A group of Chinese state-owned companies is buying a Peruvian copper mine from Glencore Xstrata PLC for US$5.85 billion, adding to a wave of Chinese resource acquisitions abroad.
Glencore, based in Switzerland, said on Sunday it signed an agreement to sell its entire interest in the Las Bambas copper mine to a consortium led by MMG Ltd (五礦資源), a mining company controlled by state-owned China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Co (五礦有色金屬).
The other buyers are Guoxin International Investment Corp (國新國際投資) and Citic Metal Co (中信金屬), also state-controlled.
“The Las Bambas project is in line with the long-term strategy of Minmetals and MMG,” Minmetals president Zhou Zhongshu (周中樞) said in a statement. “[The acquisition] will further optimize the mining asset composition of Minmetals.”
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, pending approval by governments and shareholders, Minmetals said.
The statement also said that lenders including the China Development Bank (國家開發銀行), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (中國工商銀行) and Bank of China (中國銀行) will provide funding support for the takeover.
The agreement also requires the buyers to reimburse Glencore for the cost of developing the copper mine from the start of the year until the sale closes. In the first three months of the year, those costs were about US$400 million, according to Glencore’s statement.
The Peruvian purchase adds to a multibillion-dollar string of foreign acquisitions by China’s government-owned energy and mining companies, which hope to profit from future demand.
Earlier this month, Chinese state-owned grain giant COFCO Ltd (中國糧油集團) said, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals, that it would take a majority stake in the agricultural commodities subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Noble Group Ltd.
COFCO previously revealed a deal in late February to buy 51 percent of Netherlands-based Nidera BV, a trader of grains and soybeans among other agricultural commodities and active in Brazil and Argentina.
Last year, Chinese mining and energy acquisitions abroad totaled US$29.8 billion, according to Dealogic, a financial information firm. They included China National Petroleum Corp’s (中國石油天然氣) US$4.2 billion purchase of an interest in an oilfield in Mozambique from Italy’s ENI SpA.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us
RSS