VA MEETINGFor those that are interested, I was present at the...

VA MEETING
For those that are interested, I was present at the Voluntary Administrator's Creditors Meeting in Brisbane last Thursday 30 August. Myself and a few other significant and/or concerned shareholders/creditors have joined the Pinder Syndicate by offering funds to assist Dianne Pinder's DOCCA (Deed of Company Arrangement). Jeff Easton ASOF (in USA) and Andrew Doyle (Singapore) attended via telephone, as did the ANZ Trustee for the Noteholders.

There were about 30 people at the meeting, including some Metal Storm staff (who are creditors) in terms of entitlements. Other creditors included the landlord at the Darra building and so on. The meeting was chaired by the VA, and he had his legal man and another staffer with him. He noted that there had been several early expressions of interest for a sale - amounts in the order of $500K - $2M but nothing of any substance subsequently appeared from them. As previously noted on this Forum, there are only two competing DOCCAS (ASOF and Pinder) that are potentially on the table. This Forum has previously noted the ASOF DOCCA contains no future for shareholders; while the Pinder DOCCA is looking at the Company continuing with the existing shareholder base in some form. This creditors meeting was fairly brief, as the major emphasis was about the VA happily allowing an extension of 'up to 45 days' - basically for the respective DOCCAS and other matters to be refined further. The meeting did not go into details about the specific contents of the potential DOCCAS, although an MST staffer observed that the ASOF document was unclear on the matter of staff entitlements and similar matters in the event of that particular DOCCA being successful.

PINDER PROPOSAL
As I understand it, serious shareholders that want to stay in the game should CERTAINLY consider stepping up to the plate and offering funds to support the Pinder bid. This has been well stated in my earlier post 23 August, and more recently oceanboy has kept us better informed. I note that this requires 'money where your mouth is' as I and others have already done. I haven't checked the latest with Dianne, but I expect we have to keep going hard for additional funds or the shareholders will find the Company is finished and they get zero for their efforts in the last decade or so. Most of you would understand - the Pinder Syndicate is operating on the basis of you offering support - it is not about soliciting funds, as I understand that requires a Prospectus and other requirements that are not possible in the available timeframe. However, my understanding is that where you can offer support, that is basically in minimum $5K units (you can offer support as one or several units), and all funds go into a solicitors trust fund and are later refundable if the Pinder DOCCA is unsuccessful. These may appear to be small amounts in the scheme of things, but collectively they can make a difference.

We have said it before, but please contact [email protected] if you can offer help.

DYOR and good luck.