Companies: CFM    NKR   

Funds managed by RP Capital now control 22 per cent of £1.3 billion Congo-focused copper and cobalt group Nikanor.

RP, which says some of these managed funds represent the interests of the influential Gertler family, stirred the market recently by upping its holding in Toronto-quoted Katanga Mining, which holds a rich copper and cobalt project at Kamato in the Congo, to 15 per cent. That prompted suggestions that some interested parties might push for a deal between AIM-quoted Nikanor and the smaller Katanga, which claimed its costs outlook was better than Nikanor’s.

Soon afterwards, entrepreneur Phil Edmonds’ Central African Mining and Exploration Company (CAMEC), with an existing 22 per cent Katanga stake, announced plans for an all-share Katanga bid and claimed another 32 per cent of Katanga’s shareholding supported it. This move has been opposed by RP and Victor Kasongo, the Congo’s Vice-Minister for Mines, though CAMEC insists there is nothing in its record in the Congo to justify such opposition and asks whether commercial interests could have prompted it.

At 623p, Nikanor’s shares are 213p up from April’s low but 92p below May’s high. Meanwhile, CAMEC trades on AIM at 71p, down 5p today, valuing the company at £872 million. There should be plenty more action to come.