Sydney Morning Herald 11/7/17 Carolyn Cummins Molopo sale The...

Sydney Morning Herald 11/7/17

Carolyn Cummins


Molopo sale

The Takeovers Panel appears to have hammered the final nail in the coffin of the ill-fated raid on corporate cashbox Molopo Energy.

• SHARE
• SHARE ON FACEBOOKSHARE
• SHARE ON TWITTERTWEET
• LINK

Keybridge Capital and Aurora Funds Management had been trying to dump the Molopo board and install their own management – presumably with one eye on Molopo's $67 million bank balance.
Things started going badly for the Nicholas Bolton-backed bid last month when the Takeovers Panel found Keybridge and Aurora were associated, and then shareholders voted against changing the board.
But the cherry on the cake came on Monday when the Takeovers Panel announced that a review of its finding of unacceptable circumstances in relation to Keybridge and Aurora stands.
The review panel made a new declaration of unacceptable circumstances, having considered that Keybridge and Aurora were associated in relation to Molopo and contravened section 606 of the Corporations Act.
"As the initial panel found, the involvement of Mr Nicholas Bolton and Mr John Patton gave rise to unacceptable circumstances from 10 August 2016 in relation to the affairs of Molopo," the Takeovers Panel said in a statement.
The panel ordered Keybridge and Aurora to sell Molopo shares they had bought since that date – that means 3,666,285 Molopo shares held by Keybridge and 39,540,910 shares held by Aurora. The orders also state that neither Keybridge nor Aurora (or their associates) may acquire shares in Molopo for six months.