Australian private equity firm EMR weighs copper mines IPO
Thursday, August 1, 2019 - 3:19:33 PM
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EMR’s chief executive Jason Chang said on Wednesday it is looking to package the Capricorn and Golden Grove mines in Australia, an 80% stake in the Lubambe mine in Zambia and its Redhill prospect in Chile into one entity that could potentially be listed.

    EMR bought the Capricorn mine in 2015 for A$15 million ($10.3 million) and brought it out of care and maintenance mode before restarting production

“We’ve been approached by a number of parties to think about it,” Chang told Reuters in an interview. “You’ve got strong margins today and a good growth story as well which collectively represent an interesting platform.”

He declined to put a valuation on the assets, for which EMR paid more than $300 million, but said they produce more than 100,000 tonnes a year of copper, and the goal is to double output. EMR doesn’t disclose the total value of its assets, but its two mining funds raised a total of $1.31 billion.

The company has begun sounding out institutional investors but does not plan to go ahead with a float this year. “It’s not a 2019 initiative,” Chang said.

Trade sales would also be an option, but would probably involve a few deals, the EMR CEO said.

EMR bought the Capricorn mine in 2015 for A$15 million ($10.3 million) and brought it out of care and maintenance mode before restarting production. It bought the stake in Lubambe for $97 million, and bought Golden Grove for $210 million.

A deal to buy BHP Group’s Cerro Colorado copper mine in Chile for up to $320 million collapsed at the end of last year after EMR did not meet financing conditions.

EMR’s biggest deal so far has been the joint $2.25 billion acquisition with Indonesia’s PT Adaro Energy Tbk of an 80% stake in the Kestrel coking coal mine from Rio Tinto last year.


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