Discovery Metals gets Chinese takeover bid

Emerging copper producer set to be snapped up by China

Mike King

Mike King is a Fool.com.au Investment Analyst and Writer. He caught the investing bug more than a decade ago, at a time when the U.S. had invaded Iraq and fear reigned in the markets. His initial success as the markets took off encouraged his passion and thirst for knowledge. With 13 years behind him at one of Australia's largest domestic banks, Mike's passion for stocks led him to join a boutique funds management firm, where he stayed for four years. A seven-year stint in equity research at one of the largest investment banks in the world followed that, giving Mike a thirst to pursue his passion further. Mike holds a Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and a Graduate Certificate in Financial Planning. His passion is to help retail investors invest better, and that passion was one of his primary reasons for joining The Motley Fool Australia in late 2011. Mike has written thousands of articles since joining, including for Fairfax Media, Yahoo!7, Ninemsn and has also appeared on ABC's The Business. You can see all of Mikes' holdings here

Published October 4, 2012 4:34 pm AEST

Copper producer Discovery Metals Limited (ASX: DML) has received a non-binding takeover offer, and is currently in a trading halt.

The initial offer is for all shares in Discovery Metals at $1.70 per share, from a Chinese private equity company, Cathay Fortune Corporation and its partner China-Africa Development Fund. The board of Discovery Metals has yet to give its support to the proposal.

Discovery Metals is one of just a handful of Australian listed pure copper plays, which include Sandfire Resources (ASX: SFR), Blackthorn Resources (ASX: BTR) and Tiger Resources (ASX: TGS).

All three stocks have seen their share prices rise in trading today, with Tiger up by more than 10% at the close of trading, possibly on speculation of further consolidation and merger and acquisition activity in the sector. Tiger operates in the African copper belt, which has seen many of the large miners take-over the smaller players in the past three years.

Although the price of copper has fallen in recent times, along with many other commodities, analysis suggests that demand for copper is outstripping supply, and only likely to worsen in the near future. As China and other emerging nations move towards a consumer based society — from an industrialised one — copper is likely to be in high demand. After all, it's used in many products middle class people in many countries aspire to own, including consumer electronics, white goods and cars.

The takeover bid for Discovery Metals comes just as the company has commissioned its plant and commenced production, which means for the bidder that most of the risks have already been removed. Therefore, Discovery Metals is a much lower risk proposition than Blackthorn Resources, for example, which is still in the project evaluation stage.

What is interesting is that Discovery Metals notified the market today of the takeover bid, but it appears they received the offer on the 21st September — almost two weeks ago. Since that time, shares in the company had jumped more than 24%, before today's trading halt.

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Motley Fool writer/analyst Mike King owns shares in Discovery Metals and Tiger Resources. The Motley Fool's purpose is to help the world invest, better. Take Stock is The Motley Fool's free investing newsletter. Packed with stock ideas and investing advice, it is essential reading for anyone looking to build and grow their wealth in the years ahead. Click here now to request your free subscription, whilst it's still available. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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