A worthy scoop-ette from Bloomie this Americas evening and I’ll betcha a dead dingo to a dozen armadillos that David Stringer’s source was someone in mid-range exec BHP who is trying to stop this freakin madness from happening. Anyway, enough of my stupid and on with the serious excerpt:
BHP Group, the world’s biggest miner, plans to increase its stake in SolGold Plc, the developer of projects in copper hot spot Ecuador, according to people familiar with the proposal. SolGold shares surged.Melbourne-based BHP will add to its existing 11% holding in SolGold and become the developer’s largest shareholder ahead of Newcrest Mining Ltd.,
the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is
confidential. An announcement detailing the size of the investment could
be made within days.
BHP and SolGold declined to comment
Whole thing here. As for the market reaction, yup for sure a big woodie in London this morning but you also get the feeling somebody knew something on Thursday. Loose lips, Nickieboy…loose lips…
UPDATE: The deal is out, with BHP buying in to the tune of 77m shares at a kinda-thin 22.15p per share and, with a new total of 14.79% ownership, the BHP stream of urine travels a few millimeters further than that of Newcrest’s.