Offers for Asia Escape Holidays, Holiday Planet and Motive Travel withdrawn.
Red Gum Resources, the WA mining firm which had planned to relist as The Australian Travel Group, has just announced that its proposed acquisitions of Holiday Planet, Asia Escape Holidays and Motive Travel will not be proceeding.
The company was raising capital for the purchases, with a deadline for the offer under its prospectus expiring earlier this week. The deadline had previously been extended following issues raised by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission relating to some of the figures in the prospectus.
In a statement issued this morning Red Gum said it had now decided the offer would not proceed, with a range of factors cited including the protracted nature of the transaction, the ASIC issues and problems with further extending the closing date.
“The company and the vendors had devoted significant resources to this complex reverse takeover for a considerable period, in an effort to see the transaction succeed,” said company chairman Raymond Shaw.
Red Gum will now remain in suspension while its directors consider its future direction.
The statement didn’t mention the status of Asia Escape Holidays, Holiday Planet and Motive Travel, which had been forecast in the prospectus to have a combined TTV of $104 million and an overall $1.3 million EBITDA this year.
A roadshow presentation had promised that combining the three businesses would enable the group “to become a new force in the Australian travel industry”.
More information in today’s issue of Travel Daily.