SINGAPORE (Nov 21): ISR Capital’s former executive director of David Rigoll has ceased to be a substantial shareholder in the company, reducing his direct interest to 3.24% from 16.85% in two transactions.
According to a regulatory filing this morning, Rigoll on Nov 16 sold 27.37 million shares on the open market for $136,850 or an average price of 0.5 cent each. This reduces his stake from 16.85% to 15.66%.
On the same day, Rigoll sold 287.5 million shares at $1.06 million or about 0.37 cent each on average, this time in an off-market transaction. This reduces his stake to 3.24% or 75 million shares, from 15.66%.
ISR made the news last year when it attempted to buy a 60% stake in the concession for $40 million by issuing new shares at 10 cents each. The vendor of the stake is a Singapore-registered company called REO Magnetic.
However, the company also found itself entangled with John Soh Chee Wen, the alleged mastermind of the 2013 penny stock saga. The Malaysian businessman, who is now in remand, is accused by prosecutors to have manipulated shares of ISR Capital as well.
A court hearing scheduled for Feb 21 will decide if he Soh should be given bail.
See: Penny stock saga mastermind John Soh remains under remand as argument over bail hearing continues
In some six months to last October, ISR’s share price surged by 4,000% to hit 34 cents, valuing the company at more than $500 million. It dropped by more than half to 12.7 cents on Nov 24, 2016 the day Soh was arrested.
The company called for a trading halt but SGX moved to suspend the stock on Nov 27, 2016.
On March 6, the very day after SGX lifted the trading suspension, Rigoll resigned, citing a dispute with the company over his salary for February.
See: Chairman Chen Tong says ISR Capital to push ahead with Madagascar acquisition
On March 6 and 7, Rigoll also sold a total of nearly 40 million shares at prices ranging from 4.48 cents to 4.7 cents, despite an earlier voluntary agreement with the company not to.
Rigoll had bought his stake last year from Value Capital Asset Management (VCAM) at 0.5 cent.
In its annual report and earlier stock exchange filings, ISR stated that it is seeking legal advice on its dealings with Rigoll. He used to be a director of a Dusseldorf-listed company Tantalum Rare Earths AG that used to own the same Madagascar concession before it was sold to REO Magnetic for 3.7 million euros. The same stake was then to be sold to ISR just six months later for $40 million.
On Nov 16, ISR Capital announced it will submit an application to the Singapore Exchange to issue and list about 674.8 million shares as part of its planned acquisition of a stake in a Madagascar tantalum concession.
See: ISR Capital seeking SGX nod to issue new shares for tantalum deal
Under ISR’s revised agreement with REO Magnetic, the seller of the tantalum stake, it will pay $4.52 million by issuing this same amount of shares at 0.67 cent each.
The original agreement calls for ISR to pay $40 million for the 60% stake by issuing new shares at 10 cents each.
Shares in ISR Capital closed at 0.4 cent on Monday.
