OZ Minerals-Minmetal deal gets final Chinese nod

04 June 2009

OZ Minerals announced that it has obtained all the necessary approvals from the Australian and Chinese authorities for the sale of a major portion of its assets to Minmetals at a cost of $1,206 million, apart from the decisive vote of OZ Minerals shareholders at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM).

The announcement came after receiving the final nod from the Chinese government including, Ministry of Commerce, and the State Administration for Foreign Exchange. Two weeks ago, the deal was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). (See: Minmetals' $1.2 billion deal with OZ Minerals gets NDRC nod)

OZ Minerals chairman Barry Cusack said, ''With all other conditions precedent now met, we now look forward to putting this vote to shareholders at our AGM next week''.

The company announced that it will hold the AGM on 11 June in Melbourne.

''The Minmetals offer provides a complete solution to our refinancing issues in so far as it is timely and allows OZ Minerals to repay all of its debt. It also sees the company retain the Prominent Hill operation and exploration projects and following the transaction will have approximately A$500 million cash with which to continue to develop Prominent Hill and pursue other activities,'' Cusak said.

''The Board continues to unanimously recommend the offer from Minmetals," the chairman added.