Nautilus liquidation looming

Nautilus Minerals Inc will be liquidated if a plan of compromise and arrangement is approved and backed by a court order.

The company revealed this when announcing that they, along with its subsidiaries, have obtained an order of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Canada to convene a meeting of creditors to vote on a plan of arrangement.

This includes an acquisition agreement and the filing of a plan of compromise and arrangement.

Nautilus Minerals announced yesterday that the granted court order was given under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act authorizing:

(i) Nautilus to enter into an acquisition agreement with Deep Sea Mining Finance Ltd (DSMF) for the acquisition of certain subsidiaries and certain intercompany indebtedness; and

(ii) Certain subsidiaries or “Nautilus Restructuring Entities” of the Company will file a plan of compromise and arrangement among the subsidiaries and their unsecured creditors, and to convene a meeting with those creditors for the purpose of voting on the approval of the plan of compromise and arrangement.

A plan of compromise or arrangement sets out a company’s intentions to deal with its debts and restructure its business and operations.

The plan will be presented to Nautilus creditors on August 9, 2019, who will then vote on whether they accept the proposal or reject it.

Nautilus states that in the event that the plan of compromise and arrangement is approved by a majority of the Affected Creditors, its subsidiaries will bring an application to the Court for an order approving and sanctioning the plan of compromise and arrangement and various transactions related to the Plan and the Acquisition Agreement on August 13, 2019.

If the Sanction Order is granted as sought, and the conditions precedent to the Acquisition Agreement and the plan of compromise and arrangement are met, the Company will have effectively no assets, and, will be liquidated upon implementation of the plan of compromise and arrangement.

Eda Kopa (Solwara) Limited has filed a claim of K163 million (US$51 million) against Nautilus Mineral Limited for failing to meets its funding obligations of the Solwara 1 Project.

Early this month, Chairman of Kumul Mineral Holdings Limited (KMHL), Peter Graham, said the Project has stalled with a substantial proportion of the development work still to be undertaken.

The claim has been filed under a Canadian court supervised creditors process initiated by the parent company of its joint-venturer in the Solwara 1 Project, Nautilus Minerals Niugini Limited (Nautilus PNG).

The Solwara 1 Deep-Sea Mining Project is a venture to mine polymetallic sulphide deposits located on the seabed in an area approximately 50km north of Rabaul and 30km west of New Ireland Province.

Author: 
Cedric Patjole