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Proactive Mid & Small round-up - Songbird and Range in the frame as shareholders make moves

Last updated: 19:30 13 Dec 2014 AEDT, First published: 20:30 13 Dec 2014 AEDT

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Eyes in the City this week turned eastwards as the arm wrestle over ownership of London’s other financial hub, Canary Wharf, tensed further.

Lauded City operator Ken Costa was drafted onto the board of AIM-listed Songbird Estates (LON:SBD) by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund. 

The Qataris have a 28% stake in Songbird, owner of 70% of Canary Wharf Group, and had a 295p takeover approach in conjunction with CWG stakeholder Brookfield rejected last month. 

To buy-out Songbird it needs to convince the other shareholders to do a deal and Costa, who brokered the Qatari’s US$1.5bn acquisition of Harrods in 2011, may be a decisive influence.

The Qataris bid move is part of a trend this year by major shareholders to be more directly involved. 

Range Resources (LON:RRL), an oil firm focused on Trinidad, was another example this week, while recently Gulfsands (LON:GPX) and Petroceltic (LON:PCI) have also become tangled in disputes with their largest investors.

Gulfsands and Petroceltic both potentially face legal challenges from their rebel shareholders, as well as proposals to oust the management of the respective companies.

Range Resources will see control pass to a Chinese investor through a large financing deal.

It coincides with a boardroom exodus and the recent departure of chief executive Rory Scott Russell, whose re-election was blocked at the AGM.

Equity and convertible debt financing will see Core Capital acquire up to 48% of the company, while a separate US$50mln loan with a state backed Chinese financial institution will pay technical services on the ground in Trinidad.

Range’s AIM-listed shares have been suspended until the company has a sufficient boardroom headcount.

Gem miner and owner of Faberge jewellery brand Gemfields (LON:GEM), already noted for its emeralds, is now making a name for itself in rubies having banked a record US$43.3mln from the Singapore auction of rough red stones, including a 40 carat giant called the Rhino Ruby.

Two auctions of stones from the company’s Montepuez mine, in Mozambique, have generated US$76.8mln in revenues since June.

Also in the mining sector, Toronto-listed Kincora Copper (CVE:KCC) got a boost as it agreed the first step to recovering gold exploration licences annulled by Mongolian government. Its Golden Grouse licences were among a group of 106 revoked over concerns about how they were issued. 

A process of re-tendering has now got underway, with Kincora and the local authorities agreeing a figure for its exploration costs so far.

Cluff Natural Resources (LON:CLNR) advanced after it revealing significant potential for an underground coal gasification (UCG) venture in North Wales.

UCG is among the new unconventional methods of extracting hydrocarbons that promise to revolutionise the UK energy market. The process itself sees coal treated underground to produce a synthetic gas – it does not involve the controversial ‘fracking’ process.

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

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