OZ Minerals Ltd, the world’s second-largest zinc mining company, won a two-month extension to refinance debt after burning through A$1 billion (US$689 million) in cash in six months as metal prices plunged.
The company received approaches seeking a majority stake in the A$2.5 billion Prominent Hill copper and gold mine as it proceeds with assets sales to meet refinancing requirements, Melbourne-based OZ said today in a statement. It’s also seeking bridging finance to meet cash shortfalls at three of its projects and has agreed to give Societe Generale, one of its lenders, security over its biggest zinc mine.
OZ Minerals’ market value slumped by US$6.5 billion, or 79 percent, this half as metal prices plunged almost 60 percent. Credit markets worldwide have been squeezed after financial companies booked more than US$1 trillion in writedowns and credit-market losses since last year.
“It’s an ongoing concern that they even got themselves in this position given they had A$1 billion of cash at the end of June,” Marcus Droga, a private client adviser at Macquarie Equities Ltd, said by telephone from Sydney. “It would seem that asset sales are at minimum what needs to be done if the company has any chance of survival.”
OZ Minerals, created when Oxiana Ltd bought Zinifex Ltd in July, last traded at A$0.55 on Nov. 27, giving it a market value of A$1.7 billion. Its shares, which have been suspended since Nov. 27, may remain halted until Feb. 27 as it seeks to complete the refinancing.
“We have still a lot of work to do to achieve the refinancing,” chief executive officer Andrew Michelmore said in the statement.
The deadline to refinance the US$560 million of debt has been extended to Feb. 27, from the initial date of Monday.
The company has a loan of US$420 million provided by seven lenders including Bank of Scotland Plc, a unit of HBOS Plc; Australia & New Zealand Bank Group Ltd; Commonwealth Bank of Australia; BNP Paribas, and Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank AG, OZ Minerals said on Dec. 4. A second US$140 million loan is being refinanced by Monday, the company said. ANZ and RBC provided this loan.
A third loan with Societe Generale has a limit of A$250 million and is drawn down to A$85.8 million, OZ Minerals said on Dec. 10. Societe Generale will be granted security over former Zinifex assets in exchange for extending the loan. Zinifex owned the Century zinc mine as well as the Avebury nickel mine in Tasmania that was shut this month because of declining prices.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique