Lundins search for the big score, wherever that leads. Not giving up on Sudan
Financial Post, June 22
Drew Hasselback
VANCOUVER - The Lundin family takes great pride in sticking to its strategy of investing where the resources are, no matter what the political environment is.
The search for the big score has led the family to seek out controversial projects, including in war-torn Africa.
"We go where the big resources are," Lukas Lundin said in an interview yesterday after it was announced a friendly deal had been reached to sell Sweden-based Lundin Oil AB to Talisman Energy Inc. of Calgary. Both Talisman and Lundin have come under fire for their investments in Sudan, where a 18-year-old civil war has killed an estimated two million people.
"If there was more stuff in Canada, we'd do more here," said Lukas, one of two sons of Adolf Lundin, who founded the family's investment empire.
The Talisman deal should not be seen as a sign the Lundins are giving up on the Sudan, he said. "There's 250 million barrels there."
The Lundin family is separating the oil firm's assets in Sudan and Russia from the Talisman deal and folding them into a new company to be called Lundin Petroleum AB.
The Lundin investment empire was founded by Lukas' father, Adolf Lundin. The senior Lundin was born in Sweden in 1932 and is now based in Geneva. But he has also spent about 30 years financing a range of Vancouver-based oil and mining companies. Lukas was born in Switzerland, but has lived in Vancouver for the past 12 years.
The family has also invested in a copper development in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Civil war in that country forced a Lundin's company, Tenke Mining Corp., to declare force majeure and suspend payments to a development partner. Despite the set-back, the company is still looking for ways to advance the project.
Despite the swashbuckling nature of the family's investments, the Lundins prefer to keep a low profile. "We don't go out and call the media every five minutes," Lukas said.
Friends and business associates of the Lundins in Vancouver describe the family as creative and imaginative risk takers. They are also known for their self-depreciating wit. Adolf Lundin once joked that he gave no choice to his two sons, Lukas, born in 1958, and Ian, born in 1960. He said they could do whatever they wanted in life, provided one became a mining engineer and the other a petroleum engineer. The boys ignored the order and both studied petroleum engineering, an act of defiance the senior Lundin has always found amusing. When asked about the supposed act of defiance, Lukas said "I don't know why. It was an easier subject, I guess."
While their father may not have got his wish regarding his sons' educations, the boys have at least partitioned their business interests along oil and mining lines. Lukas settled in Canada, where he oversees a Vancouver office and the family's mining investments. Ian manages the oil business from an office in Stockholm.
dhasselback@van.nationalpost.com
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