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Gold/Mining/Energy : Mining News of Note -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (9354)	11/1/2007 10:13:52 AM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 192522

Secret Dealings Cloud Billionaire's Bid For Aussie Miner Vivian Wai-yin Kwok, 10.31.07, 7:34 PM ET forbes.com HONG KONG - A camera-shy Ukrainian billionaire and a mysterious 17.7% stake in Consolidated Minerals are making for a dramatic takeover battle for the Australian miner. Despite previous denials, Ukrainian billionaire Gennadiy Bogolyubov's 100%-owned Palmary Enterprises and interests who appear linked to him have been fingered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission as the owners of the 17.7% stake in Australia's biggest manganese miner. The discovery, which stunned Australia's financial circles, may have given the upper hand in the Consolidated takeover struggle to rival bidder Pallinghurst, which is led by former BHP Billiton (nyse: BHP - news - people ) Chief Executive Brian Gilbertson. Consolidated Minerals, which produces 10% of the world's high-grade manganese, has been an acquisition target since February. Recently, both Palmary and Pallinghurst have made unconditional cash offers of 4.50 Australian dollars ($4.15) a share to Consolidated shareholders, worth 1 billion Australian dollar ($923 million). Pallinghurst also offered an innovative "top-up" guarantee, promising that shareholders who accept its offer that it will pay out more to match any higher offer from Palmary in the future as well. Adding another layer of confusion to the takeover battle, the Australian Takeovers Panel ruled Wednesday that the "top-up" offer was unacceptable under the country's Corporations Act. Consolidated Minerals had already recommended that its shareholders accept Palmary's bid. Beyond the uncertainty regarding the top-up offer, the board of Consolidated Minerals believes that the combination of Consolidated Minerals and Palmary, which together would control 25%-30% of the global manganese market, would be of greater value to its shareholders. Palmary which already owned 14% of Consolidated Minerals, topping Pallinghurst's stake of around 7%, was expected to win the takeover fight as soon as Nov. 2, the closing date for Pallinghurst's offer. However, Consolidated Minerals now may bring Palmary before the Takeovers Panel, complaining about Palmary's failure to identify its part-ownership of the mystery holding. Consolidated Minerals said last week that unknown parties had built a 17.7% stake in the company over the past month. Seeking to trace their identities, it found through a share register check that the unidentified owners, registered in the name of ANZ Nominees, used at least four different custodians in Australia and Europe. Consolidated Minerals failed to discover the ultimate owners after several rounds of tracing notices and turned to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for help. Meanwhile, both Palmary and Pallinghurst denied any connection with the mystery stake. Greg Meyerowitz of Ernst & Young, Consolidated’s auditor, told reporters last week that it is common to see holdings being placed with bank custodians in Europe. What is unusual is not to be able to identify a beneficial owner after tracing a handful of notices. With the assistance of ASIC, the Australian securities regulator, Consolidated Minerals revealed Tuesday that the 17.7% stock holding was held by ING Bank Ukraine on behalf of five customers, among which 2.7 million shares are owned by Palmary. At least half of the remaining 15.2% is held by other Cyprus-registered companies linked to Bogolyubov's business partner, Igor Kolomoisky. The Ukrainian duo control Privat Group, a conglomerate with steel, energy, chemical, banking and media assets, and partially own the world's second-largest ferroalloy producer, Nikopol. The 45-year-old Bogolyubov, who ranks 799th on Forbes' global rich list with a fortune of $1.2 billion, rarely gives interview or appears in public. He may soon be forced into public view to explain to the Australian authority why he failed to disclose his company's interest in the problematic stock holding. Bogolyubov's company may have violated Australia's security regulations requiring notice of investments exceeding 5% in a company. It may also have breached the Foreign Investment Review Board requirement that overseas interests must ask for permission to own more than 15% of an Australian company. Additionally, if the shares it piled up last months were purchased above Palmary's bidding price, its offer might have to be reviewed by the Takeovers Panel.