Kingsgate Consolidated shares rise on buying by UK’s Metal Tiger...

Kingsgate Consolidated shares rise on buying by UK’s Metal Tiger

• The Australian
• 12:00AM November 14, 2017
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• BRIDGET CARTER
  
  Mergers & Acquisitions Editor
  Sydney
  @BridgetCarterb
  
  SCOTT MURDOCH
  
  Journalist
  Sydney
  @murdochsj
  

Recent movements on the share register of goldminer and litigant Kingsgate Consolidated have raised some eyebrows.

Kingsgate, which not too long ago was a $1 billion-plus miner with a share price of $11 apiece, has more than doubled from 22c in August to as high as 50c earlier this month as it makes progress on its various legal issues.

Kingsgate is embroiled in an ongoing dispute with the government of Thailand over its decision last year to order the closure of Kingsgate’s Chatree goldmine, the company’s only source of cashflow. It also last month launched legal proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court against Zurich Australia Insurance, which had denied Kingsgate’s $200 million insurance claim against political risk.

Much of the share-price gain has come on the back of buying by British-based Metal Tiger, which has emerged from nowhere to now hold a 6.6 per cent stake in Kingsgate. The big question is just what, if anything, Metal Tiger plans to do with its position.

Metal Tiger has experience in Thailand and has also been working to prepare an IPO of its Thai lead-zinc-silver mines, although that was recently postponed until the first quarter of next year.

The big question in the case of Kingsgate will be whether Metal Tiger believes its existing Kingsgate board can resolve the issues with Thailand. Chairman Ross Smyth-Kirk has been in the role for more than 15 years and has seen off more than his share of dissenting shareholders in the past so will no doubt be ready if Metal Tiger has an appetite for change.