Astron - ATR: A zircon player in Aus and China

[soulman]

Any news on the e-mail and telephone calls? It seems to be dragging on forever. I feel for all you shareholders and just hope none of the coy I have does this immoral and unethical act.

[Damo79]

Any news on the e-mail and telephone calls? It seems to be dragging on forever. I feel for all you shareholders and just hope none of the coy I have does this immoral and unethical act.

My email seems to have been duly ignored I'm afraid. I'm amazed there's been no further announcement. Surely people with a much greater interest than my $5k's worth must be kicking up a fuss...

[Damo79]

Hmmmm... anouncement out. Very worrying! Could see a big drop in share price I think :-(

Summary: Annual accounts have been released along with a number of excuses. New accounting system etc etc. And the reported NPAT is now about $11m rather than the $14m reported in the appendix 4E. And... this has resulted in a condition for the sale to Imerys NOT being met. And I'll point out that the sale being conditional on a net profit amount was NOT released to the market.

This is dodgy!!! I'm p!ssed!

What can ya do

[thereslifeafter87]

Add on to that the fact that there was no disclosure from the company that it would not be achieving the $18million profit guidance and you have one big giant mess.

[Damo79]

Hehe, I've changed my mind about wanting the suspension to be lifted. I'm now quiet happy for ATR to remain suspended, because then I can at least pretend that my shares are worth $2.85 still

[Damo79]

Hate to keep replying to myself, but I've just been trying to work out how bad this could be.

The announcement says that the sale to Imerys of their chinese operations (which as far as I'm concerned would prop up the SP) was conditional on a EBITDA of 130m RMB. I make that about AU$18.9m, so am trying to work out how close ATR are, but the financial report is a little beyond me. The best I can find is the that NPBT is AU$13.9m, with the interest portion neglible ($130k). As for amortisation, well the "finance costs" are $1.2m, so at best if you add that all back (???) you get about AU$15m.

Any help from someone who's good with reports...

Sounds like the Imerys sale will be "re-negotiated" based on the worse result. If i can get out at anything around the current SP I will I think...

This really looks like the directors were caught out by auditors while trying to fudge up there accounts to reach a set EBITDA amount for the purpose of the sale.

[Damo79]

Ok, found it in the report. EBITDA of AU$17.2m so about 10% below the condition for the sale.

[weasel]

Hi Damo,

thanks for all your comments. Agree with you that it looks like they got caught out by the Auditors. Not really surprised.... very dodgy management this co. See what happens tomorrow..............

[ead83]

Hi guys,

I'm not really sure where you get your conditional EBITDA figure for the deal. I've read through the announcements and can't find any indication of the deal hinging on the EBITDA figure for ATR's operations.

Would appreciate anyone pointing me in the right direction

[Damo79]

Hi guys,

I'm not really sure where you get your conditional EBITDA figure for the deal. I've read through the announcements and can't find any indication of the deal hinging on the EBITDA figure for ATR's operations.

Would appreciate anyone pointing me in the right direction

Hi ead83

From this announcement:

http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/2007103...f5cvqt828g.pdf

Implications for Imerys sale transaction of the amended profit result
a. The share sale agreement entered into between Imerys and Astron contains a
condition precedent to the completion of the transaction that for the year ended 30th
June 2007 the Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization
(“EBITDA”) of the Astron businesses that are the subject of the sale to Imerys be no
less than Rmb 130 million.

Cheers