LONDON (Alliance News) - Altona Energy PLC shares plummeted on Monday after it said it has not received funds owed to the company on time, stating it expects to secure the overdue funds over the next few weeks.
Altona expects to receive the overdue funds during January and February, citing restrictions in foreign countries as the cause of the delays.
Altona shares were trading down 19% to 0.570 pence per share on Monday morning.
Sino-Aus Energy Group Ltd subscribed to 100.0 million Altona shares at a price of 0.5 pence per share back in December for a total of GBP500,000, with Altona originally expecting to secure the funds sometime in the middle of January.
However, Sino-Aus has now said it will not make the GBP500,000 payment until February 5, as Sino-Aus has "significant regulatory requirements in making international transfers from China" because it is a British Virgin Islands registered company, said Altona.
Sino-Aus is one of Altona's partners on the Arckaringa coal project in Australia, along with Wintask Group Ltd. Back in December, Altona said it was expecting Sino-Aus to pay its initial AUD4.5 million contribution to the joint venture by last Friday, with Wintask also expected to have made its initial AUD600,000 contribution.
However, neither of those payments have been made on time. Altona said Qinfu Zhang, chairman of Wintask and Altona, has committed and said that Wintask's initial contribution will be made by January 29, whilst Sino-Aus is expected to make its payment as soon as it practically can.
"There are significant restrictions in place regarding the opening of bank accounts in China and Hong Kong and this has caused an unfortunate delay in receipt of both the subscription monies due to Altona and the initial contributions to the Joint Venture Company. However we do not expect these delays to have a significant effect on the overall timescale of the project," said Altona Chairman Qinfu Zhang.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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