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http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=3&ContentID=114025
Investors fail to deliver for Costarella
<!-- <div id="article">--> <!----> 19th December 2008, 8:00 WST <!---->
Just 21 months after its listing, Ray Costarella’s Costarella Design has conceded Australian investors have little appetite for fashion, announcing plans to privatise through a deal with a Singaporean liver transplant practice.
Under an agreement revealed yesterday, Singapore’s Asian Centre for Liver Diseases and Transplantation (ACLT) will be backdoor-listed through Costarella in a share swap valuing ACLT at $50 million and leaving existing shareholders with barely 9 per cent of the revamped group.
Founded by surgeon Kai Chah Tan, ACLT is described as one of South-East Asia’s biggest liver treatment centres, having performed more than 100 transplants and treating 7000 patients a year.
Costarella raised $2.2 million with the aim of transforming the WA fashion label into an international brand and launching a line of luxury goods, including handbags, shoes, skin care and fragrances. Mr Costarella retained a 40 per cent stake.
However, the stock has never traded at its issue price of 20¢, falling to as low as 1.6¢ in October. The shares were last exchanged for 3¢.
Director Sam Di Giacomo said the company had struggled to attract investment support and the downturn had only exacerbated its difficulties.
“In hindsight, there was no investment appetite for fashion,” Mr Di Giacomo said. “There is that support in the US, Europe too.”
Under the ACLT deal, shareholders will be asked to approve a share consolidation, return the fashion business to its backers and raise an estimated $5 million. SEAN SMITH
Investors fail to deliver for Costarella
<!-- <div id="article">--> <!----> 19th December 2008, 8:00 WST <!---->
Just 21 months after its listing, Ray Costarella’s Costarella Design has conceded Australian investors have little appetite for fashion, announcing plans to privatise through a deal with a Singaporean liver transplant practice.
Under an agreement revealed yesterday, Singapore’s Asian Centre for Liver Diseases and Transplantation (ACLT) will be backdoor-listed through Costarella in a share swap valuing ACLT at $50 million and leaving existing shareholders with barely 9 per cent of the revamped group.
Founded by surgeon Kai Chah Tan, ACLT is described as one of South-East Asia’s biggest liver treatment centres, having performed more than 100 transplants and treating 7000 patients a year.
Costarella raised $2.2 million with the aim of transforming the WA fashion label into an international brand and launching a line of luxury goods, including handbags, shoes, skin care and fragrances. Mr Costarella retained a 40 per cent stake.
However, the stock has never traded at its issue price of 20¢, falling to as low as 1.6¢ in October. The shares were last exchanged for 3¢.
Director Sam Di Giacomo said the company had struggled to attract investment support and the downturn had only exacerbated its difficulties.
“In hindsight, there was no investment appetite for fashion,” Mr Di Giacomo said. “There is that support in the US, Europe too.”
Under the ACLT deal, shareholders will be asked to approve a share consolidation, return the fashion business to its backers and raise an estimated $5 million. SEAN SMITH
