Bill Express offered a slither of clarity to the market with an announcement to the ASX late today:
- The standstill agreement with financiers and key suppliers had been executed.
- Four Directors have resigned.
- The company’s CFO (who joined the company late last year) has been appointed a Director.
- The company is proceeding in its discussion with the Al Othman Group about restructuring and recapitalisation.
- The company is not proceeding with the previously announced APN/ETT transaction.
Coincidentally, ETT today sought suspension from the ASX as it seeks to resolve a commercial dispute with IPStar. Bill Express owns 43% of the shares in ETT.
I’d expect the discussions with Al Othman to proceed at speed given that they are already significant shareholders in Bill Express and licencees of its technology overseas.
Bill Express has made no statement about the reported Federal Police investigation into its affairs. Nor is there any update on its deal with Swish Group about managing its retail screen network or the advice the company has received that it would be a respondent in proposed Class Action by newsagents.
I would expect Bill Express to now seek to mend its relationship with newsagents. I’d expect the company to seek to do this through a third party. Work has been done on this over the last two months with several prospective “partners” since the end of the commercial agreement with the ANF.
The ANF confirmed today that it has 176 expressions of interest from newsagents to support its proposed legal action against Bill Express. My understanding is that more than double this number is supporting the more advanced Federal Court action originally commenced out of NSW.