Times Today18 Feb 2020 07:28
The chief executive of Sirius Minerals has broken his silence over its recommended £405 million takeover by Anglo American, telling shareholders that he shares their disappointment over the price.
Chris Fraser urged angry investors threatening to vote against the deal to seek professional advice and reiterated the recommendation by the board of the North Yorkshire fertiliser miner to accept the 5.5p-a-share deal.
“I completely understand that shareholders will be disappointed — as a shareholder, so am I,” he told The Yorkshire Post. He acknowledged that some investors had said that they wanted “to vote against the acquisition to punish me and my team”.
However Mr Fraser, 45, who owns just under 2 per cent of the company, echoed the Sirius board’s warning that if the takeover was not completed, there was “a high probability that Sirius will go into administration . . . In turn, that is likely to mean shareholders would lose all of their investment.”
Sirius has spent more than $1 billion developing the Woodsmith mine near Whitby into the world’s largest mine of polyhalite, a type of fertiliser. It plans to mine from a mile beneath the North York Moors National Park and then to transport the polyhalite for processing through a 23-mile tunnel to Teesside.
It recommended the takeover by Anglo American after failing to secure the funding it needs for the next stage of the project, which is estimated to cost $3 billion to complete.
Sirius has a large retail investor base previously estimated at about 85,000 shareholders, including many that live close to the project.
Sirius and Anglo are trying to shore up support for the deal before a vote on March 3, which requires 75 per cent approval to pass. Anglo also has enlisted Georgeson, a shareholder advice service, to call investors. The takeover would crystallise heavy losses for many shareholders; Sirius shares were trading as high as 37p less than two years ago and many bought people in via placings at 15p or 20p.
Some shareholders posting on online forums have said that they intend to vote against the deal in the hopes of securing an alternative fundraising deal on more favourable terms.
Mr Fraser told The Yorkshire Post that if work on the project stopped, it would be “devastating for the people that work on sites from Teesside to Scarborough . . . As disappointing as the price is, the acquisition by Anglo is the only pathway forward that safeguards the project.”
Mr Fraser has come under personal attack from some individual shareholders on online forums, some of whom feel aggrieved that he and other executives will transfer to Anglo American if the deal goes through.
Shares in Sirius fell by ¼p, or 4.7 per cent, to 5p last night.
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