Oz Minerals set to accept Minmetals bid

[FT News]

Oz Minerals sharesholders are set to approve China's Minmetals' $1.2bn purchase of the Australian group's mining assets, after an eleventh-hour recapitalisation proposal led by Macquarie Group collapsed late on Wednesday.

Safe passage of Minmetals’ acquisition at Thursday’s shareholders meeting will be a relief to Canberra, which has been heavily criticised by China over last week’s collapse of Chinalco’s $19.5bn tie-up with Rio Tinto.

Canberra blocked Minmetals from a full takeover of Oz Minerals earlier this year on the grounds the Australian group’s Prominent Hill mine, one of its best assets, was located in a military testing range.

The Chinese metals group then almost immediately re-cast the deal to exclude Prominent Hill and won approval from the Australian government, subject to a string of conditions.

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