You are right about the money NG received from Ample Rise. Page 48 of the 2009-10 annual report states that NG received $6.66 million for the sale of 15.1 million shares at 25.55 cents/share (date unspecified) and 10.9 million options at 25.55 cents/option in March 2010.
The other interesting matter is that NG sold/transferred a net 26.1 million shares and 7.726 million options in that year. I have not been able to find Director's notices to the ASX for these transactions. Was NG trading MCO shares/options or transferring some to related parties (other than the sale to Ample Rise? http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20101103/pdf/31tnpjkprzgyg6.pdf
In fact NG has been very remiss in reporting changes of ownership - the latest notice which is undated and posted by the ASX on 14 January 2011 is for changes effected at 13-1-2010 (or is this date an error and should read 13-1-2011?). From reading the annual report it is clear that there should be a further notice to reflect the sale to Ample Rise of the options in March 2010. http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20110114/pdf/41w5wl05dlk4rr.pdf
Perhaps NG was too busy with other works to do all the required ASX reporting paperwork? I wonder what his current MCO holding is. I also wonder how much NG needed to spend to exercise all his otions assuming he had not sold any to Ample Rise (in total $1.5-2.0 mill I suppose). He did exercise some options (and did he then sell some of the shares on market) to keep MCO funded while he was waiting for the other options to be converted by end March 2010.
I made an error in yesterday's post No 6222621.
I wrote "Then out of the blue MCO announced on 27 October 2009 that the Chinese would get 51% of a couple of the tenements for $4.5 m and buy a significant number of MCO shares. Hence it is clear that the Chinese investment was not needed at all unless there was some sort of backroom deal between BBY Limited and MCO to get the Chinese in and the options underwriting was a first instalment of this deal. If that is the case it really shows how little confidence NG had in shareholders or in the MCO share price holding up despite it having reached above 30 cents."
The correct date of the Ample Rise announcement was 27 November 2009.
I still do not get the purpose for the introduction of Ample Rise? Did NG need to rise some funds for himself? Why sell a controlling interest in two tenements - seems a pure nonsense act made under some sort of pressure. I sure hope I never again read posts that the Chinese funds were needed by MCO - this was clearly not the case as MCO is basically funding that exploration.
Perhaps NG felt he was personally taking on too much risk with one enterprise, so he was willing to sell his shares and options cheaply and the Chinese wanted some extra MCO meat on top of that deal.
Keep posting Kapton.
loki
MCO Price at posting:
45.0¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
