lack thereof and many of these concerns and examples have been kicked around on HC. I appreciate its a tough gig for shareholders to take on such seasoned directors, however if the matters of concern are compiled accurately and they warrant action, there are several avenues for shareholders to consider taking litigation.
Apart from litigation (of which I am presently in favour of and I've taken legal advice and are now documeting my list of serious concerns that should warrant next steps as indicated), there are publications that run stories of the little guys against incumbent boards who fail them, lie to them or fail to disclose information to the market in a timely manner, there's an argument around trading insolvent (should DGR's funding / letter of support prove to be manufactured and unable to be drawn on at the time is was relied on) and a bunch of other things that warrant investigation that can lead to litigation and claims by shareholders. Of course the odds are never great because Boards / Directors are in a pretty powerful position, they can use company money to pay for costs and in the case of ANW the Chairman could manage litigation against ANW with one arm tied behind his back, but that doesn't mean they haven't done anything wrong and motivated shareholders who think there is a claim against the Directors and officers should pursue same.
Of course other avenues of action that can take in parallel is witting to our favourite little Australian corporate regulator ASIC, but as we know that's equal odds of a hit or miss scenario, however combine that with the commencement of litigation, a brief provided to the Australian Financial Review is all a good start when leveraging a case against directors and mitigating this does not happen again.
All comes down to the quality of the argument and information in the complaint or brief. Over coming days I'm happy to take on any suggestions from holders or previous holders to build out a list of specific items of alleged breaches or related items. I had initial discussions with lawyers and as mentioned there are a few paths to consider taking, this comes down to documenting appropriately, which is where I'm at now. It's too early to talk class action and all the other options, this will come later if the lawyers see merit in the list of complaints.
As I said, many have tabled items here before, but feel free to list them again to ensure nothing is missed or at least everything is considered by the lawyers after I include in the documentation etc. Thereafter I will finalise my written complaint with facts and figures, timelines and so on. I have good connections with litigation funders, any case would have to be very strong to secure that support, but I'm happy to push hard for that, someone owes me a favour in that space.
In any event, IMO I would not be surprised if after the TenStar deal goes through, the TenStar guys turn their eyes towards a change of ANW board, I've carried on about this before. The major shareholders (outside of DGR and Directors) are obviously not best buddies as they did not support the consolidation, so there must be some cracks in the relationship, and you expect so after such a failed execution to develop a basic mine setup like Granville in Tassie.
If these major shareholders have any common sense, why would they let this same bunch of wallies go anywhere near Taronga. I would not be surprised if the board and management that TenStar put together have a second role to take over the board of ANW, the odds are they couldn't do much worse than the current line up. Anyway, I can dream that TenStar or someone else gathers enough support to take over the board and give us current shareholders a chance to recover our losses.
Cheers M
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