Wishbone moves to new phase of development with acquisition

Wishbone Gold transitioned into a new phase of development on Friday, announcing the purchase of Precious Metals International Group (PMI), including its wholly-owned subsidiary Black Sand FZE, in an all-share transaction.

Black Sand holds a gold, precious metals and gem trading licence to operate in the United Arab Emirates, the AIM-traded company said, adding that it also had agreements in place for importing gold from Colombia and Honduras with a pipeline of other supply deals from parts of South America.

The company said PMI Group made a nominal loss of £5,564 in the year ended 30 June 2015, and had gross assets of £454. It had not yet produced any revenue but was in the process of transferring trading relationships from its predecessor company, Multinational Commodities FZE.

"This moves Wishbone into a position where, rather than being just another exploration company with promising properties, it will now be in a position where it also has the support of cash flow from the trading operations in Dubai", said chairman and CEO Richard Poulden.

"I look forward to this being a new phase in Wishbone's development", he added.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Wishbone would make an initial payment of 240m ordinary shares of 0.1p each, with a further payment of an additional 240m shares once the annual profit after tax of PMI exceeded £1m.

This valued the initial consideration for the PMI Group at £648,000, based on the company's closing mid-market share price on 3 February of 0.27p per share.