Alsons to take over Australia’s Indophil PH

Rappler.com

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Alsons to take over Australia’s Indophil PH
Mindanao-based Alsons Group's stake in the Australian mining firm will also hike its interest in Sagittarius Mines, the concessionaire of the controversial Tampakan exploration project

MANILA, Philippines – Australia’s Supreme Court of Victoria favored a Mindanao-based diversified conglomerate’s bid to takeover Indophil Resources NL, a listed company with huge mining interests in the Philippines.

With the decision, the Alcantara family’s Alsons Group through Alsons Prime Investments Corporation (APIC) can now proceed acquiring Indophil’s remaining issued shares at AU$0.30  ($0.25*) apiece.

Australia’s publicly-listed Indophil’s 30% of equities are held by Filipino corporations, where APIC has a 19.99% stake.

The offering, including the court decision, was disclosed to the Australian Securities and Exchange on January 13.

Based on the agreement between both parties, the acquisition is set for implementation on Jan. 23, with payments to shareholders expected to be completed on Jan. 29.

Indophil said the price offer is a 43% premium over the listed company’s last closing price on September 22, 2014, putting the firms total equity value at AU$361 million ($296.67 million).

Expanding the business

By hiking their interest in the listed firm, the Alcantara family will also acquire 37.5% stake of Indophil in Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI), a Philippine incorporated company which was granted by the government the controversial Tampakan Copper-Gold project in South Cotabato. Glencore Xstrata Plc. holds 62.5% interest in the project.

SMI is still struggling to green light the Tampakan project due to permitting and agrarian reform issues.The Tampakan deposit contains an estimated 2.94 billion tons of mineral resource containing 15 million tons of copper and 18 million ounces of gold.

An inter-agency working group in the Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC) is working with SMI to resolve the challenges involved in the project.

The proposed buyout would shield Indophil shareholders from development risks concerning the Tampakan project, APIC said.

APIC is a unit of the diversified conglomerate Alsons Group of the Mindanao-based Alcantara family, which is engaged in energy and power businesses through its subsidiaries Northern Mindanao Power Corporation, Southern Philippines Power Corporation, and Western Mindanao Power Corporation.

All of its energy units are handled by its British Virgin Island-registered firm Alsons Power International Limited.

Apart from energy and power, it also has investments in agriculture, real estate, and wood.

The family also went into a joint venture with Indophil in another subsidiary called Alsons Consolidated Resources Mining Corporation. The firm has an exploration project in the Masara mining district in gold-rich Compostela Valley province in Davao. – Rappler.com


$1 = AU$1.22

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