Hong Kong-listed Wah Nam International is a step closer to taking over Australia-listed Brockman Resources after receiving approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) and the company’s independent directors.
In the takeover bid valued at AUD104 million (HKD820 million), Wah Nam, which currently owns about 60 percent in Brockman, will acquire all of the remaining shares of the Australian miner, whose most valuable assets are the Marillana iron ore mine and the Ophthalmia project where a significant new area of outcropping beaded hematite mineralization was discovered.
Chinese companies have invested about AUD70 billion in Australia in some 280 business proposals, most of which have been in natural resources - from mines to landholdings for potential exploration.
Australia’s restrictions on foreign state-owned companies, especially in the mining sector, are among the world’s most stringent.
