China Minmetals Corp (中國五礦集團), the nation’s biggest trader of metals, agreed to buy Australia’s debt-laden OZ Minerals Ltd for A$2.6 billion (US$1.7 billion) in cash, gaining copper, zinc and gold projects in Asia.
Minmetals is offering US$0.825 for each share of OZ Minerals, a 50 percent premium to the last traded price on Nov. 27, the Melbourne-based company said yesterday in a statement. The offer is recommended by the board of OZ Minerals, the world’s second-largest zinc mining company, which has to refinance A$1.2 billion of debt by Feb. 27.
Minmetals joins Aluminum Corp of China (中國鋁業), which last week agreed to a US$19.5 billion investment in Rio Tinto Group, in securing supplies as plummeting prices and the global credit crisis slashes mine valuations. OZ Minerals’ market valuation has slumped about A$6 billion since it was formed in July.
“China is trying to underwrite its raw material needs and prevent further consolidation and a shift in pricing power away from them,” said Ric Ronge, who helps manage the equivalent of US$1 billion at Pengana Capital in Melbourne. “It is a great deal for OZ Minerals shareholders because it is either this or bust.”
Minmetals, a Fortune Global 500 company, agreed to repay all of OZ Minerals’ outstanding debt, the Australian company said. The transaction needs the approval of OZ Minerals’ bankers and the Australian government, it said.
“OZ Minerals has been working with its financiers and progressing various funding options to pay down debt and maximize value for shareholders while providing greater certainty to employees and suppliers,” chief executive officer Andrew Michelmore said in the statement. “This offer can resolve investor uncertainty.”
The company operates the Century and Rosebery zinc and lead mines in Australia, the Sepon copper and gold project in Laos and the Golden Grove copper, gold and zinc project in Western Australia state. It also owns the Prominent Hill copper and gold mine in South Australia and the Avebury nickel mine in Tasmania.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu said the strengthening of military facilities would help to maintain security in the Taiwan Strait Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, visiting a military base close to Taiwan, said plans to deploy missiles to the post would move forward as tensions smolder between Tokyo and Beijing. “The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Koizumi told reporters on Sunday as he wrapped up his first trip to the base on the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.” Former Japanese minister of defense Gen Nakatani in January said that Tokyo wanted to base Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni, but little progress
NO CHANGES: A Japanese spokesperson said that Tokyo remains consistent and open for dialogue, while Beijing has canceled diplomatic engagements A Japanese official blasted China’s claims that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has altered Japan’s position on a Taiwan crisis as “entirely baseless,” calling for more dialogue to stop ties between Asia’s top economies from spiraling. China vowed to take resolute self-defense against Japan if it “dared to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait” in a letter delivered Friday to the UN. “I’m aware of this letter,” said Maki Kobayashi, a senior Japanese government spokeswoman. “The claim our country has altered its position is entirely baseless,” she said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday. The Chinese Ministry
RSS