QCoal has accused Bounty Mining of misleading its shareholders by prioritising a funding proposal it has deemed inferior from Amaroo Blackdown Investments.
It follows a tussle that has escalated over the past two weeks in which QCoal initially proposed an $80 million offer, which has since been upsized to $85 million.
QCoal claims that this far exceeds the $70.9 million proposal offered by Amaroo.
In an ASX statement, Bounty said the Amaroo proposal “remains the only current feasible alternative which will achieve Bounty’s objectives listed in the notice of meeting.”
Bounty had previously noted that in order for the company to prioritise QCoal’s offer, it would have to be carried out in a timely fashion and would need to be more favourable to shareholders.
QCoal claimed today that despite the offer being binding and its willingness to work quickly, Bounty was yet to engage with them.
The company also revealed it has engaged an independent expert from Deloitte who found that “the QCoal proposal is superior to the Amaroo proposal from the perspective of Bounty and its non-associated shareholders”.
The independent expert further claimed the Amaroo proposal has the potential to be “highly dilutive”, given there is potential for Amaroo to acquire 70 per cent of Bounty’s issued share capital.
It comes ahead of Bounty’s shareholders vote on the Amaroo proposal scheduled for September 30 this year.
QCoal said in a statement it is “very concerned that Bounty has asked shareholders to consider the Amaroo proposal based on incomplete and out-of-date information.”
“We consider, as supported by the Deloitte opinion, that the QCoal proposal represents a superior proposal for Bounty and is a feasible alternative to the dilutive Amaroo proposal to achieve the Company’s objectives,” the company concluded.