The Poland-focused thermal and coking coal company is keeping its options open in more ways than one – not only over which exchange it goes to but which projects it will keep in order to get into production and cash flow.
The company’s shares will trade until May 1, when its stock will be suspended from trading prior to removal from the ASX on May 6, from which point it will be classified as a public unlisted company.
Balamara has no intention of becoming a private company, and its board has made it clear that it wants to re-list on an “appropriate exchange” at a time closer to start of production.
The company is targeting a “funnel approach”, whereby Mariola, the project with the lowest capital expenditure, will be first cab off the rank to go into production in late 2016-early 2017, followed by Nowa Ruda 12-18 months after that.
A pre-feasibility study is due out on Nowa Ruda in a couple of months. Lastly is the Sawin project, using the earlier projects to fund the next, and so on.
The macro-environment in each country, be it in the UK, Asia, Australia or elsewhere, will be a determining factor in where Balamara will list; but the company will also have some significant investment coming in along the way that will also highly influence which exchange on which it will re-list.
At the moment, not much can be done until definitive feasibility studies are completed on its projects.
“Market conditions will be assessed closer to that time, along with which stock exchange would be most appropriate for its shareholders,” the company said yesterday in relation to when it would re-list.
For now, when the company de-lists from the ASX, there will be no change to the ownership of the company and all shareholders will retain their current shareholdings with no action required, Balamara said.
Balamara is still required to hold annual general meetings, which will continue to be conducted in the same form. The delisting from the ASX has no change to the voting power of each shareholder, the company added.
The company said yesterday that the required future capital raisings to fund development of its three Polish coal projects – Mariola, Nowa Ruda and Sawin – was likely to come from private equity, funds and/or debt providers.
These would be sourced in the same way as if the company was listed.
“Current indications from these parties do not suggest that de-listing will negatively impact future funding,” Balamara said yesterday.
However, International Coal News understands that the company is also considering off-takes to fund its projects, and even disposing Sawin to fund the other two is an option, along with debt instruments from institutional funds.
The company also has a fourth project in Poland, the Bogdan base metals play the company has been trying to offload but has received very little interest from third parties. So it is unlikely to renew the lease on that when it expires later this year.
Balamara is also holding on to its gold (Elsienora) and copper-lead-zinc (Peelwood) exploration plays in New South Wales which are being developed by farm-out partners Alkane Resources and CEB Resources, respectively.
