Flanagan upbeat ahead of Atlas vote
Atlas Iron managing director David Flanagan says he believes shareholders will overwhelmingly approve the iron ore miner's company-saving capital raising at tomorrow’s shareholder meeting.
Mr Flanagan told delegates at the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies annual conference this morning that Atlas needed only the issue of shares to its contractors to pass the vote tomorrow for the company to remain viable.
Despite the 5c-a-share issue being significantly dilutive to Atlas' 34,000 existing shareholders, Mr Flanagan said that shareholder proxy votes lodged so far were running strongly in favour of approving the $180 million capital raising.
While Mr Flanagan would not be drawn on the response to the capital raising so far, he said he believed Atlas would raise far more than the $43 million worth of contractor shares on issue.
He said he will depart on a 21-day global roadshow to support the capital raising this week.
Mr Flanagan said Atlas had already received a number of proposals to refinance its $330 million in debt, and he believed it would be relatively easy for Atlas to negotiate a revised debt package after the capital raising had closed.
Paying off its debt would save Atlas up to $50 million a year in interest payments, Mr Flanagan said.
Atlas Iron shares have been suspended since April.
It last traded at 12c.
