http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/sa-business-journal/arasor...

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/sa-business-journal/arasor-has-its-day-in-court/story-e6fredel-1225993761345

THE law has caught up with troubled electronics company Arasor International.

The Adelaide-listed company's two-year delay in filing accounts and failure to hold an annual general meeting within legislated time limits last week attracted a company conviction and a good behaviour bond for company secretary Reginald Bancroft with no conviction recorded.

Arasor argued before the Victorian Magistrates' Court that problems with overseas contracts especially defunct joint ventures in China and a legal chase for a US$20 million debt from a project in India prevented it from fulfilling its legal obligations.

The company lodged its December 2008 full-year results in April last year but its June half-year and December 2010 full-year results are still outstanding, complicated by a lack of records from its collapsed American operations.

Arasor International pleaded guilty to failures to lodge its 2009 reports within four months and its half-yearly results within 75 days and also admitted it had failed to hold its annual general meeting within five months of the end of its 2008 financial year.

But Magistrate Elizabeth Lambden did not record a conviction against secretary Reginald Bancroft, saying he had "walked into a minefield" when he inherited the company's problems from the previous secretary, Donald Stephens, in February 2009.

She also said she had taken into account his good corporate reputation and proactive nature in trying to fix Arasor's problems.

Mr Bancroft told The Advertiser yesterday that the current board remained committed to the job ahead of them.

"We have a pretty good board that works pretty well together and we had a bit of a mess to clean up," he said.

"Our interest all the way through has been to see what can and should be done for shareholders.

"Regardless of the difficulties we have not walked away from it."

The company, which is expected to announce a date for its annual general meeting today, still needs to finalise its American operations including a $9.8 million secured debt for which it is guarantor.

"They (secured creditor Sand Hill Capital) have supported what we are trying to do all along but effectively, if they withdraw their support we are in a difficult position," Mr Bancroft said.

"We are trying to work with them to work it out we're still negotiating, but it's amicable."

Only two of the company's nine original directors remain on the board, but one former managing director Simon Cao has been put on notice that Arasor intends to collect on a US$10 million guarantee given over its failed Chinese projects.

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