LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - UK authorities have granted thefounders of Kazakh mining company ENRC until June 24 tomake a buyout offer to minority investors, after the trio ofbillionaires sought more time to iron out technical details.
London-listed ENRC's independent board members said onMonday they had agreed to request a three-week extension to aprevious deadline of June 3 after written assurances from thebidders that they would be in a position to make a bid.
The directors also indicated they expected an improvement ona cash-and-share proposal that was made last month valuing ENRCat roughly $5 billion and was swiftly rejected by the board'sindependent committee.
"This request to the panel was made ... with the expectationthat any revised proposal will have regard to the independentcommittee's strong view that the initial proposal materiallyundervalued ENRC," said the chairman of the committee, MohsenKhalil.
The three billionaires are Alexander Machkevitch, AlijanIbragimov and Pathokh Chodiev. Along with the Kazakh government,a key shareholder in both ENRC and rival Kazakhmys, thesuitors hold around 54 percent of ENRC shares.
The initial, tentative offer from the bidding consortium hadincluded the Kazakh government's stake in Kazakhmys. That offercame to 175 pence in cash plus 0.231 of a Kazakhmys share, or atotal of just over 251 pence per ENRC share at Monday's close.
But ENRC's share price on Monday closed at just over 244pence, indicating little expectation of an increase, though theextension - and firmer hopes of an offer - did help the stockend the day 1.8 percent higher.
Sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters last weekthat it was unlikely the bidders would significantly increasethe current indicative proposal simply to secure the approval ofENRC's independent board members.
Separate sources with knowledge of the matter have saidKazakhmys, which became ENRC's top shareholder after a failedtakeover attempt and is under pressure to rid itself of theproblematic holding - approved of the structure of the currentoffer. It did, though, want a higher cash element, the sourcessaid.
Kazakhmys, which owns 26 percent of ENRC, said in astatement on Monday that it welcomed additional time fordiscussions to continue and to allow a formal proposal to be putto ENRC's shareholders.
