Ann: Change of Director's Interest Notice , page-9

Interesting article below, what do you make of this snippet?

"However, it is learnt that Rocklands has surrendered a large part of the prospecting area but not disclosed the information to the shareholders."




Jindals in shock over rebuff
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Big blow
Calcutta, Feb. 4: Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL) has expressed shock over Rocklands Richfields decision to snap talks.

According to JSPL, its terms and conditions matched a rival offer by Chinas Meijin Energy that was acceptable to the Australian company.

In a letter to the Rocklands board, JSPL today sought clarifications on the latest development, while it remained interested in the company.

We are quite shocked at your response since, in our view, the terms and conditions of our offer are substantially the same as those of Meijins proposal, Rajesh Bhatia, director of JSPL, wrote to John Girdlestone, CEO of Rocklands.

Earlier, the Australian coke producer had accepted the same offer when placed by Meijin. Now, it is finding the terms proposed by JSPL unacceptable and not in the best interests of the shareholders and the company.

JSPL said its offer was better than Meijins as it wanted an exclusivity period till the completion of due diligence. The Chinese firm had sought exclusivity till the completion of the agreement itself.

JSPL sources said the company was still keen on Rocklands to meet its coking coal need for producing steel. The Australian company has two metallurgical coke plants in China and a prospecting licence for mines, claimed to have 900 million tonnes of reserves, in Australia.

However, it is learnt that Rocklands has surrendered a large part of the prospecting area but not disclosed the information to the shareholders.

JSPL said it was willing to conduct a due diligence on Rocklands mining prospects at its own cost. Rocklands said it wanted to carry out the drilling for the due diligence itself; it will appoint the drilling contractor, while the Jindals will make the payments.

JSPL had entered the fray to buy Rocklands at Aus $0.42 a share and then increased the bid to Aus $0.56 a share.

The Rocklands share rallied, enabling the management to convert the stock options to shares at Aus $0.30 and bringing money into the company.

If JSPL did not enter the bidding, the stock could have fallen below the option price. Option holders found the prospect lucrative to convert into shares and put money into the company. Today, the stock is trading at Aus $0.22 a share.