Uranium miner faces Chinese power play

THE corporate watchdog says a Chinese state-owned power business has to launch a $2.2 billion takeover for Australian uranium company Extract Resources if the Chinese group is winning in its bid for Extract's 43 per cent shareholder.

China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Uranium Resources Company launched a gracious invasion bid overnight on the London Stock Exchange offering £632 million ($A979 million) for Extract's main shareholder, Kalahari Minerals, which owns 43 per cent.

Under Australia's stock exchange rules CGNPC would then have to pursue the Kalahari offer with a bid for Extract because it would own additional than 20 per cent of its shares.Perth-based Extract said yesterday that CGNPC would be necessary to offer shareholders $8.65 a share, as it had established a ruling from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission that CGNPC had to make a bid under Australian regulations.

Chinese power group eyes uranium companies

A Chinese state-owned power company has set its sights on two uranium companies, making a £632m offer for London-listed Kalahari Minerals that if completed would trigger an offer for Australia-listed Extract Resources.China Guangdong Nuclear Power has bid 243.55p for Kalahari, an investor in a Namibian uranium project, representing a 16 per cent premium to the Aim-quoted group’s share price over the past six months.

Kalahari’s board recommended the latest offer from the Chinese group, which is trying to secure supplies of nuclear fuel as the country embarks on the world’s biggest reactor-building programme.Earlier this year, CGNPC tried to buy Kalahari but its 290p offer was disrupted by falling uranium markets after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan as well as an adverse ruling from the UK’s takeover panel.

Kalahari is an investment company whose sole asset is a 43 per cent stake in Extract, which is developing the Husab uranium project in Namibia.Australian securities laws require bidders to extend their offer to all shareholders if they buy a stake of 20 per cent or more in an Australian company.

Rio Tinto needs to move fast on Husab uranium mine

That is the final step in achieving all the essential permits, allowing Husab to move into the production phase. A clear path to developing a mine would also make Extract a additional inviting target. Indications are that China Guandong Nuclear Power Corp is set on a fresh bid for Kalahari Minerals, which would under Australian takeover rules trigger an present for its primary asset, 43 per cent-owned Extract.

Extract this week said it was conscious that CGNPC was talking to Namibia’s state-owned Epangelo Mining regarding buying a 10 per cent interest in Husab - something that CGNPC could only sign off on if it proscribed the mining project. Extract said plans for infrastructure such as power and water for Husab are well advanced.

"Discussions with potential debt financiers of the project are well under way, and the company continue to appraise offtake arrangements and opportunities for asset in the project by strategic partners," said Jonathan Leslie, chief executive and managing director of the Perth-based firm. Analysts have long optional Rio is a logical buyer of Extract, given its scale and the nearness of its operating mine to Husab..

Namibia clears Extract to build Husab uranium mine

Extract Resources has won a licence to enlarge its Husab uranium mine in Namibia, which could help push up he price a Chinese suitor can offer for the $2 billion Australia-based company in a widely likely buyout bid.State-owned China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp (CGNPC) is in talks to take over Extract's 43 percent shareholder, Kalahari Minerals, through Husab, the world's fourth-largest uranium deposit, seen as the key target.

Extract said on Wednesday it had established the terms that Namibia's Ministry of Mines and Energy had set for granting a licence for Husab, and the ministry would through the mining commissioner to issue a licence for the project."This marks the final step to achieve all of the permits that we need in order to initiate the development of the Husab Uranium Project," Extract Chief Executive Jonathan Leslie said in a statement.

Extract has been in talks with global miner Rio Tinto to link expansion of Husab with Rio's neighbouring Rossing uranium mine. Rio Tinto owns an 11 percent stake in Kalahari and a 14 percent stake in Extract.CGNPC, which first approach Kalahari in March just previous to 
Japan's Fukushima disaster, has until Dec. 8 to decide whether to go ahead with a for Kalahari or be forced to wait a additional six months before it can come back with another.

Kalahari Minerals: bid for uranium firm back on?

The takeover bid for Namibia-focused uranium firm Kalahari Minerals (LON:KAH) will quickly be back on, according to Ambrian Partners analyst Duncan Hughes, now with the purpose of three months have elapsed since the UK Takeover Panel forbade Chinese firm CGNPC-URC from falling its 290 pence per share offer for Kalahari to 270 pence per share.

On May 10 the Takeover Panel ruled so as to China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group – Uranium Resources Co , would not be permitted to announce an present for Kalahari for a price of less than 290 pence per share for three months at the time, Proactive Investors reported so as to Rio Tinto, which owns the neighbouring Rossing uranium mine, might also be a rival suitor for Kalahari.

Ambrian’s Hughes now believes that an offer of 270 pence per share might be imminent, “I think that something will contain to happen here,” he told Proactive Investors, “If not CGNPC, then it will be Rio” An important signal for a renewed takeover attempt might be CGNPC’s announcement this week that it is issuing approximately £283 million in short-term bonds, with a maturity of 366 days, on the interbank market, although it said that the proceeds will be worn to “replenish the firm’s working capital and repay loans”.