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Afgem calls it a day
Michael Coulson
Posted: Fri, 21 Nov 2008
[miningmx.com] -- IT ended not with a bang but a whimper for mining exploration business Afgem, with no sign of the dissident shareholders who made such a fuss at previous meetings.
CEO Mike Summers, who chaired the special meeting to discuss the sale of assets and subsequent liquidation of the company, told Miningmx Afgem sold 20 million of their 50 million shares. The company had held these as a surety, and Summers believed the foreign-based shareholders were no longer represented in SA.
So there was no one to query why the liquidation dividend is only 2.65c per ordinary share, against the 21c Afgem had indicated it was worth a year ago.
All Summers had to do was read out the five ordinary and two special resolutions and call for the scrutineers to collect the ballot papers. Of 330 million shares entitled to vote, 189 million (57.04%) were represented by proxy, and all
resolutions were carried 99.99% in favour, with just 1,000 shares abstaining.
The provisional timetable remains in force, so shareholders' final dividend cheques will be posted on or about December 22 – not much of a Christmas present – and the listing will terminate on December 23.
That'll be a sad end to a saga that started when the share was listed with much fanfare as a tanzanite producer after a share issue at 400c. The promoters later took out these assets, transferred them to TanzaniteOne, which is listed on London's AIM market, and replaced them with a clutch of diamond assets that turned out to be virtually valueless.
While local investors lick their wounds after losing over 99% of their investment, TanzaniteOne, having fought off a hostile bid from Pallinghurst associate Gemfields, is still worth almost the equivalent of 400c in London. No prizes for guessing who's done best out of this sorry episode.
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