re: Ann: LinQ Resources Fund - Panel Receives... This was posted...

re: Ann: LinQ Resources Fund - Panel Receives... This was posted by ruskie today on the MOY threads re your takeover:

This Article was in fridays Business Section by Sean Smith.

Aggrieved Millenium Investor asks watchdog to take a sniff.
The Thai-controlled IMC Resourses bid for LinQ Resourses Fund is still creating ripples,with the corporate regulator fielding a complaint from an aggrieved third party.
The complaintant is a WA prffessional investor in emerging gold producer Millenium Minerals,in which both IMC and LinQ are shareholders.The cash offer for LinQ,should it be successful-and it appears likely to be-will indirectly increase IMC's stake in Millennium from 9.3 per cent to almost 29 per cent.

A move beyond the 19.9 per cent threshold would normally trigger an obligation to launch a takeover bid. However, IMC qualifies for an exemption under the "downstream" provisions of the Corporations Act, which apply to circumstances when a company acquires a major stake in another by its takeover of a third company.
The legislation provides an out from the requirement for a bid as long as the "upstream" taret is listed in Australia or another specified bourse, that the bidder's major motivation is not to acquire the "downstram" company and that the shares being acquired in the latter don't represent more than half the "upstream" target's value.
The Millennium shareholder, who wants to remain anonymous, argues IMC's takeover of LinQ amounts to a change of control at the fold miner. And he says the "downstream" exemptions, recently reviewed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, disadvantage investors by depriving them of the opportunity to secure a takeover premium.
"The very substance of the takeover legislation is to protect overall shareholder rights in the instance of one shareholder or group gaining control," he wrote to ASIC last month. "In this instance it appears that the intent of the legislation is being circumvented."
Millennium's future ownership structure is further clouded by 1.5 billion in-the-money options, potentially 27 per cent of the company's expanded asset base, which expires in early February. The staus of IMC's options is unclear but ASIC does retain the right to impose a standstill on an acquirer, restricting it from adding to its stake in a "downstream" company for a specified time.
Millennium has barely acknowledged IMC's move on LinQ apart from a brief statement to the exhange on September 14 advising that it was considering the implications.
Chief executive Brian Rear said yesterday the $125 million company, which has been preoccupied of late with the opening of its Nullagine fold mine, had taken legal advice on the issue. He is aware of the ASIC complaint, but knows of no other shareholders in Millennium who have raise concerns.