Iron Ore Prices Sank to a Three-Year Low
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
INSIDE METALS Thursday, August 22, 2013 CHART OF THE DAY FEATURE Click on the chart for full-size image Barrick Gold's Peter Munk seeks to regain his Midas touch Peter Munk has long driven the agenda for Barrick Gold Corp , the company he formed in 1983 and built into the world's largest gold pro- ducer, but recent missteps have raised questions about the leadership of a man once seen as a visionary in the industry. Click here to read more.. TODAY’S MARKETS BASE METALS: London copper rose after data on China's factory ac- tivity improved in August, fuelling expectations the country's economy is stabilising and shoring up expectations of metals demand. Activity in China's vast manufacturing sector hit a four-month high as new orders rebounded, a preliminary private survey showed, reinforcing Click here for LME charts signs of stabilisation in the world's second-largest economy. "The data certainly surprised on the upside, and that should be suppor- TRADING PLACES tive for commodity markets," said analyst Natalie Rampono of ANZ in London Metal Exchange lists new Taiwan port ware- Melbourne. houses PRECIOUS METALS: Gold fell for a second session after minutes from GENERAL NEWS a Federal Reserve policy meeting failed to ease fears the U.S. central bank would begin tapering its economic stimulus from next month. After cost cuts, miners need to do more with less, BHP The minutes of the Fed's July 30-31 meeting, released on Wednesday, says showed that a few officials thought last month it would soon be time to Australia's Fortescue holds back on rail stake sale as slow the pace of their bond buying "somewhat" but others counseled profit soars patience. "I don't think the Fed minutes gave away too much," said Victor Thian- South Africa's main mine union to take strike vote in gold piriya, an analyst at ANZ in Singapore. "Not too much has changed (on sector the outlook for stimulus). But the reaction in Treasury yields and the Brazilian miner Vale says not in talks to buy Batista's dollar is impacting gold." MMX FOREX: The dollar rose versus the yen after the minutes of the Federal MARKET NEWS Reserve's July meeting did little to alter expectations that the U.S. cen- tral bank may start tapering its monetary stimulus as early as Septem- COPPER: ber. Global refined copper market swings to 17,000 deficit in The greenback extended its gains versus the Japanese currency after a May preliminary private survey showed that activity in China's manufacturing ZINC/LEAD: sector hit a four-month high in August. Korea Zinc buys from LME stocks to honour supply con- "I think the dollar is purely being bought on the back of a widening in tracts-traders interest rate differentials," he said, adding that there was some talk of hedge fund buying of the dollar versus the yen in the early part of the TIN/MINORS: Asian session on Thursday. Uranium miners face new hurdles as Fukushima disaster worsens INSIDE METALS August 22, 2013 FEATURE Barrick Gold's Peter Munk seeks to regain his Midas touch GAMBLE ON COPPER The insiders all praised Munk, who was born in Hungary and By Euan Rocha escaped the Nazis as a teenager, for his achievement in build- ing Barrick and the tens of millions of dollars he has donated for TORONTO, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Peter Munk has long driven the healthcare and education in Toronto, where the company is agenda for Barrick Gold Corp , the company he formed in 1983 based. and built into the world's largest gold producer, but recent mis- steps have raised questions about the leadership of a man once However, they criticized some of his more recent decisions, seen as a visionary in the industry. especially Barrick's C$7.3 billion ($7.03 billion) takeover of Af- rica-focused copper miner Equinox in 2011. Munk, who owns a stake of less than a quarter of a percent in the company, still steers Barrick's strategy from his position as Three of the sources said that deal stretched Barrick just as it chairman, and he is now attempting to shore up the miner's po- was developing the huge Pascua-Lama project on the border of sition. But some investors, seizing on what they view as mis- Argentina and Chile, and the Pueblo Viejo gold-mining project in guided decisions and problems at several mines, are question- the Dominican Republic. ing both the company's direction, and Munk's role. The Equinox takeover triggered the initial slide in Barrick's share In the last two years, gold miners across the globe have been price. Many investors were disenchanted: Stocks of gold miners stung by falling bullion prices and a surge in costs. Barrick has typically attract higher multiples than those of base metal min- fared worse than its rivals, outlining about $13 billion in write- ers, and Barrick has for years marketed itself as the ideal vehi- downs this year alone. cle for gold bugs. Its share price is down nearly 65 percent in two years, outpacing But three of the sources said Munk's push for Equinox came as a 50 percent drop in the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index, and a 26 no surprise, given that the he had long sought to transform Bar- percent drop in the price of spot gold. rick into a big diversified miner in the mold of Rio Tinto Ltd or BHP Billiton Ltd . While environmental woes at its Pascua-Lama gold-mining pro- ject, high in the Andes, have been the biggest drag on Barrick's In particular, Munk has wanted to boost Barrick's exposure to share price, investors have taken the most issue with its disap- copper, said the insiders, adding that his itch for copper dated pointing push into copper and with a proposal to give Munk's back to the late 1990s, when he pushed management several heir apparent, co-chairman John Thornton, an unusually large, times to look at U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoRan Copper & $11.9 million signing bonus. Gold Inc - an initiative code-named Project Orange. In interviews with Reuters, five Barrick insiders said Munk him- But successive management teams repeatedly steered Munk self played a pivotal role in both these decisions. away from a bid and Freeport became too big a target after it bought Phelps Dodge for $25.9 billion in 2007. Neither Munk nor Thornton would comment for this story, and Barrick declined to comment on Munk's role in the decisions. Refocusing on gold, Barrick then twice reached deals to buy No. 2 gold miner, Newmont Mining , first in 2008 and later in 2010, But the high-level insiders, who asked not to be named as they the sources said. Each time Munk scrapped the deal late in the are not authorized to discuss such matters with media, describe game, largely due to differences around how the combined en- a company where Munk - an entrepreneur, real estate mogul tity would be led. and avid skier - has a powerful influence in every major board decision. At other times, the sources said, Munk pushed management to look at the likes of Canadian diversified miner Teck Resources , "The level of deference shown to Peter Munk within Barrick and and Potash Corp , the world's top fertilizer maker. Neither deal its boardroom is surprising," said one source familiar with Bar- panned out. rick's boardroom discussions. Barrick declined to comment on the deals it has explored, as did Only seven of Barrick's 13 directors are independent, a ratio that spokesmen for Freeport, Newmont, Teck and Potash Corp. Barrick says meets New York Stock Exchange rules. But proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis says the board lacks two-thirds inde- pendence - a best practice for big, widely held companies. WARNING ON EQUINOX "It would be nice if we could get a feeling that the board of direc- When Equinox came on the block, four insiders said Munk tors is acting for all shareholders, because there is a feeling, I seized on the deal as a step toward his goal of diversification. At think, that we are dealing with a little bit of a fiefdom," said Cae- a time when several copper miners were up for sale, Barrick sar Bryan, a portfolio manager at Gabelli, which owns some 2.9 outbid a Chinese state-backed entity to take over Equinox. million shares in Barrick Gold. "The whole corporate governance Barrick's management team attempted to warn Munk against and board situation is a little disconcerting." buying Equinox, noting that Barrick had spent months trying to reduce risk in Africa by spinning its mines there into a separate operation called African Barrick Gold PLC , the sources said. 2 INSIDE METALS August 22, 2013 FEATURE (Continued) The board approval of the deal is illustrative of Munk's sway in GETTING BACK ON TRACK the boardroom, they said. Two sources said the final board approval came during a 20- Barrick has lately begun to right the ship, say two sources, not- minute conference call with minimal discussion. Asked for com- ing that Thornton, formerly a well-regarded Goldman Sachs ment, Barrick said its board discussed the deal extensively in executive, is taking a more hands-on role as Barrick's co- the weeks before the decision. chairman. Recently he traveled with management to Argentina Yet the deal quickly raised concerns among investors, starting before Barrick outlined a decision to slow work at the expensive with the price Barrick shelled out for Equinox.