ELECTROMETALS BOWS OUT AFTER 25 YEARS

A 25-YEAR run as a listed company will come for an end in a little over a month for the financially troubled Electrometals Technologies (ASX: EMM).

The Gold Coast mining technology firm, which has been operating under a deed of company arrangement (DOCA) since February, has obtained overwhelming shareholder approval to delist from the Australian Securities Exchange on December 4.

The last day of trading for Electrometals shares is November 28.

The move caps off a bumpy quarter century as a listed company for Electrometals, whose key business is a metals extraction system for the mining sector.

Matters came to a head earlier this year when it was revealed the company was struggling due to an unpaid debt totalling $1.12 million owed by a party in Iran.

Electrometals, which now has a token headquarters at Mudgeeraba, also has just secured another six-week extension to its DOCA until December 9.

This is despite court action by two creditors to set aside the DOCA so that the company may be liquidated.

That matter was heard on September 22 in the Supreme Court of Queensland, but a decision has been reserved.

Court records show that a Supreme Court action against the company was filed on August 11 by two parties, the Victorian-registered Traivelog Pty Ltd and NSW-registered piping systems company George Fischer Pty Ltd.

Electrometals secured a DOCA on April 2 following a second creditors’ meeting that voted in favour of unsecured creditors receiving 6c in the dollar for their debts.  Unsecured creditors are owed $815,000.

The DOCA has been extended four times since then.

In June, Electrometals scored a court victory in the US where it defended a lawsuit for breach of contract in Missouri.

Electrometals has struggled to return a profit over the past 25 years, although a creditors’ report revealed that calendar 2013 produced stronger than normal revenue of $4.3 million.

Electrometals’ most recent earnings result, in the half year to June, delivered a $409,000 loss and half-year sales of $1.75 million, up 58 per cent from a year earlier.