Shareholder Article: We Must Unite
First Uranium Shareholder’s Must Unite
Over the past month shareholder opposition has grown in response to the proposed asset sale of First Uranium’s primary assets, Mine Waste Solutions and Ezulwini Mining Co. A large shareholder group comprising of Sprott Asset Management Inc, Stratton, Patto Corporate Services Ltd. and Olma have voiced their opposition to the deal, alleging that the company is selling the assets for too cheap. An analysis of the truth of this argument can be found at the following link:
https://www.stockhouse.com/Bullboards/MessageDetail.aspx?p=0&m=30872742&l=0&r=0&s=FIU&t=LIST
If we assume the truth of the argument, that the asset sale is not in the best interest of shareholder’s, what will occur? In May a circular will be sent out by First Uranium management, no doubt supporting the proposed asset sale by arguing that there is no other option but to accept the deals. Later in May a vote will be held, and each of the proposed asset sales will be either accepted or rejected by shareholders. The Mine-Waste Solutions sale requires 50.1% of votes, excluding related parties. These related parties (consisting of Anglo-Gold Ashanti, Franco-Nevada Corp, and Village Main Reef Ltd.) own roughly 33% of First Uranium. This means that of the 237.88M shares, roughly 78,500,400 will be excluded from voting. A rejection of the Mine Waste Solutions asset sale then requires a total of 79,689,800 of 159,379,600 shares. The large shareholder group detailed above own approximately 41,000,000 shares of First Uranium, as the group has stated their opposition to the asset sale it can be assumed that they will vote no. We need roughly 40,000,000 (forty million) other shares to defeat the Mine Waste Solutions asset sale. A smaller shareholder movement has started on stockhouse.com, voices must be added to the opposition, shares must be gathered, and shareholders must unite. The Ezulwini asset sale requires 66.7% support, meaning that to defeat the asset sale we again require about 80,000,000 votes. The large shareholders have voiced their opposition to the Ezulwini deal as well, indicating that similar to the Mine Waste Solutions vote, we need 40,000,000 shares outside of the large shareholder group. Shares must be gathered, shareholders must unite.
Village Main Reef is a benefactor of the proposed asset sale, Village CEO Bernard Swanepoel, referred to the situation of trying to gather votes to support the asset sale as being analogous to herding cats; this is a comparison that as shareholders of FIU we should find problematic. We need to refuse to be herded, we need to refuse to be manipulated, we need to be proactive. We are not 'cats' to be herded, we are shareholders, who have a voice, who have a vote.
In December 2011, RBC reported that Mine Waste Solutions had a net asset value of Cdn $443.4M and Ezulwini to have a net asset value of Cdn $276.4M, for a total net asset value of Cdn $719M. Three months later in March 2012, a First Uranium report stated that RBC had delivered oral opinions that the asset sale of Mine Waste Solutions for Cdn $335M to AshantiGold, and the sale of Ezulwini to Gold One for Cdn $70M was “…fair from a financial point of view.” Analysis of RBC valuations seem to indicate between December 2011 and March 2012 the net asset value of Mine Waste Solutions and Ezulwini fell Cdn $314M. There was no explanation, or reason why given. We are expected to believe that Mine Waste Solutions and Ezulwini simply lost Cdn $314 million dollars in worth within a 3 month period - which is suprising because the value of Mine Waste Solutions and Ezulwini lies in 1) the asset infrastructure and 2) the resources 'in the ground.' Did the Mine Waste Solutions facility disappear? Did the Ezulwini infrastructure disappear? Did the resources 'in the ground' disappear? No. What disappeared? About Cdn $314,000,000.
We are shareholders of First Uranium Corporation. We are against the asset sale, we will be voting no. We currently hold over 4 million shares, and that number is growing every day. Join the discussion at
stockhouse.com
https://www.stockhouse.com/Bullboards/SymbolList.aspx?s=FIU&t=LIST
or contact us at
firsturaniumshareholders@gmail.com