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Minmetals to revise OZ buy terms

By Jiang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-31 07:50

China Minmetals, the country's biggest metals trader, is revising its offer for Australia's OZ Minerals in order to secure fresh approval for its bid, which was rejected last week by the Australian government.

Minmetals' previous $1.7-billion proposal to take over the Australian miner was turned down by Australia's Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan who said the proposal cannot be approved if it includes a copper-gold mine close to a weapons-testing site.

Related readings:  Minmetals fails to cross the OZ hurdle  China Minmetals' revenue up 28% in 2008  Minmetals to buy OZ Minerals for $1.7b  Minmetals to put overseas minerals assets into OZ Minerals

"We are now adjusting our proposal for OZ Minerals," Minmetals' spokesman Jiao Jian yesterday told China Daily. He declined to elaborate on the details of the new plan, but said the company was in talks with OZ Minerals to seek a better solution.

"Discussions continued over the weekend with both companies with a view to finding a proposal that satisfied the Treasurer's requirements," Matthew Foran, a spokesman for the Melbourne-based OZ Minerals, was yesterday quoted by Bloomberg as saying.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday that Minmetals had revised its offer by excluding the Prominent Hill mine that prompted Australia to block the bid.

Minmetals proposed last month to offer 82.5 cents (a 50 percent premium) for each share of OZ Minerals, which owns copper, lead, zinc, gold and silver mines.

Swan last Friday rejected the bid saying OZ Minerals' Prominent Hill mining operations are situated in the Woomera Prohibited Area weapons testing range, which "makes a unique and sensitive contribution to Australia's national defense".

But he said the government was willing to consider alternative proposals relating to other assets and businesses.

RBC Capital Markets analysts predicted in a report that Minmetals may revise its offer, excluding Prominent Hill, to 36.5 cents a share.

Citigroup Inc estimated that the Prominent Hill project might be the most valuable mine of OZ Minerals. But selling all assets excluding Prominent Hill may also leave OZ with enough money to pay all loans and some remaining cash.

The Australian government is also evaluating other investment proposals by Chinese companies, including Aluminum Corporation of China's (Chinalco's) $19.5-billion investment in Rio Tinto Group.