Steel pour

Money for stake in Mogale Alloys comes at opportune time - David Ellwood, Metmar CEO

| Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:30 In an interview on SAfm @ 18.20 on 29 May 2009 [miningmx.com] -- Finnish company Ruukki Group has paid South African ferrochrome producer Metmar R153m for a stake in Mogale Alloys.

The deal has been labelled slightly controversial. CEO of Ruuki, Alwyn Smit, is known in South Africa for not doing well with Decillion that he brought to the market. Metmar CEO David Ellwood was quick to point out that Smit was not the initiator of the deal.

"The initiator of the sale was Danko Konchar, who controls Kermas, which had control of Samancor Chrome, and things changed in the middle of last year from a ferrochrome point of view and from a financial point of view. Kermas had pursued the Finnish listed company, Ruukki, to which Alwyn Smit has been appointed the CEO and chairman," Ellwood said on SAfm Market Update.

He said the initial discussions of the Mogale sale were a year ago in May.

"I think the money comes at quite an opportune time. We'd like to just hold this money for a while. There are a lot of opportunities that we are pursuing, and we'd like to see what materialises there or not," Ellwood said.

He said if Metmar was not able to spend the money on potential acquisitions, the company will consider paying some of the money out.

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