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Posts Tagged 'MRRT'
Mining Week 36/'12: Anglo and Codelco compromise; Glenstrata in doubt
August 31, 2012 businessmining	Comments off
Top Stories of the Week:
Anglo American and Codelco reach a deal on the Sur Complex
Anglo agreed to sell a minority stake of its Chilean Sur Projects to Codelco at a significant discount, but the company receives over $2bn more than Codelco would have to pay according to its disputed buy-in option.
Codelco partners with Mitsui in a JV that receives a 24.5% stake of the project.
Codelco's union representative voted against the new deal, announcing action to improve the terms for the Chilean company.
Sources: Financial Times 1; Wall Street Journal; Financial Times 2; Financial Times 3
Norwegian fund joins Qatar in opposition of Glenstrata merger
Analysts speculate about a potential compromise on the price paid for Xstrata by Glencore: Glencore offers 2.8 shares per share of Xstrata, but Qatar's sovereign wealth fund earlier indicated it would require a 3.25 ratio. In a new statement in which the fund says it will vote against the proposed deal the 3.25x ratio was not reiterated.
Norges Bank Investment Management has also build up a significant stake in Xstrata. The Qatari fund could be able to block the merger alone (depending on its current ownership level) or with the help of a few other investors.
Sources: Financial Times 1; Wall Street Journal; Financial Times 2
Australian politicians struggle with mining 'boom' approach
Iron benchmark ore prices continue to decrease, loosing more than 50% vs. the peak around $200/wmt early in 2011 and 36% year to date. The profits of the iron ore dependent miners has followed this trend.
Royalties and income taxes on mining firms are an important pillar of the Australian budget, built for a large part around the newly introduced Mineral Resource Rent Tax. Several Australian politicians have expressed their concern with the perspective of a significant reduction of tax income. The MRRT alone was planned to bring in over $6bn of government income, but because of the progressive nature of the tax the income will be very small at current price levels.
Sources: Wall Street Journal; Financial Times; text
Trends & Implications:
Xstrata's shareholder vote on the proposed merger with Glencore is anything but a done deal. Several large shareholders want Glencore to sweeten the offer of 2.8 shares of Glencore per share of Xstrata. However, the actual share ratio has been hovering around 2.65-2.70 since mid May, indicating that a significant share of the market expects the ratio to drop if the deal does not go on. Xstrata has higher value for Glencore than for current shareholders, but it is unlikely the company will want to pay more than the proposed 2.8x ratio and give all of that additional value to Xstrata's current shareholders.
2012 | Wilfred Visser | thebusinessofmining.com
Categories: Mining Week Tags: acquisition, Anglo American, Australia, business, Chile, Codelco, deficit, exchange ratio, Glencore, GlenStrata, iron ore, merger, mining, mining business, Mitsui, MRRT, Sur, tax income, Xstrata
Mining Week 12/'12: Australian tax passed, but BHP warns for demand
March 24, 2012 businessmining	Comments off
Australian Minerals Resource Rent Tax finally approved
The tax on high profits for Australian iron ore and coal projects which led to a change of premier in the country was finally passed by the parliament last week.
Officials from the mineral rich states of Western Australia and Queensland argued that the taxation should be a state arrangement rather than a federal law
Many critics expect the MRRT not to bring in the amount of cash the governments expect because of tax management by the largest players and potentially because of lower profit margins as a result of increasing costs.
Sources: Economist; Wall Street Journal
Mixed signals on China's iron ore demand
In the same week BHP warned that China's demand for iron ore is slowing down and the Australian state of Western Australia increased its outlook for exports.
BHP still is bullish about long term demand in China and does not scale down its investment programs. However, in the short term the company ''gives caution" demand might drive down iron ore price to $120/t
Sources: Wall Street Journal; BHP Billiton presentation; Financial Times
Power struggle for Rusal amidst debt issues
A new chairman was appointed to the board of Rusal and his predecessor, mr. Vekselberg, made public that the company was struggling with large debt problems and said it had management problems.
Rusal announced that it would write down a large part of the value of its Norilsk stake in an attempt to restructure its balance sheet.
Sources: Financial Times 1; Financial Times 2; Lex Video
Various of the large Russian miners are trying to diversify both in products and geographic presence. Key problems the companies appear to encounter are a clash of management and corporate governance styles between Russia and western investors and large debt burdens in combination with the need to reinvest most or all of free cash flow to modernize or expand.
Australia basically kicked off a wave of mining taxation overhauls in countries around the world. Given the very large output of coal and iron ore operations in the country the implementation of the MRRT will be the most impactful for the overall profitability of the industry. As many of the new tax regimes are based on progressive operating margin scales and operating margins of most companies are decreasing because of cost inflation, it is questionable if the new regimes will result in the income countries are hoping for in the short term.
©2012 | Wilfred Visser | thebusinessofmining.com
Categories: Mining Week Tags: Australia, BHP Billiton, business, coal, iron ore, mining, mining business, MRRT, Norilsk, Queensland, Rudd, Rusal, Russia, tax, Vekselberg, Western Australia
Mining Week 48/'11: Change in Brazil & Tax in Australia
November 27, 2011 businessmining	Comments off
Australia's Mineral Resource Rent Tax approved by lower house
The new 30% tax on profits above A$75mln for coal and iron ore projects has been approved by the lower house and is now only to be approved by the senate. The tax has been debated for approx. 2 years. Initially proposed by Kevin Rudd, the former premier, the regime has been tuned down and now includes arrangements to stimulate and protect investments.
Sources: Wall Street Journal; Financial Times; Australian Treasury MRRT explanation
Vale appoints new CFO: Tito Martins
Tito Martins, Vale's head of base metals, has been appointed as the new CFO of the company. Several executive management positions changed in the first major move of the new CEO to strengthen control. Mr. Martins was involved in the acquisition of Inco, which turned into Vale's base metals division which was led by Mr. Ferreira.
The change of top management of Vale was started by appointing Murilo Ferreira CEO in the place of Roger Agnelli after the presidential elections in Brazil. One of the reasons of conflict between government and Vale was the building of a fleet of iron ore carriers in Asia rather than domestically. This fleet was in the news this week as Chinese ports are refusing to host them, trying to protect the interest of incumbent shipping lines.
Sources: Vale's press release; Financial Times
Rio Tinto bids for uranium explorer
Rio Tinto convinced the board of Hathor Exploration, a Canadian uranium explorer, with a C$654mln bid. The bid is approx. 5% higher than rival Cameco's bid. Hathor owns rights to various uranium deposits in the Athabasca basin.
Sources: Financial Times; Rio Tinto press release; Hathor Exploration board recommendation
The changes at Vale should prepare the company for further changes to the business environment for the major iron ore producers. The introduction of the MRRT mainly hits Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, but all three majors are figuring out how to react to increasing uncertainty about demand. Asian steel producers are pushing for adaptations to the recently changed pricing mechanisms, moving the pricing system to shorter term contracts. At the same time various Asian players are starting to buy iron ore assets in the price range of hundreds of millions to several billions of dollars; threatening the dominance of incumbents.
Rio Tinto is trying to buy into uranium at a moment where industry shares are depressed because of the nuclear disaster in Japan last year. The bid for Hathor signals Rio's management still believes in the potential of the industry. The company says it accounts for 16% of the world's uranium production from mines in Australia and Namibia.
Categories: Mining Week Tags: Athabasca, Australia, business, Cameco, carrier, CFO, Fukushima, Hathor, Japan, mining, mining business, MRRT, pricing, Rio Tinto, tax, Tito Martins, uranium, Vale
Fresh victory for miners on Australian tax
March 25, 2011 businessmining	1 comment
"Canberra will refund any increase in royalties that cash-rich mining companies are forced to pay Australian states, amid concerns that governments around the world may not be receiving a fair share of their mineral wealth.
Julia Gillard, Australia's prime minister, last year tried to end a dispute with mining multinationals, including Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton by watering down a proposed "super profits tax". But the issue of who would pay higher royalties in states such as Western Australia, where much of the world's iron ore is mined, remained a bone of contention. The minority Labor government said on Thursday that it had agreed to all 98 recommendations from a policy review group led by Don Argus, the former chairman of BHP . These included a provision that miners should receive credits for "current and future royalties" charged by state governments."
Source: Financial Times, March 24 2011
The minority government needs to secure enough votes for a tax to get it approved. The (Green) Liberal-National coalition has announced it might vote against the proposal, as it is favoring a higher tax rate.
The new tax is a watered down version of the super profits tax proposed by former prime minister Kevin Rudd. The new tax, which could increase tax revenues for Australia by several billion dollars, should become effective next year.
By ensuring that miners are not hurt by royalty increases from local and regional governments the policy review group tries to reduce uncertainty for Australia's miners. Being able to accurately predict royalty and tax cash flows is of great importance to investment planning.
Colin Barnett, the premier of Western Australia could play an important role in securing support for the MRRT. Barnett does not agree with federal influence on state royalty systems, arguing that the resources are owned by the state (of Western Australia) and that too much money is going from his state to other parts of Australia. He is campaigning to stop the reform.
Categories: Market change Tags: Angus, Australia, business, coal, Gillard, iron ore, mining, mining business, MRRT, region, royalty, Rudd, tax
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