Sundance certain on closing deal to Hanlong
Source: Agencies |
October 16, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AUSTRALIAN iron ore miner Sundance Resources is optimistic it will be able to conclude a sale of the company to China's Hanlong Group in a US$1.4 billion deal that has dragged on for a year, Sundance's chairman said yesterday.
Hanlong, which cut its offer by a fifth in August, was due to have given Sundance a letter from China Development Bank confirming funding for the deal by October 1, but holidays in China and a failure to reach an agreement on conditions for the financing have delayed the process.
"We are working on it positively and we expect a positive outcome," Sundance Chairman George Jones said.
Sundance had hoped to wrap up talks with Hanlong by last Friday, but Jones and another person familiar with the talks said the two sides were still talking and had yet to reach any conclusion.
The source, who did not want to be named as the talks are confidential, declined to say what the sticking points are.
Hanlong targeted Sundance for its Mbalam iron ore project on the border of Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, one of several iron ore projects that China eyed to supply its steel mills.
But CDB seemed reluctant to back the private company's deal, repeatedly delaying approval, even after Hanlong cut its offer price following a slide in iron ore prices.
Iron ore prices have since rebounded 32 percent from a three-year low of US$87 a ton hit in September.
Hanlong, which cut its offer by a fifth in August, was due to have given Sundance a letter from China Development Bank confirming funding for the deal by October 1, but holidays in China and a failure to reach an agreement on conditions for the financing have delayed the process.
"We are working on it positively and we expect a positive outcome," Sundance Chairman George Jones said.
Sundance had hoped to wrap up talks with Hanlong by last Friday, but Jones and another person familiar with the talks said the two sides were still talking and had yet to reach any conclusion.
The source, who did not want to be named as the talks are confidential, declined to say what the sticking points are.
Hanlong targeted Sundance for its Mbalam iron ore project on the border of Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, one of several iron ore projects that China eyed to supply its steel mills.
But CDB seemed reluctant to back the private company's deal, repeatedly delaying approval, even after Hanlong cut its offer price following a slide in iron ore prices.
Iron ore prices have since rebounded 32 percent from a three-year low of US$87 a ton hit in September.
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