VATUKOULA Gold Mines Limited’s recent delisting on AIM, the London Stock Exchange’s market for smaller, growing companies, will allow the company to succeed in its longer-term objective of becoming a profitable business.
According to VGM general manager Kevin Zhu, the directors of the parent company, Vatukoula Gold Mines Plc in London, agreed it was in the best interest of the company and its shareholders to cancel trading on AIM.
“In deliberating the move to delist, the directors and board advisers took into consideration the perceived benefits of trading of shares on AIM, that is, access to equity capital markets, an enhanced corporate profile, a means to incentise staff and a mechanism to provide a market in the company’s shares,” he said.
“The board reached the view that the company was not receiving all of these benefits, and believes that it would be better for the company to operate in the private arena as this could enable further capital to be raised more easily.”
Mr Zhu said the costs associated with listing were primarily for preparation of the requisite reports — financial tax exposures, trading risks and management — in order to be accepted for listing.
He said there was no investment per se in the exchange, or in this case, with AIM.
“There is therefore no refund as such to the company from AIM.”
In terms of training for staff, he said this was done in Fiji by their training department in conjunction with the Fiji National University and other national training institutions.
Some distance training, he said, was undertaken from external training institutions with specialised mining courses.
