Metorex plunge may hurt deals

(Fin24) - The share price of Metorex is plunging inexplicably and has fallen 38% from its 12-month high at a time of bullish conditions for two of its main products - copper and gold.

The fall is particularly embarrassing in terms of Metorex's bid to minority shareholders in Copper Resources Corporation (CRC) which has just been extended for the second time to January 18.

CRC owns three copper projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with resources and reserves totalling up to 2.4 million tonnes of contained copper metal.

Metorex bought 38.7% of CRC in July last year plus a 5% stake in its 75% held subsidiary MMK from the Forrest group for R600m. The Metorex share price stood around 2 400c at the time and it subsequently rose to an all-time high of 2 950c.

The CRC share price at the time sat around 87p and, when Metorex pitched its equity offer to the CRC minorities, it also included an alternative cash offer of 125p per CRC share.

But Metorex shares hit 1 725c today before recovering to around 1 830c while CRC shares have risen to around 160p.

Read more at Fin24