Alexandria Minerals (AZX-V) An Open Letter to the Shareholders From Eric Owens
Feb 13, '18
Fellow Alexandria Shareholders:
Today, the board of directors of Alexandria (the Board) took the drastic step of terminating me in response to my call for change at the Company. For now, I may no longer be your CEO, but I will always be your advocate. In the days and months to come, I will devote all my energy to ensuring that a shareholder-focused Board is installed.
Over the past months, I believe that a majority of the Board has followed a path that disregards the best interests of Alexandria's shareholders. Under the guise of "examining strategic alternatives," the Board's Special Committee continues to examine misguided options for the Company. Management has continually rejected these options, because I believe they risk seriously under-valuing the Company—management has made clear that the Special Committee's proposals are unexecutable and unfair to shareholders.
As the process continues, I increasingly believe that the Special Committee's pursuits—and its haste to explore strategic alternatives before the release of the upcoming new resource estimate and its potential impact on the value of Alexandria's assets—are not in the best interests of the Company.
The Special Committee stated that their process promised a "variety of outcomes or no outcome." I, however, propose a clear path forward for Alexandria. First, I propose to bring in the capital the Board had already budgeted last year, at as accretive a level as possible. With the Board's knowledge, I was putting together a financing (with hard-dollar and flow-through portions) expected to raise over $20 million. Much of that money sits in trust, awaiting the Board's approval to close the financing.
Second, I propose that the Company complete and release Alexandria's upcoming NI 43-101 report, which will demonstrate the value of our Company's assets.
Third—and only after the NI 43-101 report is released—I propose to look for partners and M&A opportunities. But I will pursue only options that are in the best interests of shareholders and properly value the Company that I as co-founder and CEO, and we as shareholders, have built.
I plan to spend the coming days and months continuing my fight to ensure that a shareholder-focused Board is installed. Thank you for your support. I look forward to getting the job done together." |
