A source in mergers and acquisitions out of Europe has alerted King World News that Carlos Slim may be looking to enter the silver market in a big way. Gold and silver are in big bull markets and this is attracting the attention of some of the smartest money around the globe. James Turk commented, ?If this deal does happen Eric, this is going to make the silver shorts choke.? Fresnillo has a current market cap of roughly $19 billion. January 3, 2011
The European source commented, ?This deal has been floating around for a while, but I think this time it is going to happen. It?s in his backyard. This is the world?s richest man wanting to get into silver.?
I view this as the only way for the richest man in the world to enter the silver market at this point in terms of any scale, is that your take as well?
?Yes, I agree with that. Let me just add that when he buys into it (Fresnillo) he will have the leverage to silver he is looking for. There are very few ways to get into silver with the amount of money he has, this is the most likely option at this point. He has to pay a hefty price or otherwise the deal will not happen. It is beginning to look like the longer he waits, the more he will have to pay. It is a bull market and things to tend to get more expensive, not less.?
King World News reached out to James Turk to get his comments. When asked about the potential buyout Turk stated, ?If this is true he is following in the footsteps of John Paulson and his exposure to gold through Anglo Ashanti. In Carlos?s case, when you have billions of dollars to invest, it is impossible to buy physical silver in any significant quantity with the market so tight. The point I am making is that Paulson ended up buying 30% of Anglo-Ashanti for a few billion dollars giving him exposure to the gold price.
If you have three, five, ten billion dollars to invest, you cannot buy physical gold or physical silver without sending the price sky high. So what can you do? You can buy a mining company.
I know of one wealthy individual who bought resources in the ground so he could develop the mine and keep all of the gold it produces. This is essentially what Carlos would be doing with silver. I don?t know if the rumor with Fresnillo is true or not, but there is a lot of logic to it. Also, looking at the chart, it is obvious it was under strong accumulation for most of 2010.?
James if you were Carlos Slim, would you buy Fresnillo to gain exposure to the price of silver?
?Absolutely, sometimes when you have billions of dollars to invest it can be a hard thing to do without moving the market. Given that you can?t buy billions of dollars of physical silver without sending the price into the stratosphere, the best way to do that would be through this acquisition. To be clear, let me disclose that I have no position in Fresnillo.
If this deal goes through, it?s going to cause a lot of people to take a look at the silver market. One thing that is certain is that a lot of smart money with billions to invest is looking at ways to get exposure to both gold and silver.?
As gold and silver continue to gain prominence in the financial world, it may be the biggest money in the world which is now wanting a stake. If Carlos does this deal as Turk said, it will make a great many investors around the globe take a look at the silver market.
