Just a wee bit more news.
"We have made an offer to purchase all the outstanding
common shares of Peru Copper for C$6.6 per share in cash," Xiao
Yaqing, president of Chinalco told China Daily in an exclusive
interview.
"Concurrent with the announcement of our intention to make
the offer, we agreed to invest C$70 million (US$67 million) to
subscribe to a 9.9 per cent interest in Peru Copper at a price
of C$5.3 per share, " he said.
Peru Copper is listed on the Toronto stock market.
Chinalco's Peru Copper deal is part of its ongoing efforts
in overseas expansion, analysts say.
It already has aluminum-related projects in Australia,
Africa, Southeast Asia and South America, Xiao said.
Chinalco is now the world's fourth-largest aluminum
company.
Peru Copper said it would use the money to fund its
Toromocho project, a copper mine in Morococha in central
Peru.
The company is now also investing in bauxite mining projects
in countries such as Vietnam and Guinea. "Our project in
Vietnam includes bauxite mining and alumina production, with
the total investment of over US$1 billion," said Xiao.
"Now we are also doing exploration work for bauxite mine
reserves in Guinea. The project will have the capacity of over
1 billion tons," he added.
This March Chinalco signed an agreement with the government
of Queensland, Australia, to develop the Aurukun bauxite mining
project. The A$3 billion (US$2.6 billion) deal is by far the
largest investment deal by a Chinese company in Australia.
Overseas mining resources are important for Chinalco, said
Xiao. As China's national aluminum company, Chinalco's quick
expansion has pushed up its demand for the resources.
China now has become the world's largest aluminum products
maker and consumer, but China's bauxite mine resources only
account for 2 per cent of the world total.
"But the bauxite mine resources we have now bought overseas
is equal to one-third of China's total reserves," said Xiao.
"Our overseas projects have contributed a lot to the
development of the local economy," he said. "For instance, our
investment in Australia has helped improve the economy in the
region."
Despite a series of mergers and acquisitions in the world's
aluminum industry, Xiao said Chinalco now has no plans to buy
its global rivals.
In May, the world' largest aluminum company Alcoa of the US
said it agreed to buy the world's second-largest aluminum
company Alcan in Canada.
"Now is not the best time for us to acquire foreign
companies. We are making efforts to make our company more
multinational," he said. Instead, Chinalco chose to "buy many
domestic aluminum companies to increase its capacity".
"Now our sales focus more on the domestic market. We aim to
increase our overseas sales to one-third of the total in the
next 5 to 10 years."
Last year sales revenue of the company was around US$13
billion, a growth of more than 30 per cent year-on-year.
(XIC)
(C) 2007 Asia Pulse Pte Ltd
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