12 Jan 2012 15:32
12 January 2012
Woodburne Square AG plc
(AIM: WSAG)
Strategic Review and Investment
Further to the announcement on 14 October 2011, the new Board of Woodburne Square AG plc ('Woodburne' or the 'Company') has now completed a major review of the strategic position and business model of the Company. The conclusion of this review is that the Company's previous business model of being a purely precious metals focused investment company is unsuited to present market conditions, and that Woodburne should widen its investing policy as a broader natural resources focused investing company. In all other respects its current investing policy will remain the same.
While still maintaining its objective of strategic investments in natural resource companies, the Directors of Woodburne will now seek to expand the Company's focus beyond precious metals into other strategic minerals. Going forward, the Directors of Woodburne expect to assist its existing portfolio companies to enhance their respective valuations. Such enhancements can include: introducing off-take buyers, facilitating access to capital markets, and sharing of strategic market knowledge.
The Directors have identified graphite as one such strategic mineral and are pleased to announce the Company has made an initial equity investment in Graphmada Equity Pte Ltd ('Graphmada'). Woodburne has acquired an initial 15% equity stake in Graphmada through the acquisition of shares in Graphmada for a total consideration of US $1,275,000 in cash. Woodburne anticipates further increasing its stake in Graphmada over the next 12 months.
Graphmada is an advanced stage graphite mining and production company with operations in Madagascar. The Republic of Madagascar hosts some of the highest quality flake graphite deposits in the world. Graphmada expects to begin production toward the beginning of the second quarter with the current plant capable of producing approximately 12,000 tonnes per annum. Graphmada boasts an extremely experienced technical and professional staff and Woodburne will be working closely with the Graphmada team to fulfill its goal of becoming a low-cost producer of high-quality flake graphite for the expanding global market.
Graphite has numerous end uses both in traditional industrial applications and emerging technologies. Graphite is expected to become increasingly important as the demand continues to shift to higher quality applications like mobile electronics, electric vehicles and lithium batteries.
The market price for high quality, flake graphite today is approximately $2,000-3,000/tonne following a period of strong global demand. Graphmada sees such favourable demand dynamics accelerating and believes is in an excellent position to penetrate the flake graphite market characterized by high margins and limited competition.
Gobind Sahney, Chairman of Woodburne, said: "In today's challenging investment environment, we feel that identifying good companies in niches with high value resources should provide significant upside for our shareholders. We believe graphite presents one such niche. We will continue to work hard to identify other such opportunities."
The Company will be making additional announcements regarding the full implementation of the strategic review in the near future.
Enquiries:
Woodburne Square AG plc
Gobind Sahney +44 (0) 207 467 1700
Libertas Capital Corporate Finance Limited
Sandy Jamieson +44 (0) 20 569 9650