Digging into ISR's mining deal just yields more questions

THE nagging problem with ISR Capital's proposed acquisition of a rare-earth mining asset is that the company's answers to numerous queries just keep raising even more questions.

That might shed some light on why the Singapore Exchange (SGX) has suspended the stock's trading on the grounds that "there are circumstances that prevent trading in the shares of this company on an informed basis".

ISR, an investment company that was the former broking arm of what used to be called Asiasons Capital, has since May 2016 been trying to complete an acquisition of a 60 per cent stake in Tantalum Holding, a rare-earth mining asset in Madagascar.

ISR plans to pay for Tantalum by issuing 400 million new shares, assigning a value of 10 Singapore cents to each of those shares for a deal valuation of S$40 million. Those shares would represent about 20 per cent of ISR's enlarged share capital, including the completion of an outstanding tranche of a related share placement, so shareholders must …