Former England cricketer Phil Edmonds and his sidekick Andrew Groves are hoping to recreate the stock market excitement that has surrounded their oil exploration company White Nile by bringing a new company to the London stock market in the coming weeks.
The flotation — their sixth exploration vehicle — will be a company with rights to a 3-billion ton iron and titanium deposit in South Africa.
The listing of Southern African Iron and Titanium (SAIT) could prove as explosive as the duo’s current vehicle, White Nile, whose shares were suspended just over a month ago after they had risen 13-fold in less than a week.
Groves said SAIT would be spun out of Central African Mining and Exploration Company, the duo’s first listed company. In recent months the price of iron ore has risen spectacularly, with some producers negotiating price rises of more than 70%.
A £10-million fund raising has already been completed and among the investors backing the project are hedge fund Rubicon and a private equity fund set up by the co-founder of Yahoo, Jerry Yang.
Edmonds and Groves are thought to have invested about £1-million in SAIT. The shares are expected to start trading at 10p.
After SAIT’s flotation, the duo will step back from the day-to-day running of White Nile, although they will remain on the board. Groves said an oil and gas consultancy had been appointed to find a chief executive for the firm.
Shares in White Nile, one of the most controversial companies to list since the dotcom boom of the late-90s, are set to resume trading this week following the completion of a deal with Nile Petroleum Corporation, Sudan’s state-owned oil company. Under the terms of the deal, Nile Petroleum will emerge with a 50% holding in White Nile. In return it will inject 60% of its holding in Block Ba – an oil field the size of Greece.
White Nile shares were suspended a month ago after rising from 10p to 137p in a matter of days as rumours swirled about the size of the deal in south Sudan.
It is still not clear whether White Nile has the rights to develop Block Ba although in an interview with the Guardian last week a leading member of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), the country’s government in waiting, said they had spilt blood for the area and would not give it up.
Groves claimed he and Edmonds had stolen SAIT from under the noses of several big companies, which are investing billions to increase their output of iron ore to meet China’s appetite for steel.
BHP Billiton recently announced plans to invest $2,7-billion in its iron ore operations in western Australia. It is thought that African Harvest will be SAIT’s Black Economic Empowerment partner in the deal.
Edmonds and Groves, whose father worked for the Central Intelligence Organisation in Rhodesia, have brought five companies to the market since they teamed up in 2002.
They are Central African Mining and Exploration, Central African Gold, Southern African Resources, Capricorn Resources and White Nile. They have raised more than £40-million for the five companies, which have a combined market value of about £400-million.
However, Groves says they cannot be accused of cashing in. Although their stakes in the five companies are worth around £29-million and £24-million respectively, they have only sold stock worth £2,8-million. They cannot sell any shares in White Nile for a year. – Guardian Unlimited Â