QUITE a few shareholders are intrigued by the take-no-action stance being adopted by the board of Ferriscan, which was initially gung-ho about a proposed all-scrip takeover bid by Polartechnics.
The offer opened on Tuesday, but Ferriscan issued a statement to the market the same day advising shareholders to hold off until they received the target's statement, including the board's official recommendations.
While City Beat yesterday highlighted Ferriscan's disappearing bank balance, it seems to be Polartechnics that is most at risk of running out of money.
Financial accounts in the company's bidder's statement reveal that it had just $869,000 in the bank at the end of December, and while it raised $1.3m through a convertible note issue in April and $2.2m in a share placement in May, it also burned through $2.3m in the three months to the end of March. Based on the company's typical cash burn of $2m a quarter, Polartechnics risks running out of money in the next three months.
Unfortunately, the proposed merger with Ferriscan to create Australia's largest women's health diagnostic business might not be all it's cracked up to be.
The bidder's statement also points out that there is a material uncertainty that the merged group will be able to continue as a going concern.
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