Indophil shareholders vote for Alsons Prime takeover

MANILA, Philippines - Shareholders of Australian miner Indophil Resources NL have voted in favor of the all-cash takeover offer of Alcantara-led Alsons Prime Investments Corp. (APIC). 

According to Indophil, more than 90 percent of shareholders who voted were in favor of the offer from Alsons to acquire all remaining issued shares in the company for A$30 apiece.

The offer represents a 43-percent premium over Indophil’s last closing price as of Sept. 22. This values the Australian mining firm at A$361 million.

Indophil said the second court hearing to approve the acquisition scheme is schedule on Jan. 13, 2015 at the Supreme Court of Victoria.

If the court grants an order approving the scheme, trading of Indophil shares on the Australian bourse would stop at the close of the business hours that day.

The acquisition scheme is expected to be implemented by the end of January 2015. 

APIC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Alsons Group, is a vehicle firm used for subscribing to Indophil shares in 2012.

Indophil is currently 30 percent owned by Filipino corporations. These include the Alsons group through funding by BDO Unibank, the SM group, San Miguel Corp. and Philex Mining Corp. APIC alone has a 19.99-percent stake in Indophil.

APIC’s acquisition of Indophil would hike its interest in the controversial $5.9-billion Tampakan copper-gold project in South Cotabato, which is believed to be one of the largest copper and gold prospects in the world.

Indophil has a 37.5-percent stake in Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI), the operator of the project while Glencore Xstrata Plc. holds the remaining 62.5-percent interest in the project.