LONDON (Alliance News) - Mineral & Financial Investments Ltd Wednesday reported a drop in net asset value in the first half of 2015, which it blamed on "weakness" from Glencore PLC, and said that it has paid the final loan repayment to Sharefunds Ltd.
The company said that its NAV in the six months to June 30 fell to 8.52 pence from 10.03p the year before, which it said was primarily due to continuing weakness from FTSE 100-listed Glencore, combined with a slight dropping off in the valuation of stake in the oil explorer Cap Energy.
"As far as outlook is concerned, we continue to favour zinc and copper, as well as gold, although the prospects of an eventual US rate rise do render a certain amount of uncertainty inevitable at this stage," Chief Investment Officer Alastair Ford said in a statement.
"We will retain our cautious approach to equity investing, and note with interest recently reported comments from private equity company EMR Capital that junior miners are increasingly viewing a public listing as more of a liability than an advantage, as share prices have tended to be "smashed" in recent years," he added.
"This may yet be another signal that the ongoing process of capitulation is well advanced, but we believe that until the wider issues of oversupply are addressed at the macro level, the opportunities for juniors to prosper on the equity markets will remain limited," Ford said.
Separately, Mineral & Financial said that it has paid the final loan repayment of GBP133,923 to Sharefunds Ltd. The total loan was GBP440,000, the majority of which was repaid before the end of 2014.
Shares in Mineral & Financial were trading down 6.8% at 5.83 pence Wednesday afternoon.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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Mineral & Fin (MAFL)