Here are short updates on a couple of stories from earlier this week – the hacking of Latitude Financial Services and the on-market takeover bid of Mincor by Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals.
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Shares in Latitude Financial fell sharply on re-listing yesterday after two updates on the hacking scandal that threatens the company’s business.
The shares fell 16% to a low of $1.01 before recovering a little to end around $1.12 by at the close.
That compares to the previous close of $1.21 a week ago, before the hacking news broke.
The company said in another update issued before trading in the shares resumed that it has found more evidence of hacking.
“(R)egrettably our review has uncovered further evidence of large-scale information theft affecting customers (past and present) and applicants across Australia and New Zealand.
“Our people are working urgently to identify the total number of customers and applicants affected and the type of personal information that has been stolen.
“We appreciate how frustrating this latest development will be for our customers and we unreservedly apologise.
“We will provide a further update once we have determined the full extent of the theft and we will contact all additional customers and applicants affected as soon as we can.
“Our focus remains firmly on containing this attack, progressing our forensic review of the actions taken by the attacker and restoring operational capability gradually over the coming days.”
The company said it now had a call centre for customers to contact.
Latitude Financial has stopped adding new customers from clients such as Apple, Harvey Norman, David Jones and JB Hi-Fi as it tries to contain the damage from hackers that are still active in its computer systems.
The attack is now the subject of an Australian Federal Police investigation.
Earlier this week, Latitude confirmed the hackers had stolen the personal details of at least 330,000 finance customers, with 96% of the theft relating to copies of driver’s licences or licence numbers, and 4% relating to passports.
The company said expected the number of victims to grow but Wednesday’s statement provided no update to Monday’s data.
The $1.01 low is an all-time low for the shares since they listed in April, 2021 at $2.60.
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The Mincor Resources board might want Andrew Forrest to boost his $1.40 a share, $760 million offer for the company, but will they have time to mount a convincing argument?
Wyloo’s bid was for $1.40 a share, the Mincor share price jumped to $1.48 on Tuesday and then they rose 3% again to $1.525 on Wednesday.
All the shares – 6 million – were done above the $1.40 offer price so someone is taking a punt that either Wyloo will lift its bid or that a counter offer will emerge (from BHP?).
The Mincor board might have more success if it can spook Forrest into offering more by lifting its planned on-market purchases.
The bid was made Tuesday via Forrest’s privately owned company Wyloo Metals in an on-market offer, meaning the offer is subject to an increase in price. Wyloo has also not declared the offer to be best and final.
Whoever is buying will have to mop up the shares above the $1.40 price to stop Wyloo from adding to its stake. If Wyloo doesn’t lift its price and there’s no counter offer, Forrest’s company will be swamped on-market in early May.
Wyloo’s offer is open until 5.00pm Perth time on May 8.
Wyloo lodged a substantial shareholding notice on Wednesday showing that it held just over 19.8% of Mincor’s shares. That makes Wyloo the major shareholder.
Mincor CEO officer Gabrielle Iwanow underlined her company’s strategic value in a world that continues to decarbonise.
“We are in a world where the adoption of electric vehicles and industrial decarbonisation continues to increase demand for high-grade nickel sulphides,” she said in a statement to the ASX
“The grade, location, metallurgy and exploration upside of Mincor’s Kambalda nickel sulphide assets mean that they are highly strategic for industry players operating both upstream and/or downstream in battery and critical minerals.”
“As Mincor approaches full ramp-up in mining, and continues to pursue its highly prospective exploration opportunities, we believe that this strategic value will continue to grow,” Iwanow said.
“Shareholders are advised to take no action in relation to the offer until they receive the Mincor directors’ formal recommendation,” the company said in a statement.
“Shareholders are reminded that as the offer is being made on-market, if they accept the offer (or sell on market) they will not benefit from any subsequent increase in the offer price or any higher price which may emerge.”
