An offer from Trafigura for the Southern plant with a strong Caledonian involvement
Trafigura, the world's leading commodity trading company has entered exclusive negotiations with Vale, involving a strong Caledonian participation. This would be the second Swiss investment in New Caledonia after Glencore invested billions of dollars in New Caledonia’s nickel through a 49% ownership of the Northern plant.
They want to join forces in order to create a ”factory-country” open to the world of energy transition. To achieve this, Caledonian interests in the South plant will be increased to around 38% compared to 5% today. Trafigura intends to rely on the expertise of Caledonian teams and will provide the strike force of its global raw materials distribution network.
Financial institutions, such as Bank of Canada, Credit Suisse and two French banks, would participate in the financial termination of the agreement.
The Soenc-Nickel union and Vale-NC management have also come to an agreement through which VNC employees will have the opportunity to become shareholders of the South plant, which also helped convince Trafigura.
The offer contains the following details:
- 23% of the capital of the industrial complex will be held by Caledonian employees.
- 5% of the capital will be reserved for private Caledonian participation, in the form of investment by local players.
- The participation of the SPMSC (Société de participation minière du Sud-Calédonien), would be increased from 5% to 10%.
- Trafigura will provide funding for the operation. A pool of strategic investors, which could include future European and American customers of the southern plant, will quickly join the operation.
An inter-ministerial industrial restructuring committee will be held in Paris in the coming days in order to finalise the agreement. Meanwhile Vale confirms it has abandoned talks with Sofinor and Korea Zinc, the proposal received in April 2020 did not present the financial and environmental guarantees required for this transaction.
Nickel price at the LME in London on 26/19/2020 at 17:30 GMT = 15,617 dollars / ton + 0.06%.
Source: https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/nouvellecaledonie/trafigura-implication-caledonienne-886382.html