St Peter Port Capital proposes auctioning off its remaining assets – the board of St Peter Port Capital Limited is considering auctioning off all the company’s assets and then returning the net cash proceeds to shareholders (less a small amount to cover the costs of an orderly liquidation). The shareholder consent for the appointment of a liquidator and cancellation of the company’s admission to trading on AIM would be sought.
The board thinks that there is value in the portfolio over the medium-long term, but that exits directly arising from events in the portfolio do not seem likely in the short term.
It points to Buried Hill, where a signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Turkmen and Azeri governments is particularly encouraging. However, the largest holding, Brazil Potash, is still waiting the issue of the final permits because of COVID which has made Brazil a no-go area for visits by foreign investors looking to fund the full development of a mine. The board thinks the new Democrat government in Washington DC presents challenges for Red Flat Nickel. SeeCubic, the successor to STV, is still perhaps two years away from major commercialisation whilst iQur remains early stage. This year to date, they have only been able to sell one small holding in the secondary market (on terms which the board thought were reasonably close to its underlying value).
Without an influx of cash, the company is in danger of running out of money, despite the board cutting the costs of running the company to a low level.
Auctions
The alternative solution is to hold formal auctions of each of their holdings of value (those listed above separately and a package consisting of all the remaining holdings as a bundle). They will employ an agent to conduct the auction and seek to generate a wide range of bidders for each lot on offer. Each lot will be sold to the highest cash bidder with verifiable means, subject to board discretion to ensure that the overall proceeds are maximised. Shareholders will then be asked to approve the appointment of a liquidator.
The company is in the process of formulating auction packs and working with an independent auctioneer on the process. If shareholders have any comments or suggestions, comments can be sent to Maitland, the company’s administrators, on sppc@maitlandgroup.com on or before Monday, 22 February 2021. They envisage that the entire process will take in the order of 6-8 weeks from launch on or around the beginning of March 2021.
SPPC : St Peter Port Capital proposes auctioning off its remaining assets