Another Poli tries hand at mining 16th August 2008, 15:00 WST
The brother of iron ore tycoon Tony Poli has made his first foray into the public company arena after launching a reverse takeover bid for explorer Kalgoorlie-Boulder Resources (KBR).
Paul Poli, who like his Aquila Resources-founding brother is an accountant by profession, said yesterday the deal to backdoor list his Matsa Resources would leave him as the controlling shareholder of a debt-free KBR.
The deal is conditional on successful due diligence of KBR by Mr Poli and his business associate, former Jackson Gold managing director Andy Viner, as well as KBR shareholder approval.
The Matsa deal has the support of KBR’s board, headed by chairman Michael Atkins who will remain a non-executive director once the transaction is completed.
Mr Poli said Matsa would contribute a raft of early-stage exploration projects in South-East Asia, including Thailand and Laos, to the enlarged KBR, which will be rebadged Matsa.
However, KBR’s flagship Norseman gold project would remain a priority asset.
“We see that the Norseman asset is significantly undervalued and what we would like to do is increase its resource because I expect an increase in the gold price over the next couple of years,” Mr Poli said.
Matsa is owned by Mr Poli, Mr Viner and seed capitalists, including Mr Poli’s family. Tony Poli, whose Aquila stake is worth about $970 million, is not a shareholder.
The complex transaction will see KBR acquire Matsa in return for issuing shares.
In addition, KBR’s New Yorkbased shareholder, RASL, will convert outstanding notes into equity before on-selling most of the scrip to Mr Poli and Mr Viner in a deal worth $2.1 million. The RASL deal will extinguish KBR’s debt.
Mr Poli is also proposing a onefor-three rights issue to raise $3 million and has pledged to underwrite the raising. Both Mr Poli and Mr Viner plan to issue themselves millions of KBR options, with strike prices of 7¢ and 10¢.
KBR closed steady at 4.1¢ yesterday before the Matsa deal was announced.
The explorer’s shares have been hit hard by the sharemarket turmoil and are trading at less than a third of their 14.5¢ peak in late February.
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