*AFTER spending an hour with Fairstar Resources managing director Kevin
Robertson we can assure you he is quite mad.*
Not mad as in the tied-up-in-
a-straight-jacket-whistling-nursery-rhymes-while-watching-the-test-pattern-on-a-black-and-white-television
kind of variety.
No, were not talking about that kind of mad.
We're talking mad as in he's mad keen about his company's chances of taking
over Golden West Resources. Mad keen about his own chances of taking over
the reins of the enlarged company and mad keen on grand plans to take the
business intergalactic.
Well, at least globally in the first instance.
He's also mad keen that Golden West shareholders, if they thought long and
hard about the matter, would won't Fairstar scrip.
Seven Fairstar shares for every Golden West share is the current offer from
Kev and the crew.
He's madly in love with Fairstar's prospects, particularly that of
Kurnalpi, which has had more than its fair share of owners, and is mad keen
on that asset one day becoming a million ounce project.
At least that's what early testing, mostly surface sampling, and a bit of
lateral thinking on the geology of the deposit have suggested to him.
But he's equally mad (only in the good sense, of course) about the
prospects of the Wiluna West iron ore project, which is Golden West's key
asset, should he be pulling the levers on that one.
He's talking about a possible Fortescue Metals Mark II. He's talking about
getting stacks and stacks of drill rigs working across the 150km strike
length and building a resource quicker than the other mob ever could. And
he's not talking about getting the joint jumping within weeks, he's talking
about within hours or days.
In fact, and Kev's not alone in this way of thinking and Daily Assay
remains ambivalent on this front, he can't quite work out why Golden West
hasn't done a better job of promoting Wiluna West to the wider world.
Especially since iron ore is the new black.
Give the asset to Kev and he'll bust it wide open. Don't judge him on what
he's done to date with the Fairstar assets, judge him on what he's saying
he can do.
Anyway, there you have it, Kevin Robertson is mad, but in the positive,
good-natured, shareholder-loving sense of the word.
(He's also a little bit mad in the angry way about Daily Assay labelling
him a certified quarry manager dynamo. He would rather be called an
entrepreneur. We'll stick with the certified quarry manager dynamo for the
time being, because we can't go handing out the entrepreneur tag willy
nilly).
Oh, we almost forgot, there are those two little issues of who's really
running the show and the money.
Silly us.
Kevin Robertson wants all and sundry to know that a Kalgoorlie driller by
the name of John, who just happens to be a big shareholder in both Golden
West and Fairstar, is not driving the Fairstar bus. He has no more input
than any other shareholder. No, Fairstar hasn't bought anyone any cars. And
no, this John cat won't get a success fee if the Fairstar takeover play is
successful.
As for the money. Daily Assay's mind turns to the late great Sir Joh
Bjelke-Petersen's catch cry of "don't you worry about that".
Kev's got plans already in train and he wouldn't tell us about them because
the information is not public yet.
Fair enough.
But Kev, you'll need bucket loads of cash to fund your fleet of drill rigs
and pay all the fees and taxes associated with the takeover?
And Kev, would it be wise to let shareholders know that you have this money
thing under control because it might even entice a few more to take-up your
offer?
Don't worry too much about the money side of things. It's all under
control, he assured us.
Which is comforting, given that by Daily Assay's latest calculations,
things are getting pretty heavy on the cash front.
Given that they hold 24.96 million shares, Fairstar would need about $3.07
million if it was to take up its entitlements in Golden West's 1-for-15
rights issue at $1.85 a share.
Then there's the $22.8 million needed to acquire the outstanding $2 and $3
options in Golden West that it hasn't already done a deal for. Add that to
the $25.6 million in other transaction costs, which includes $6.5m to
advisers, $13m in stamp duty and $5.9m in "other professional advisers
fees".
These aren't figures we are making up, they're right there in the
Supplementary Bidders' Statement.
But don't worry, Kev's got irons in the fire, plans in play, but he's not
prepared to share us that information yet and he damn well doesn't have to.
There's always a good old fashioned capital raising to be had and what's
wrong with having more than 1 billion shares on issue?
I love to have a beer with Kevin, `cos Kevin's me mate.
FAS Price at posting:
0.4¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
