Shareholder calls Rio Tinto offer to take Turquoise Hill private too low
BNN Bloomberg
The largest minority shareholder in Turquoise Hill says an offer by Rio Tinto to take the miner private is too low.
The largest minority shareholder in Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. says an offer by Rio Tinto International Holdings Ltd. to take the miner private is too low.
Rio Tinto, which already owns a 51 per cent stake in the company, has offered $34 per share for the roughly 99 million shares held by Turquoise Hill's minority shareholders.
However, in a letter to Turquoise Hill's independent directors, Pentwater Capital Management LP says Rio Tinto is trying to buy the take at a fraction of the value of what the shares are worth.
Pentwater, which holds a nearly 10 per cent stake in Turquoise Hill, says if Rio Tinto believes its bid is a compelling offer, it would be pleased to buy part of its stake in the company for that price.
The opposition to the deal follows a letter from fellow shareholder SailingStone Capital Partners, which was also critical of the Rio Tinto offer.
Turquoise Hill owns a 66 per cent stake in the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine in Mongolia. Erdenes Oyu Tolgoi LLC, a Mongolian state-owned entity, holds the remaining 34 per cent interest.
Manufacturing sales fell 2.1 per cent to $69.9 billion in March as sales of petroleum and coal products and motor vehicles fell, Statistics Canada said Wednesday. Olivia Cross, North America economist at Capital Economics, said the result was not as bad as the early estimate that pointed to a drop of 2.8 per cent, but it still means sales fell 0.9 per cent over the first quarter. "The weakness of manufacturing sales in March suggests that the economy lost momentum heading into the second quarter, matching the message from the earlier preliminary estimates for retail sales and GDP," Cross said in a note. Last month, Statistics Canada released a pair of preliminary estimates for real gross domestic product and retail sales for March that both suggested the data points were essentially unchanged for the month. Driving the manufacturing sales numbers for March was an 8.0 per cent drop in sales of petroleum and coal products to $8.0 billion as volumes fell 6.1 per cent. Sales of motor vehicles fell 7.9 per cent to $4.6 billion in March as sales of motor vehicle parts lost 2.8 per cent. Statistics Canada says retoolings at several major auto assembly plants in Ontario continued to impact auto manufacturing and contributed to the lower sales for the month. Meanwhile, sales of machinery rose 2.9 per cent to $4.5 billion in March. The increase came as sales in all seven machinery industry groups climbed higher, led by commercial and service industry machinery which gained 41.6 per cent. Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 2.0 per cent in March. Total inventories for the month were largely unchanged at $121.0 billion in March, while unfilled orders fell 0.8 per cent to $104.8 billion. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 15, 2024.