ENRC was present at Grand Karavia’s Katanga IPAD 2012 (MNM Picture)
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) – Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. offered $550 million to buy out Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler from a company holding interests in copper and cobalt licenses in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The cash bid is for 49.5 percent of Camrose Resources Ltd., which is indirectly owned by a Gertler family trust, London-based ENRC said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The offer, which also is for minority shareholdings in some Camrose units, is expected to close by Dec. 28, ENRC said.
ENRC, which produces ferroalloys and iron ore as well as copper, bought its 50.5 percent stake in Camrose from Gertler, 38, for $175 million in 2010. ENRC said the latest deal will simplify its structure and create cost savings across its
operations in the region. The Camrose assets produce about 100,000 metric tons of copper annually and estimated 2013 capital expenditure is about $300 million, ENRC said.
“This transaction is an integral part of the corporate governance and company structure optimization which I set as a key priority when I assumed chairmanship,” ENRC Chairman Mehmet Dalman said in the statement.
Camrose lost $14.8 million in the six months through June 30 and had gross assets of $326 million at that date, ENRC said.
Camrose holds about 64 percent of Vancouver-based mining company Africo Resources Ltd, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
ENRC’s board was advised by Morgan Stanley. Its independent directors were advised by Lazard Ltd. The shares fell 0.1 percent to 283 pence at the close in London. ENRC’s lost 55 percent of its market value this year.
(ENRC will hold a conference call at 9:30 a.m. London time
on Dec. 10. Dial +44-20-3140-8286, pass code 8407438.)
