FRIEDLAND’S IVANPLATS SELLS $305 MILLION IN TORONTO IP0

Ivanplats Ltd., a mining company founded by billionaire Robert Friedland, raised C$300.8 million ($304.7 million) in its initial public offering in Toronto after selling shares at the lower end of the marketed range.

Ivanplats sold 63.3 million shares for C$4.75 apiece yesterday, within its offered range of C$4.50 to C$5.40 each, according to sales documents. The stock will trade in Toronto under the ticker IVP.

Ivanplats is the largest Canadian mining IPO since Tahoe Resources Inc. (THO) raised C$348 million in its 2010 share sale. The company plans to use proceeds from the sale for exploration and development projects in Africa and to complete the purchase of the Kipushi copper-and-zinc mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo from companies associated with Dan Gertler, an Israeli mining investor, according to a Sept. 28 prospectus.

Ivanplats is studying development of the Kamoa copper deposit, also in Congo, and the reopening of the mothballed Kipushi project. It’s also evaluating the Platreef platinum discovery in South Africa.

The sale of Ivanplats shares comes more than five months after Friedland stepped down as chief executive officer of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. after losing control of the $6 billion Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia to Rio Tinto Group. (RIO)

Bank of Montreal (BMO) leads a group of bankers managing the IPO including Morgan Stanley, Macquarie Group Ltd. and Royal Bank of Canada, according to sales documents. The banks have the option to sell an additional 15 percent of the offering after the sale closes.

To contact the reporters on this story: Doug Alexander in Toronto at dalexander3@bloomberg.net; Jesse Riseborough in London at jriseborough@bloomberg.net; Christopher Donville in Vancouver at cjdonville@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net

Comments

Popular posts from this blog