McLucas leaves Thistle

Fresh off announcing a restructuring deal that will see the company cancel its existing shares, Thistle Mining (THT-T) has lost its CEO.

William McLucas has stepped down from his role as the company’s chief executive officer and president under mutually agreed terms. Thistle’s finance director John Brown left the company in late November.

Meanwhile, the company also says that Toronto Stock Exchange is reviewing on an expedited basis its common shares, Series A Convertible Loan Notes and 10% Secured Convertible Loan Notes to see if they’re up to snuff for continued listing.

Under Thistle’s recently tabled restructuring plan, Bermuda-based private investment company Meridian Capital would be issued 70% of Thistle’s new equity; the holders of secured and unsecured convertible loan notes would own 25%; and the remaining 5% would be distributed among Thistle’s unsecured creditors and existing shareholders.

“The five per cent of new equity to be issued by Thistle to its affected unsecured creditors and its existing shareholders upon implementation will be allocated between them in a manner to be determined by Meridian Capital,” Thistle said in a prepared statement.

The number of new shares that make it into the hands of existing shareholders will depend on the number of claims by unsecured creditors.

Following the restructuring, Thistle will owe Meridian US$20 million.

Meridian acquired Thistle’s senior credit documents from Standard Bank London and the Standard Bank of South Africa in early November. The deal saw Standard Bank London withdraw its notice of default on debt repayment issued to Thistle (T.N.M., Nov. 26-Dec. 2/04).

Thistle says holders of a significant principal amount of its secured convertible loan notes support the plan. The first step in the restructuring will be applying to the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada) in Ontario early next year.