Companies umpire says it is ‘premature’ to conduct the proceedings
The Takeovers Panel has declined to conduct proceedings in relation to McAleese’s recapitalisation deal.
Queensland-based businessman Gilberto Maggiolo’s Havenfresh, a shareholder, applied to the federal peer review body to order a general meeting vote before the proposed rescue deal was finalised.
Havenfresh claims that the proposed deal favoured McAleese MD Mark Rowsthorn, while the timing would exert “unacceptable” pressure on existing shareholders to approve the deal.
The group also called for the senior debt deal to be delayed until after the shareholders’ meeting and dismissal of Rowsthorn and chairman Don Telford, to be replaced by two new directors.
The Takeovers Panel, which included Alex Cartel, Rod Halstead and sitting president Sophie Mitchell, issued a statement stating that the “circumstances of the proposed senior debt acquisition are not central to the issues which might be of concern to the Panel in the context of the proposed recapitalisation”.
The panel states it was “premature” to conduct the proceedings “given the general meeting materials and details of the proposed issue of options and offer of convertible notes have not yet been made public”.
Details of the panel’s reasons for the decision will be published on its website “in due course”.
McAleese Group’s next general meeting has been scheduled for August 29.