By NZPA
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Tuesday 25th June 2002 |
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In spite of the company's withdrawal from operations at Milford Sound in April and recent failure to find a backer for a Lake Wakatipu proposal, Submarines' founder and managing director Phil Mladenov said the company was not being wound down.
"We'll retain the intellectual property rights ... our knowledge of operating submarines, resource consents, operating manuals, safety certification and ability to design and build submarines.
"If we can find a cornerstone backer we could purchase another submarine for Wakatipu," he said today.
The assets sales, including small craft and vehicles and the purpose-built barge at Milford Sound, is to be ratified at a shareholders' meeting in August, Dr Mladenov said.
At least $4.5 million has been raised in venture capital during the past two years, including $370,000 in a share float, $220,00 from underwriters, and loans, which include a $1.2 million overdraft from South Canterbury Finance.
Following Submarines' cessation from trading and withdrawal from its deep-dive Milford Sound operations on April 7, the submarine Antipodes went to Lake Wakatipu in early-May.
Recent diving surveys there revealed the 1873 steamer Ben Lomond was on the bottom of the lake, about 1km from Kingston wharf, and sonar scans had shown other objects, possibly wrecks, nearby.
The Antipodes was moved to a Dunedin engineering shop earlier this month.
Dr Mladenov said discussions had failed with a Queenstown tourism operator to become a cornerstone shareholder, but the company was pursuing other parties, including lease of the Antipodes to overseas clients.
Dr Mladenov said his two-year contract as managing director was up for renewal at the end of next month and he hoped to "carry on in some capacity".
Submarines' share prices reached a high of 52c high after listing on the stock exchange's high-risk new capital market in November 2000, but had fallen to 5c earlier this year and closed at 6c today.
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