(Adds minority shareholder's view)
March 26 (Reuters) - A consortium aiming to take copper
miner KAZ Minerals private has increased its bid by 9%
to 4.02 billion pounds ($5.5 billion) after minority
shareholders indicated they would reject earlier proposals for
being too low.
Nova Resources, led by KAZ Minerals chairman Oleg Novachuk
and Kazakh billionaire Vladimir Kim, has offered shareholders
850 pence in cash per share, up from an earlier offer of 780
pence, it said in a statement.
Including a special dividend, the offer - which Nova said
was its final bid - totals 869 pence per share.
KAZ's shares were up about 3% to 863.6 pence at 1026 GMT.
This is the second increase to the original October offer by
Nova, after minority shareholders including RWC Partners and
Russia-based CFC Management, indicated they would vote against
the proposals because of a strong rise in copper prices.
RWC Partners said it supported the final offer as it "is
substantially higher than the 640p offered at the start of this
protracted process".
Under UK takeover rules, Nova had until today to revise the
bid. If accepted, the offer will put an end to KAZ's 16-year
listing on the London stock market.
Nova said on Friday a high-risk strategy required a number
of years of heavy capital investment with curtailed prospects
for a reliable dividend stream.
KAZ bought the Baimskaya mine, a big copper deposit in
eastern Russia, in 2018 from a group of investors including
Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich for around $1
billion.
The company's share price plunged immediately after the
announcement of this acquisition, hit by investor concern over
Russian political risk, even though the mine is regarded as one
of the world's most significant underdeveloped copper prospects.
Shareholders have until April 9 to accept the offer.
($1 = 0.7274 pounds)
(Reporting by Clara Denina in London and Chris Thomas in
Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Mark Potter)
