It’s my opinion/obvious that Hartree will end up controlling this company if we all vote YES.
If Hartree control the company our prospects of EVER being relisted would approach zero in my opinion. Hartree have done nothing to make me think they want a relisting. They have had the ability to fund us from day one. They are owned by Oaktree Capital.( Google them if you don’t know who they are. ) Instead Hartree now turn up with usury style money
I suspect our shares would be unsellable. Would we ever see a dividend even if Mallee were making a profit? With Hartree pulling the strings I have serious doubts.
Hartree would have the power to raise their offtake fees and suck profit out of the company prior to distributions and effectively ensure no profits flow through to shareholders (and after the terms of this offering don’t suggest to me that they have all shareholders interests at heart). They would also have the power to dump the board, put overpaid patsies in. They would have absolute control.
Their warrants for 213,268,000 shares have an effective cost of $3, this on top of an effective interest rate around 15%. For those thinking this is a capital injection, think again. This is just a loan that has a near extortionate interest rate (given they own and already effectively control the company) and has to be paid back.
Hartree have never paid for any of their shares. We have poured many tens of millions into Avebury. Unfortunately JL and crew have been flying somewhat blind as they have no chem lab and a filter press not fit for purpose. The lack of capital has hamstrung them since day one. (Thanks ASX)
I also find it difficult to believe these documents were drafted by MYL. Suggesting that Hartree owning the offtake is an advantage to us is outright falsehood. Other deals would be far easier to make if MYL owned the rights to chose where to send its offtake. Other sections of this document seem like praise to Hartree, I think it very suspicious. Hartree have constantly pulled capital out of Mallee, the continuing stream of funds returning from Myanmar for example, Hartree have demanded that money rather than letting Mallee put it into chem labs and filter presses. Hartree are not ignorant of the consequences of their choices. They are far more informed than any of us.
The problem is that we have few choices. If we go into administration then because Hartree have been so greedy, any counter offer only needs to be US$35M plus to take us all out with a risk of zero return. In administration would we keep staff and management? Would Hartree keep staff and management? Who will lose more? Hartree or us? Will Hartree be able to convince any other management team or facility staff to work with them after this? I suspect not. I certainly will be spreading the word of the past two years history!
My personal response is that I am holding off voting until the last few days to see if any counter offers that proposes a guarantee of relisting eventuates. I am still undecided about which way to vote in the event no counteroffer arises in time. While it might seem that we would at least get 20c in the $ via Hartree I don’t trust them and suspect we would end up with nothing regardless. If I still believe that at the death, I think I will say F*!# you Hartree and watch their greed leave them competing with others for the company. With the injection of the always required capital to build chem plants, add bigger filter presses and expand someone is going to do very well out of this. It just looks like there is a serious risk we won’t be along for the ride. It will be a VERY serious haircut for me (I own approx. 1,500,000 shares and have poured additional money into recent capital raises when Hartree did not) but it could also be a very serious haircut for Hartree.
Please keep in mind that your vote does countand you can change up until the last few days. Repeatedly if necessary.
PS I agree with many of the things Patron has said above but HC had a glitch in their system and I could not post until now..
