Times Today8 Feb 2020 10:50
Sirius Minerals has urged its shareholders to accept a £405 million takeover by Anglo American or risk losing their entire investments.
The North Yorkshire fertiliser mine developer will put the 5½p-a-share offer to investors at a meeting on March 3 in London and needs 75 per cent approval for the deal to proceed.
Many shareholders, including Sirius’s estimated 85,000 retail investors, face heavy losses under the takeover and have been hoping for a better offer or for the company to pursue an alternative debt financing package. However, Sirius said yesterday that the takeover by the FTSE 100 mining group was “the only viable way forward”.
Russell Scrimshaw, chairman of Sirius, said: “We continue to face a stark choice that in the event of this transaction being unsuccessful, it is likely that the business will need to be placed into administration, which would result in shareholders potentially losing all of their investment.”
Sirius has spent more than $1 billion to mine polyhalite, a fertiliser, from a mile beneath the North York Moors National Park. It plans to transport it through a 23-mile tunnel to Teesside for processing. The project is estimated to cost a further $3 billion to get to production and Sirius launched a review in September after efforts to raise the cash failed. It recommended the Anglo takeover last month. Sirius shares were flat at 5½p yesterday, valuing the company at £388 million.