Wai Chun axes plans to buy Kingdom mines

Monday, 14 March 2011
By Ellie Dyer
Phnom Penh Post

WAI Chun Mining Industry Group has scrapped the planned purchase of two Cambodian iron mines.

According to a filing on Friday with the Hong Kong stock exchange, the company has terminated an agreement over the possible acquisition of the mines together with a 74 percent interest in a South African manganese mine from Guangxi Non-ferrous Metals Group Company Limited and Guangxi Sincerity Investments & Trading Company Limited.

The two Cambodian mines were described in a November statement as being in the Kohkeo and Phnom Thmar regions of Cambodia.

Wai Chun was to purchase the mines through a combination of cash and a share issue to state-owned Guangxi, which would have seen the firm become “the flagship enterprise of Guangxi Non-Ferrous Metals in undertaking business activities in the mining and mineral resources sector,” it said in the November statement.

However, the two parties had mutually agreed to terminate the provisional agreement, said Hong Kong-based Wai Chun on Friday. “The company and the Guangxi Parties are unable to reach an ultimate agreement on the final structure and terms of definitive agreements in relation to the proposed acquisitions,” it said.

The buy “would require reorganisation and compliance with the relevant laws and regulations which provides uncertainties to the proposed acquisition”, it added.

Its board considered that the termination of the Heads of Agreement and the terms of the termination “have no material adverse impact on the existing business operations of the group”.

For the six months of 2010, the group recorded a turnover of HK$133 million (US$17 million) largely attributable to demand for its footwear business.

The company’s main business, according to its website, is the holding of 65 percent equity interest in Nority Limited, a manufacturer of athletic and athletic-style leisure footwear and golf shoes.

Gross profit during the same period was HK$17 million.

Shares in Wai Chun ended at HK$0.184 at close of trade on the Hong Kong exchange on Friday.