Goldfields dawdles over capital raisings
Goldfields Money, Australia's newest bank, is taking its time in progressing a planned merger with the mortgage aggregator Finsure, pushing back the target date to the end of September.An update released via the ASX yesterday omits any guidance on plans to finalise a A$15.3 million capital raise, needed to complete a $20 million capital raise as a condition of the Finsure proposal.APRA upgraded Goldfields Money to "bank" status at the end of May. The company said on June 4 that the federal treasurer, Scott Morrison, had granted approval under the Financial Sector (Shareholdings) Act 1998 for the mooted Finsure transaction, which would see Finsure owning more than 50 per cent of Goldfields Money. The $20 million capital raise is a condition of Morrison's approval (on advice from APRA). Goldfields raised $4.7 million of this in a placement in April.Yesterday's update makes no reference to a timetable for the remaining capital raise.For now, documents are proposed to be mailed to shareholders in August regarding the scheme of arrangement needed to finalise the merger. A shareholder merger would be held in September.Goldfields Money also provided a trading update yesterday, projecting a profit over the year to June 2018 of between $300,000 and $600,000.