London-Listed Miner Kenmare To Raise £200m

A London-listed miner hurt by the global slump in comm‎odity prices is finalising plans for a financial restructuring that will see it raising as much as seven times its market value in new funding.

Sky News has learnt that Kenmare Resources (LSE: KMR.L - news) , which is also listed in Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) , will announce the ambitious plan on Thursday.

The deal will see the company, which mines titanium minerals including ilmenite at a site in Mozambique, raising about $100m‎ from selling shares to a British Virgin Islands-based trading company.

An identical sum will be raised from Oman's sovereign wealth fund, the SGRF, while a placing to existing shareholders could generate up to a further $100m, according to sources.

A debt-for-equity swap will also be offered to debtholders to form part of the recapitalisation of Kenmare's balance sheet, with the proceeds used to pay down most of its $350 of debt.

The proposed funding package is particularly bold because the slide in Kenmare's‎ share price means it now has a market capitalisation of just over £28m.

The company is among scores of miners which have wrestled with their cost-bases even as mineral prices have rendered their operations uneconomic.

Kenmare rejected a takeover offer from Iluka, an Australian rival, in 2014, with further on-off discussions failing to result in a deal.

The London-listed company's biggest institutional shareholders include M&G Investments, the fund management arm of Prudential (SES: K6S.SI - news) .

Kenmare's largest debtholders, meanwhile, include Absa, Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) ' operation in South Africa, and the European Investment Bank.

The miner accounts for 8% of the world's ilmenite production, with the majority of it consumed in China.

A Kenmare spokesman declined to comment.