Dec 31 2014
Aberdeen International Inc., further to its press release dated November 14, 2014, is pleased to announce that through its wholly owned subsidiary Great Lakes Capital Management Inc., the Company has completed its investment into a privately held Mauritius company, African Thunder Platinum Limited.
The Company, along with its co-investment partner Pala Investments Limited ("Pala") have each invested an aggregate of USD$7,000,000 and as a result both Great Lakes and Pala each hold a 42.25% interest in ATP. The remaining 15.5% interest in ATP is held by Platinum Australia Limited and an Australian bank as minority shareholders.
ATP has acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares of certain subsidiary companies from the Seller which directly and indirectly hold interests in various projects including a 69.75% interest in the Smokey Hills mine, a former production PGM mine and processing plant located on the Eastern Limb of the Bushveld and a 49% interest in the Kalplats project, a highly prospective PGM property located in the Kraaipan Greenstone belt. It is anticipated that the restart of the Smokey Hills mine and processing will occur within the first quarter of 2015.
David Stein, President and CEO of Aberdeen stated, "On behalf of management of Aberdeen, we are extremely pleased to have played an integral role in the negotiation and financing of this transaction which is consistent with the investment strategy of Aberdeen of making opportunistic investments in quality assets trading at cyclical lows. Being able to take advantage of the recently built infrastructure at the Smokey Hills mine with financing in place to attain commercial production will provide ATP with the foundation needed to grow into a low cost platinum producer. In addition, we see additional resource potential from the Kaplats property and longer term growth potential for ATP as a result. Both platinum and palladium, the co-products of the Smokey Hills mine are in supply deficits with longer term demand fundamentals."
ATP and Aberdeen have two directors in common, being Mr. David Stein and Mr. Michael Hoffman. In the coming weeks it is anticipated that both Messrs Stein and Hoffman will resign from the board of directors of ATP and Mr. George Faught and Mr. Stan Bharti will be appointed as the Aberdeen nominees to the board of directors of ATP. Prior to the closing of the transaction, ATP was not a related party of Aberdeen or its wholly-owned subsidiary, Great Lakes under Canadian securities laws and therefore the transaction was not a related party transaction under Canadian securities laws. Further, Aberdeen, and Great Lakes are arm's length parties to Pala, the Seller and the Australian bank, are not related parties pursuant to securities laws of such entities and have no common officers or directors of such entities. Following completion of the transaction, Aberdeen, Great Lakes and ATP will become related parties of each other under Canadian securities laws as a result of the acquisition of 42.25% of the issued shares of ATP. As disclosed in the Company's financial statements, ATP is related party of Aberdeen for accounting purposes only under IAS 24 as result of having common directors.
Source: http://www.aberdeeninternational.ca/