Sir Ron Brierley’s Mercantile Investment Company now has control of 15 per cent of Bauxite Resources.

The increased ownership comes just days after the junior explorer told shareholders to reject the suitor’s increased offer of 11c per share.

While Bauxite’s (ASX:BAU) independent expert, BDO Corporate Finance, this time determined the offer was fair and reasonable, Bauxite remained steadfast in its resolve that it is still not a good deal for shareholders.

Mercantile is only after 50 per cent of Bauxite’s shares.

Mercantile had little to say on whether it thinks it will be successful in its bid, just that it’s “in the hands of shareholders”.

“We’ve got no comment, we’ll form our views once everything is over,” non-executive director Gabriel Radzyminski told Stockhead.

Bauxite, meanwhile told shareholders last week that if Mercantile is successful they will be left with 50 per cent of their shareholding but are likely to have little or no capacity to influence the future direction of the company.

Bauxite said there is the “increased prospect that there will be little market interest in [its] shares given that Mercantile have stated they are going to effectively liquidate the assets of the company and exit all the mining projects”.

If the current directors retain control, they plan to follow their current bauxite and silica strategy, but will also consider spinning out its Australian Silica Quartz subsidiary and give the shares to shareholders.

Bauxite’s directors currently control about 27.8 per cent of shares.

Featured Companies

You might be interested in