TRS extends Mega takeover timetable, confirms US$7m raised

TRS Investments, the vehicle being used to list data storage and encryption company Mega, has announced a two-month extension to Oct. 31 to gain shareholder approval for the transaction.

In a statement to the NZX today, TRS confirmed it has raised the US$7 million it has previously said was necessary to ensure adequate funding during and after the listing for Mega, founded by renegade internet entrepreneur-turned-political party founder Kim Dotcom, who has sold down to a minority shareholding.

Mega is seeking to distance itself from Dotcom and expects to announce a new chief executive next week and had originally intended to complete the backdoor listing process on June 30, but extended the completion date to Aug. 31 in its last update to the market, on June 6.

Dotcom launched Mega in 2012, but no longer appears among the 17 shareholders listed in Companies Office records, although his estranged wife, Mona Dotcom and Wolf Dieter Ortmann are listed as owning 16.21 percent and 16.62 percent of the company respectively. Mona Dotcom was listed as owning 26 percent of Mega in March and Ortman 18 percent.

The single largest shareholder is Chinese immigrant business Shen Zhao Wu, who owns an 18.3 percent stake, according the Companies Office, and is also recorded by the Electoral Commission as having made a donation of $49,220.18 in January this year to the National Party through his company, Contue Jinwan.

Dotcom is targeting National and its leader, Prime Minister John Key, through the creation of the Internet Party, which looks likely to win at least two seats in the Sept 20 general election through its alliance with the Maori nationalist Mana Party, following the government's involvement in espionage and a raid on his home coordinated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in January last year.

The FBI is seeking Dotcom's extradition to face piracy charges relating to an earlier version of the Mega concept, Megaupload, which US movie and music producers allege was used to distribute copyrighted material illegally.

(BusinessDesk)