TOKYO! a bloomberg article for your interest.... Cape Lambert...

TOKYO! a bloomberg article for your interest....

Cape Lambert facing takeover move

July 18, 2008

Cape Lambert Iron Ore, owner of a $400 million iron ore project in Australia, may receive a takeover bid after an unknown new shareholder bought a 14.8% stake, an executive said.

"If they have spent all this money and all this time doing this, I would suggest it would be a bid," Tony Sage, a director and owner of a 6.4% stake in the Perth-based company, said today. Cape's board is meeting Merrill Lynch in Singapore today for talks on the shareholder at the bank's request.

Evraz Group, the steelmaker partly owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, may be the stake buyer, the Australian Financial Review reported today. Cape Lambert has agreed to sell the project to China Metallurgical Group Corp.

"It could be India, it could be China, it could be Russia, we don't know yet, so it is as surprising to us as anyone," Sage said. The buyer may be seeking a takeover to gain control of the Australian project to thwart a July 28 shareholder vote on the China Metallurgical sale, Sage said today.

Cape Lambert shares jumped 6.5 cents, or 8.9%, to an all-time high of 79.5 cents.

The board will not accept an offer of less than $1.20 a share for the company, Sage said today.

An unnamed company has bought a 14.8% stake in Cape Lambert after acquiring options and exercising them, the company said yesterday in a statement. The company has previously held talks with Evraz, China's Sinosteel Corp., Citic Resources Holdings Ltd. and Tata Steel Ltd., Sage said.

"We have had ongoing discussions with the Tata Group over a period of 8 or 9 months and then all of sudden they stopped when we signed with the Chinese," Sage said. "The strong bet on the street is obviously Abramovich."

Abramovich is Russia's second-richest man with a fortune valued by Forbes at about $25 billion and is also the owner of the Chelsea soccer club.

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