Message Mar 26 Fév 2013 06:40

ZCCM-IH may become FQM 2nd-biggest shareholder

First Quantum May See Zambia Rival BlackRock as Top Shareholder
By Matthew Hill - Feb 26, 2013 12:00 AM GMT+0200

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-2 ... older.html

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (FM) may see Zambia’s state-owned mining company become its second-biggest shareholder if it converts a stake in the continent’s largest copper operation into equity.
ZCCM Investment Holdings Plc (MLZAM) will “hopefully” decide this year, said Mukela Muyunda, chief executive officer of the company that’s 88 percent owned by the government of Africa’s largest copper producer.
If ZCCM decides to exchange its stake in the Kansanshi mine, located near the Democratic Republic of Congo border, for First Quantum shares, it could end up owning about 10 percent of the company, said George Topping, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus Canada Inc. in Toronto. BlackRock Inc. (BLK), the world’s biggest money manager, is First Quantum’s largest owner, with about 12 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“We would be happy if ZCCM becomes a shareholder in First Quantum as part of a step in transforming ZCCM into a sovereign fund,” John Gladston, a Zambia-based spokesman for First Quantum, said in an e-mail yesterday. “It is something First Quantum would be willing to accommodate.”
Zambia sold most of its mining industry to private investors between 1996 and 2001, maintaining stakes from 10 percent to 21 percent in companies, which it holds through ZCCM. That reversed a nationalization that took place in the 1970s.
ZCCM first said it was considering swapping its Kansanshi stake for shares in First Quantum in its strategic plan made public in December. The company sold its 2.28 percent stake in Equinox Minerals Ltd. to Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) for more than $160 million in 2011, having paid $30 million for the shares five years earlier.
Valuation Method
Topping bases his calculation of the shareholding ZCCM may get in First Quantum on a $5.4 billion valuation of the Kansanshi mine, he said. Kansanshi is worth about $6 billion, Patrick Jones, a London-based analyst with Nomura International Plc said in a Jan. 16 research report. First Quantum has a market value of C$9 billion ($8.8 billion).
ZCCM had previously planned to decide on converting its Kansanshi stake by the end of last year, Muyunda said by mobile phone Feb. 21. First Quantum shares gained 1 percent to C$19.10 at 10:33 a.m. in Toronto yesterday. ZCCM was unchanged at 2.63 euros on the NYSE Euronext exchange in Paris.
“When all the necessary consultations are concluded,” with Zambia’s finance ministry, ZCCM will make a decision, Muyunda said.
First Quantum’s hostile C$5.1 billion bid for Inmet Mining Corp. (IMN), which is developing the $6.2 billion Cobre Panama copper project, is due to expire Feb. 27. Shareholders of the target company can choose to receive cash, shares or both.
“I don’t see a major impact on the Inmet bid” from ZCCM’s decision to convert its Kansanshi stake, Topping said.
Companies including Barrick Gold Corp., Vedanta Resources Plc (VED) and Glencore International Plc (GLEN) also operate mines in the country. Zambia doubled royalty rates for metals used in industry including copper to 6 percent effective in April, abandoning an earlier move to introduce a windfall tax.
Ce que l'on conçoit bien, s'énonce clairement, Et les mots pour le dire arrivent aisément. BOILEAU