Vast receives draft term sheet for $10m loan from Swiss bank

29th April 2019 By: Tasneem Bulbulia - Senior Contributing Editor Online

Aim-listed Vast Resources has received a draft indicative term sheet containing the material indicative terms from a Swiss bank for loan financing of up to $10-million to be applied to the company’s Romanian projects, including the full repayment of the $4-million plus accrued interest in debt owed by the company under a prepayment agreement with Mercuria.

The term sheet remains subject to the negotiation of detailed terms, the completion of due diligence and definitive documentation.

Moreover, to maintain its relationship with Mercuria and in accordance with the warrant instrument that was issued as part security to Mercuria under the prepayment agreement, Vast will soon call a general meeting to propose a resolution to increase the authority for the directors to issue warrants to Mercuria as security for the outstanding instalment amounts now falling due to it by Vast.

At the same time, the company will be incorporating within the resolution that the terms of the authority granted be widened so as to enable that any warrants issued to or capable of being issued to Mercuria are also available as security for the Swiss bank or any other financier who replaces Mercuria.

“While we have been in discussions with possible financing institutions for some time, the restructuring of the balance sheet and the recent disposal of our Zimbabwe gold assets enables us to shift focus towards near term cash flow projects – Baita Plai and the Heritage Diamond Concession – that are under our more direct management and has opened up the opportunity to pursue more traditional lending media,” Vast CE Andrew Prelea commented in a statement on Monday.

He said he understood the frustration of shareholders over the course of the past few months, but highlighted that management has been “working hard” to enable the company to react as quickly as possible now that it has the possibility to obtain more traditional lending.