Lifebrandz plans to acquire shares in Papua New Guinea gold mining company

LIFEBRANDZ on Tuesday said that it plans to acquire all the shares of Tolukuma Gold Mines, a company incorporated in Papua New Guinea that owns a non-operational gold mine there, for US$212 million. The purchase will be made by alloting new shares to the vendor.

Tolukuma also holds five exploration licences and has one exploration licence under application. The owner of Tolukuma is an investment holding company that is in turn wholly owned by Soh Sai Kiang, a co-founder of Catalist-listed Artivision Technologies. Mr Soh is also the director of capital markets (Singapore) at UOB Kay Hian, Lifebrandz said.

The company plans to raise up to US$20 million through convertible bonds, and grant a loan of up to US$17 million to Tolukuma for working capital purposes.

Lifebrandz separately said that it has terminated its agreement with Healthtrends Medical Investments to acquire ordinary shares in four target companies.