Takeover target Hannans says Grammer had not disclosed his dealings with Fox, and it took an announcement from Fox for Hannans to discover he and Dianne Grammer had committed shares that represent a 4.31% stake in Hannans.
As MiningNews.net revealed yesterday, fellow director Frank Cannavo – who retired with no explanation on Tuesday – and family entered into pre-bid agreements with Fox. They committed a 2.57% stake to Fox.
“Since receipt of the announcement, Hannans has been advised that Mr Frank Cannavo and Mr Terry Grammer, both of whom were Hannans directors at the time of the announcement, have given pre-bid acceptance to the Fox offer in relation to their holdings,” the company said today.
“Despite request, neither Mr Cannavo nor Mr Grammer has disclosed their involvement with respect to the bid.”
Hannans said it will reserve its rights in relation to their conduct, and has asked for the immediate resignation of Terry Grammer.
Grammer is a geologist with more than 30 years experience in the industry. He won Prospector of the Year in 2000 for discovering a 400,000-tonne, 8.2% nickel deposit at the Jubilee mines Cosmos project.
If he resigns, Hannans will be left with a three-person board consisting of a barrister, engineer, and chemist – but no geologist.
Meanwhile, Hannans has finally broken its silence on the unsolicited takeover bid, labelling it “completely opportunistic”.
“Hannans has reviewed the respective assets and balance sheets of the two companies and firmly believes its balance sheet and suite of quality exploration assets have no obvious synergies with the bidder,” Hannans managing director Damian Hicks said.
Hicks said Hannans holds quality exploration ground in the Forrestania, Pilbara and Eastern Goldfields regions of Western Australia, has $1.5 million in the bank and no debt.
“There are no project synergies other than the fact that both companies are exploration companies exploring for minerals in Western Australia,” he said.
The company said the board had received no formal offer from Fox, and it viewed the off-market pre-bid – of one Fox share, for every two Hannans share held – as “opportunistic”.
Hannans traded at 10c by early afternoon, a 6.38% gain, while Fox climbed 1.5c to 17, a 9.68% gain.
