MANILA, Philippines – The mining unit of Consunji-led DMCI Holdings Inc. has beefed up its stake in a London-based nickel miner for £24 million.
In a disclosure to the stock exchange, DMCI Holdings said its wholly-owned subsidiary DMCI Mining Corp. jacked up its shares in Toledo Mining Corp. Plc to 37.7 percent from 17 percent.
“The offer will comprise 50 pence in cash for each Toledo share, valuing the whole of Toledo’s existing issued share capital at approximately 24.9 million pounds,” DMCI said.
The purchase price represents a premium of 66 percent from 30 pence, the weighted average price for the past three months.
DMCI Mining bought the entire 20.7- percent share in Toledo held by investor Jason Cropper using its existing cash.
“As a result, DMCI Mining confirms that it will make a mandatory cash offer to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Toledo not already owned by DMCI Group,” the company said.
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“Our offer to the remaining Toledo shareholders represents an attractive opportunity to crystallise a significant premium to the prevailing market price in cash today,” said DMCI Mining president and CEO Isidro Consunji.
Toledo has strategic shares in four large nickel deposits in Palawan through joint venture agreements and owned properties.
Specifically, the London Stock Exchange-listed miner owns shares in the Berong and Ipilan nickel mines, and Long Point and Moorsom nickel properties.
For its fiscal year that ending March 2012, Toledo posted £200,000 in revenues and a net loss of £400.
DMCI Mining, for its part, is an ore and mineral mining and exploration firm in the Philippines. It holds an 18.6-percent stake in Berong Nickel Corp., which is 40 percent owned by Toledo.
The Berong mine in Palawan has a potential resource of 120 million metric tons (MT) containing 1.34 percent of nickel. Last year, the Berong mine produced 315,000 wet MT of nickel ore.
Its parent firm DMCI Holdings has a market capitalization of around $3.4 billion as of Feb. 15. DMCI Holdings is also into water distribution (Maynilad Water Services Inc.), construction (DM Consunji Inc.), coal mining and power generation (Semirara Mining Corp.), property (DMCI Homes) and infrastructure development.
In the nine months to September last year, profits of DMCI Holdings grew 12 percent to P7.9 billion from P7 billion a year earlier driven by its coal mining, real estate and water distribution units.
