Has Aquila’s Poli timed his Pacifico entry to perfection?

By Trevor Hoey. Published at Nov 27, 2018, in Mining

Emerging base and precious metals group, Pacifico Minerals (ASXMY) will be hoping that the Midas touch of Tony Poli, co-founder of former ASX listed group Aquila Resources, will rub off on the company after his investment group came on board as a substantial shareholder.

Pacifico is progressing its Sorby Hills Lead-Zinc-Gold Project near Kununurra in Western Australia towards a revised prefeasibility study (PFS) in 2019.

Upcoming drilling results due within the next month are expected to boost confidence in the existing Mineral Resource Estimate of 16.5 million tonnes at 4.7% lead, 0.7% zinc and 54 grams per tonne silver.

Pacifico informed the market on Monday that Aigle Royal Superannuation Pty Ltd, as trustee for the A.Poli Superannuation Fund, had come on board as a shareholder having purchased nearly 90 million shares, providing it with a stake of 5.48%.

Poli featured strongly in the WA Rich List earlier this year with thewest.com.au estimating his wealth at $485 million as at 2017. He is chief executive and chairman of Aigle Royal, an investment group that has a significant focus on property development.

Poli nets $400 million from Aquila sale

Interestingly though, Poli is better known for his role as co-founder of Perth-based iron ore and coal group Aquila Resources, a company that he netted approximately $400 million from following the sale of the group to Baosteel and Aurizon.

However, it was more the timing of the deal than the deal itself which made headlines.

With the iron ore price upwards of US$100 per tonne, Poli copped his share of criticism at the time for accepting the takeover offer. Yet shortly after the board signed off on the deal, iron ore crashed below US$100 per tonne, and was trading below US$50 per tonne within a matter of months.

Since 2014, Poli has focussed his interests solely on property development, having established the Aigle Royal Group as the investment vehicle.

And now his investment in Pacifico may prove to be another example of the astute businessman’s ability to time the market.