ASA Gold & Precious Metals Ltd. Proxy Filing

TL;DR

ASA Gold & Precious Metals Ltd. filed extra proxy docs, no fee. Shareholders, pay attention.

AI Summary

ASA Gold & Precious Metals Ltd. filed a Definitive Additional Materials proxy statement on April 24, 2024. This filing is related to the company's proxy materials and does not require a filing fee. The company was formerly known as ASA Ltd. and ASA Bermuda Ltd.

Why It Matters

This filing provides additional materials for ASA Gold & Precious Metals Ltd.'s proxy statement, which is crucial for shareholders to understand company proposals and exercise their voting rights.

Risk Assessment

Risk Level: low — This is a routine proxy filing and does not contain information that inherently increases risk for investors.

Key Players & Entities

• ASA Gold & Precious Metals Ltd. (company) — Registrant
• ASA Ltd. (company) — Former company name
• ASA Bermuda Ltd. (company) — Former company name
• 20240424 (date) — Filing date

FAQ

Filing Documents

• asa-defa14a_042424.htm (DEFA14A) — 34KB
• 0001999371-24-005110.txt ( ) — 35KB

From the Filing

DEFINITIVE PROXY SOLICITING MATERIALS UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549 SCHEDULE 14A PROXY STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 14(a) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 Filed by the Registrant Filed by a Party other than the Registrant Check the appropriate box: Preliminary Proxy Statement Confidential, for Use of the Commission Only (as permitted by Rule 14a-6(e)(2)) Definitive Proxy Statement Definitive Additional Materials Soliciting Material Pursuant to §240.14a-12 ASA Gold and Precious Metals Limited (Name of Person(s) Filing Proxy Statement, if other than the Registrant) Payment of Filing Fee (Check the appropriate box): No fee required. Fee computed on table in exhibit required by Item 25(b) per Exchange Act Rules 14a–6(i)(1) and 0–11. Fee paid previously with preliminary materials. Mining Stock Daily with Trevor Hall Trevor Hall: All right everybody, it is Monday afternoon. Continuing here on Mining Stock Daily, we've got an episode here, this is kind of going to be the first of its kind I've ever done here on MSD. It's a really interesting story. We're going to talk about the ASA Gold and Precious Metals Fund. It was established in 1958. It's a closed-end metals and mining fund registered in the US in the Securities Exchange Commission. It is managed by Merk Investments and so we're happy to welcome in Axel Merk from Merk Investments. Hi Axel, welcome in. Axel Merk: Great to be with you and to take it up-front, we're not pitching to sell any stock here, okay? Trevor Hall: No. Axel Merk: There's a bigger reason why we're talking. Trevor Hall: Yeah, yeah. There is a bigger reason here and in fact, we'll have you back on here in due time to talk about the actual market of gold and gold miners. But we really need to stick with this ASA Fund here. As I mentioned, it's one of the oldest funds. Let's maybe talk a little bit about what the fund invests in, and then we're going to talk a little bit about, it is currently under pressure from an activist firm based out of New York. So before we get there, Axel, tell us about the ASA Fund? Axel Merk: Sure, and let me give you some context. As you pointed out, founded in 1958 in South Africa of all places, because we are not old enough, but back then you couldn't invest in gold in the US. It was reincorporated in Bermuda in 2004. So it's the only closed-end fund that's actually what's called a passive foreign investment company, investing in the US, acting as a closed-end fund. And what that means is that it doesn't trade at net asset value like an ETF, but based on supply and demand, it trades at a discount. And because it trades at a discount, it tends to attract activist investors. Now why does anybody care on this program? It is because when Merk got the mandate from shareholders to manage this fund in 2019, we repositioned this fund from an index hogging fund, to one investing in small exploration and development companies. And as a result, ASA has become an integral part of the funding infrastructure of many of the small miners. We help, what we say is institutionalize many of these small mining companies, we invest in a whole range of them because obviously not all of them will make it. But it is, to our understanding, the only vehicle available to retail investors anyway, that them to participate in many of these funding deals. And ETF, as you may be aware, invests in the large-cap companies, right? And even GDXJ that has the word Junior in the name, those are not so junior, but we invest really at an early stage before many even of the mutual funds get involved in. And then anybody who knows this space might be aware that at least historically speaking, as companies make it up that chain into the indices, there is disproportionate value add-on. So we're trying to capture that additional value, obviously it's a highly speculative corner of the internet. The internet of the mining world, but it's a corner that we believe our investors appreciate. And an activist or the activist particularly who is targeting this has, to our understanding, no interest, certainly no understanding of the mining sector and is purely in there to try to "capture the discount." We can talk about that, but in our view, that's not even possible. What may happen if they take control of this is that it's going to be liquidated and disappear. That's our feel. Trevor Hall: All right. So there's a holistic reason why this fund is important. If you say it's one of the last remaining funds that actually is able to participate in some of these financings. Axel, give us a sense of performance of this fund over the last couple of years. I assume maybe it hasn't been great given the market that we've been in the last two years, but it definitely outperforms when the market's hot. Axel Merk: Yeah, so just to clarify, there are obviously some private investors, not as many a

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