“The Times”: The company planned to raise $580 million at a company value of $2.3 billion.
“The Times” reports that Benny Steinmetz Group Resources Ltd. (BSGR) mining subsidiary Cunico Resources NV has scrapped its plan to hold $2.3 billion (£1.2 billion) IPO on the London Stock Exchange on the day that its shares were to begin trading. Cunico owns cobalt, nickel and copper assets in Kosovo, Macedonia and Zambia, blamed market volatility as it postponed the offering until further notice.
Cunico planned raise $580 million through the sale of a 25% stake in the business. The main market float would have valued the remaining shares held by BSGR. In a one-line statement, Cunico said that the float had been “postponed until further notice”.
“The Times” quotes a senior banker close to Cunico as saying, “The markets have just been horrific, everyone has cut their books. Cunico got a very warm reception from investors, we had a full roadshow, no meetings got cancelled.” He insisted that the decision had nothing to do with money-laundering allegations levelled at Mr Steinmetz’s fellow Cunico shareholders - three billionaire owners - Patokh Chodiev, Alidjan Ibragimov and Alexander Machkevitch - of the Kazakh mining company Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation. The three men are currently the subject of an continuing money-laundering investigation in Belgium.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 5, 2007
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