Watchdog censures Pluton
Troubled Kimberley iron ore miner Pluton Resources has been censured by the corporate watchdog after allegedly breaching its market disclosure obligations last year.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission yesterday banned Pluton from raising equity without issuing a full prospectus.
Pluton failed to comply with its continuous disclosure obligations and "various reporting requirements", according to ASIC, by failing to give details of a debt raising in January and missing deadlines for lodgement of its annual financial report and shareholder meeting.
ASIC said Pluton should have given shareholders details of a $7 million convertible note deal with YA Global Master SPV in January when the agreement was struck, rather than waiting until an April capital raising prospectus to outline details of the agreement.
Pluton warned shareholders in the April prospectus it may have breached its disclosure obligations due to its "inadvertent" failure to announce the agreement. The bulk of Pluton's board quit the company a month later.
ASIC said its decision to ban Pluton from using a reduced content prospectus to raise capital was also based on the company's failure to lodge its annual report by September 31, and its failure to call an annual meeting by the end of the following month.
The ban will last until January 2016, ASIC said.
Last August Padbury Mining was also banned from using a short-form prospectus, after breaching its disclosure obligations when announcing its supposed breakthrough $US6.5 billion Oakajee funding deal.
Pluton has been suspended from trade since July. Warring creditors sent the company into receivership in November and Pluton is working through how it will resume trading its shares.
