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* Anglo American completes coal spin-off
* Thungela Resources lists on JSE and LSM, missing market
expectations
* Short-seller says coal spin-off could be worthless
(Adds report and Thungela comment)
JOHANNESBURG, June 7 (Reuters) - South Africa's Thungela
Resources, newly spun-off from Anglo American,
is valued at roughly 3.4 billion rand ($253 million) after
listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Monday in a test
of investor appetite for coal miners.
Thermal coal miners have been struggling to find investor
favour amid growing climate concerns and a shift towards
sustainable investing, with global mining giants offloading such
assets as they transition out of the most polluting fossil
fuels.
The 136 million shares opened at 25.00 rand but by 1300 GMT
were down about 13% at 21.68.
The company has a secondary listing on the London Stock
Exchange.
The demerger gave ownership to existing owners with
investors receiving 1 Thungela share for every 10 Anglo American
shares they hold.
Before the listing, Liberum analysts estimated the market
capitalisation of between $440 million to $950 million.
"Institutional investors have been moving away from coal
mining in recent years. Investors now require many funds to
avoid polluting assets such as coal miners making it difficult
to find large cornerstone investors," said analyst John Meyer of
SP Angel.
"The performance of Thungela shares will give us a clue as
to how influential ESG is in terms of stock market investment,"
Meyer said.
Short-seller Boatman Capital Research said in a report that
Thungela's environmental liabilities had been "massively
under-estimated". Instead, it values the company at zero.
Boatman said environmental liabilities costs stood around
$1.36 billion, surpassing Thungela's current provisions of 6.45
billion rand ($33.46 million).
Thungela said the report was "flawed", saying the provision
was above the regulatory guidelines and that Boatman's
calculations were made on draft environmental management
regulations yet to be finalised in South Africa.
Anglo spun off its South African thermal coal mines joining
the world’s largest mining company BHP Group,
Australia's South32 and global miner Rio Tinto in taking
steps to go thermal coal free.
Liberum said the valuation would likely fall further as
passive investors sell out of the stock.
"People who own Anglo American itself and were given these
shares probably don't want them. I think over the next few weeks
there will be more selling pressure on the stock," said Greg
Davies, a trader at Cratos Capital.
Despite calls to exit thermal coal, countries such as China
and South Africa, which derive a majority of their power from
coal, have plans for more coal-fired power stations.
"Our conviction is that thermal coal remains part of the
energy mix for decades to come," Thungela CEO July Ndlovu said.
($1 = 13.4490 rand)
(Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; additional reporting Clara
Denina in London; editing by Jason Neely)
