Minority owners to reject Kaz Minerals buyout price offer from Nova

By Andrei Skvarsky.

Moscow-based investment adviser CFC Management has confirmed that its clients who together own a stake of about 3.6 per cent in copper producer Kaz Minerals intend to vote against the acquisition price offered for the London-listed copper miner by investment consortium Nova Resources.

In following CFC advice, the owners of the 3.6 per cent stake argue that the per-share price of 640 British pence ($8.45) offered by Nova fails to reflect the fair value and growth potential of Kaz Minerals, which is headquartered in London and has offices in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Moscow, CFC said in a statement.

Nova, which is domiciled in Singapore, is indirectly controlled by Kaz Minerals’ chairman Oleg Novachuk and president and non-executive director Vladimir Kim, CFC said.  

“Nova has put into action a plan that takes advantage of the fact that Kaz Minerals’ share price has been under significant pressure in 2020 due to a number of factors, including the covid-19 pandemic and uncertainty around the US elections,” said CFC chief executive Ekaterina Chernova.

“The offer will prevent the current minority shareholders of Kaz Minerals from realising the full value of their investment and will not allow them to benefit from growing copper prices, launch of Aktogay-2 and development of Baimskaya,” she said.

Aktogay-2 is a copper mine in Kazakhstan and Baimskaya a copper project in Chukotka, Russia. Both are operated by Kaz Minerals.

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