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Business Reporter
MWANA Africa has agreed with its major shareholder, China International Machinery Corporation, to briefly suspend court proceedings on a dispute over the appointment of directors to explore a settlement.This comes as it emerged that CIMGC had disposed of 81 424 282 shares while its associate and chairman Mr Ning Yat Hoi sold 106 254 717 of his shares, representing half their combined interest in Mwana Africa.
Following the disposals, CIMGC now has a holding in the Company of 218 000 000 shares, representing 15,60 percent of the issued share capital. Previously CIMGC and Mr Ning held a combined 29,87 percent of Mwana. Mr Ning holds 454 545 Shares, representing 0,033 percent of the issued share capital. The chairman of CIMGC, is interested in 218 454 545 shares representing 15,63 per cent of the issued ordinary share capital.
In April 2012 Mwana raised $33,5 million with the support from CIMGC, which took a 21,7 percent interest in the Group. This capital provided sufficient funding to restart BNC’s Trojan nickel mine, and enabled further exploration at the group’s DRC gold and base metals projects.
Mwana Africa holds controlling interest in Zimbabwe-based BNC, Africa’s only integrated nickel miner and Freda Rebecca, the country’s second largest gold producer South African mogul Mzi Khumalo’s Metallon Gold. The AIM listed pan-African commodity miner yesterday said that the court had agreed to a joint application by the all the parties for a stay of execution to allow the parties to continue to explore possible out of court settlement.
CIMGC and associate and chairman Mr Ning Yat Hoi had filed a petition at the companies court in London against Mwana and two of its non-executive directors Mr Stuart Morris and Mr Johan Botha, contesting the two’s appointment at a general meeting of the company last year.
“The Court has agreed, inter alia and in response to a joint application lodged with the consent of all parties, to grant a stay of the proceedings until 15 June 2015 to allow the parties to continue to explore settlement.”
Mwana said the court proceedings will commence, if settlement is not reached, on 15 June 2015. Mwana also said it had written to Mr Ian Dearing to confirm its intention to hold a general meeting 28 days after its notice.
Mr Dearing and some shareholders had filed a separately, from CIMGC and Mr Ning, requisition for a general meeting of the company to approve, among other things, non-executive director changes to the firm’s board.
At a hearing in January this year, initial directions were laid down for the future conduct of the petitions including the setting of a trial window of three months from November 1 this year.
CIMGC had also filed a jointer at the companies court objecting to the appointment of mining hands, Mr Ngoni Kudenga and Herbert Mashanyare, also appointed to the board at the AGM as non-executive directors.
While the purchasers of the shares referred to above are not parties known to Mwana, it is establishing whether Mr Ning is still interested (for the purposes of the AIM Rules) in the shares now held by these purchasers.
“Requests have been made to CIMGC and Mr Ning to clarify the identities of these new shareholders, and their relationship to CIMGC and Mr Ning respectively,” the pan African commodity miner said in a statement.
If Mr Ning is found to be interested in the shares purchased pursuant to the said transactions, he will continue to be interested in 406 133 544 shares, representing 29,87 per cent of the issued share capital of the company.
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