if i were the md of rio., page-34

My numbers probably need fixing severely, yeldub.

Re the $740m/$750m, I don't know if that would be staged. The company says there is interest from all over re investing, and multinationals like Noble seem ok about investing to get off-take agreements. $750m is the cheapest capex by far of the potash stocks.

I doubt would-be customers care about ownership issues re STB- they just want their cake. Traditional financing agreements can be 60% debt : 40% equity (this equity could be raised for a tier 1 asset?) The debt issue can be harder unless conventional arrangements are in place- that's where the old "sovereign risk" comes in, and where CHN seemed to know a good thing and sell when it came to the pointy end. Aussie companies have done the same thing- sell to a big fish to not have to deal with capex.

The update ANN from STB didn't seem too panicked, which makes me think they know of opportunities- all those ones they've spoken about in their Quarterlies, etc- from potential customers/investors. I see good things for STB- at these levels, given the share price has almost halved, and given that STB will not just be Eritrea- it will also be local with the demerger- it will be a tiddler, but the assets are good. Big STB and little STB, with the risk in the Big STB- which also has the most valuable asset. What could go wrong? :/