Indophil shareholders okay Alsons buyout bid
DAVAO CITY (November 12) – By a vote of majority of its shareholders, the management of Indophil Resources NL was given the go ahead signal Wednesday to negotiate with Filipino conglomerate Alsons Corporation for the potential sale of its minority share at the Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI), owner of the Tampakan Copper and Gold Project.
In a breaking story posted at the Australian-based www.tradingmarkets.com, 65.3 per cent of Indophil shareholders reportedly voted in favor of the sale of its stake at the general assembly of shareholders Wednesday morning in Australia.
Majority SMI owner Xstrata Plc earlier opposed the sale but was overwhelmed by the shareholders.
Xstrata, which owns 62.5 per cent of SMI, is also a shareholder of Indophil Resources, with 19.9 per cent stake the Swiss-based mining firm earlier bought from Lions Selection.
Xstrata has vigorously campaigned against the sale and tried to gather enough proxies to block the deal.
If the deal pushes through, it will be a mighty comeback for Alsons which last year sold close to two per cent of its five per cent stake at SMI to Indophil following the Xstrata takeover of the Tampakan copper and gold project.
It will also allow Alsons to own 37.5 per cent of SMI.
Alson has yet to issue statement of the latest development at Indophil.
The Swiss-based mining giant, however, said it was disappointed with the approval of the sale.
“We now expect the Indophil board to provide its shareholders with the details of their proposed sale transaction as soon as possible,” said Xstrata Copper Chief Executive Charlie Sartain.
Xstrata opposed the sale of Indophil stakes at SMI on the grounds that details of the transaction were not fully disclosed.
But Indophil said Alsons wanted fully authority from the shareholders before it will disclose the fine prints of its bid.
In September, Alsons, supported by Hong Kong merchant bank Crosby Capital Ltd., offered to buy the Indophil block at SMI at AUS$1.28 per share.
At Wednesday’s trading, the value of Indophil was pegged at 79 Australian cents per share.
With ore deposits of over 12.8 million tons of 0.6 per cent copper and 15.2 million ounces of 0.2 grams per ton of gold, the Tampakan Copper and Gold Project is reportedly the biggest of its kind in Southeast Asia and the Western pacific region.
Its financial technical assistance agreement (FTAA) was first owned by Western Mining Corporation which abandoned the project in the late 90’s after facing strong opposition from environmentalists and the Catholic Church here.
WMC sold its rights to Indophil in 2002 which in turn sought financial backing from Xstrata.
In 2007, Xstrata exercised its option over the project and strengthened its position in the company by cornering 62.5 per cent of the SMI.
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