would ozl consolidate in gold? takeover axm?

OZ plans new strategy, now new interest in Prominent

Sarah-Jane Tasker | August 27, 2009
Article from: The Australian
OZ Minerals is focussing on building a strategy to take the company forward and provide a defence against any future takeover bids.

Newly appointed chief executive Terry Burgess said today the Prominent Hill miner was focussed on building shareholder value to form a defence against any potential takeover.

“We need to ensure that we maximise the value of the company because the best form of defence against a takeover is a good share price and the value out there in the marketplace and that is what we are working on,” he said.

“In regard to people that looked at Prominent Hill in the past, no one has expressed any recent interest in talking to us and we are hoping we will be given the opportunity to develop the project and develop the business over the coming months.”

Mr Burgess said OZ Minerals, which survived being placed into administration when it sold the bulk of its assets to China Minmetals, was working on developing a strategy over the next few months that will take the company forward.

He said decisions will be made around what commodities and global regions the miner would like to operate in.

“There are opportunities available from time to time and we are happy to assess those, but we want to ensure that whatever we do fits into the overall strategy process that the company has started,” he said

The Melbourne-based company today reported a net loss in the first half of fiscal 2009 of $585.6 million, compared to a loss of $500,000 a year earlier

OZ said the first-half result was negatively impacted by lower commodity prices and a one-off loss of $553.9m on the sale of assets to Minmetals.

Revenue was $854.5 million, compared with $529.3 million in the first half of fiscal 2008.

The miner had a cash balance at June 30 of $1bn and debt in the form of convertible bonds with a face value of $US105m.

Mr Burgess said investors did not want the miner to rush and spend the $1 billion.

“What we will be criticised for is if we spend the money in the wrong way,” he said.

“We need to ensure we have a sound footing for the direction of this company going forward.”