Oxiana (OXR.ASX) was up another 10 cents today, closing up to $3.13. So tempted to sell and secure some profit before it going back down. Or maybe it was just a start?
This article from the 'Sydney Morning Herald' is one day old, but still quite nice to read, it gives me (at least) an idea:
Feverish trade suggests Oxiana is in play
Jamie Freed - April 5, 2007
ABOUT 10 per cent of shares in mid-tier miner Oxiana changed hands yesterday, adding fuel to perennial speculation of a takeover bid for the $4.2 billion company led by former Rio Tinto executive Owen Hegarty.
Oxiana shares rocketed 21c, or 7.5 per cent, to $3.03.
Sydney broker Southern Cross Equities was responsible for 40 per cent of the $442 million of trading, according to Bloomberg. This would give the broker a near-substantial stake on behalf of a client. Southern Cross's senior director of institutional broking, Charlie Aitken, was unavailable last night.
More than 28 million shares changed hands in one trade at about 3pm, leading to chatter that US gold company Newmont Mining had sold the Oxiana shares it picked up through the Australian's recent scrip bid for Agincourt Resources. Newmont had held Oxiana shares on two prior occasions through other deals and sold them both times.
Heavy buying followed, with multiple parcels of more than 1 million shares each changing hands between 4pm and 4:10pm. Oxiana, which mines copper, zinc, gold and other metals, has long been deemed a prime takeover candidate for several suitors due to its quality assets and open share register. Canada's Teck Cominco, Zinifex and Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata have been mentioned as likely buyers. But Xstrata last week made a similar-sized bid for Canadian nickel miner LionOre.
There were market rumours last night that UK-listed mining giant Anglo American, which recently appointed a more aggressive chief executive, Cynthia Carroll, could be linked to the heavy buying in Oxiana. London-based Anglo spokeswoman Kate Aindow said her company never commented on speculation.
Before the heavy trading yesterday, Deutsche Bank analysts upgraded Oxiana to a "buy". In an afternoon report, Goldman Sachs JBWere's institutional dealing desk said it had not heard who purchased Newmont's stake, but added it was bullish on Oxiana."Oxiana has $750 million of cash on the balance sheet by next year and very little debt," Goldman Sachs JBWere said. "[We're] happy to keep buying Oxiana at these levels."
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