Asia Resource Minerals soars after court rules against ex-Bumi director
Asia Resource Minerals (ARMS), the collapsed Indonesian coal mining giant formerly known as Bumi, has won the right to claim $173m back from former director Rosan Roeslani.
African Eagle Resources
0.30p
14:39 11/02/15
Asia Resource Minerals
36.75p
12:49 22/05/15
FTSE AIM All-Share
755.28
17:14 26/04/24
Mining
10,486.86
16:59 26/04/24
An arbitration court in Singapore has awarded in favour of ARMS, requiring Roeslani to make payment of the full sum plus accrued interest and legal costs.
The ex-directors assets have been reported to include a stake in Inter Milan football club, two chateaux in France, the Finca Cortesin golf resort in Spain, and a house in Beverly Hills.
ARMS, which was represented by law firm Macfarlanes, said it was "pleased to announce that the arbitration proceedings against Rosan Roeslani have been successful".
"The company will seek to enforce the arbitration award by all available means against Mr Roeslani, and will update on its progress in this regard as soon as practicable in January 2015."
News of the arbitration award sent ARMS shares flying 270% higher to 15.5p on Wednesday, though this remains a tiny fraction of their 1,166p high back in their first year.
Debt-laden ARMS has been pursuing Roeslani, whose assets include two French chateaux and a stake in an Italian Serie A football club, since he broke an agreement last December to repay the sum, which was alleged to have disappeared from 85% Bumi-owned Indonesian subsidiary Berau Coal, which Roeslani was managing.
Macfarlanes secured a legal ruling in France to freeze the assets of the two French properties, Château de Bonaban and Château de la Grénerie (pictured), The Daily Telegraph reported in March.
ARMS, which last week appointed Numis Securities to act as corporate broker, emerged from the ashes when Bumi collapsed amidst a plunging coal price and boardroom spats between co-founder Nathaniel Rothschild and the Indonesia-based Bakrie Group, which had folded its massive coal assets into a London-listed investment firm to create Bumi back in 2011.
Rothschild has recently pledged to underwrite a rights issue, despite ARMS handing out $465m to investors only five months ago.
The company is mulling its options over the refinancing of a $450m bond due next year, the Financial Times reported in November, including the potential equity issue underwritten by Rothschild, after 47.6% shareholder Samin Tan lost control of half of his stake in October to Raiffeisen Bank International due to personal debt issues.
Tan borrowed $1.22bn from Standard Chartered and Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International to acquire the ARMS stake from the Bakries family but the crashing share price left his stake worth less than $25m, although he did received a special dividend of more than $220m from the separation deal.