Crispin Odey has joined Jupiter manager Steve Davies in criticising Anglo American’s takeover of Sirius Minerals and threatened to raise his stake in the business if its share price slips.
Odey panned Anglo’s £405m offer for Sirius as a “mockery” that does not represent fair value for investors and said Anglo would be willing to pony up more cash for the something miner.
Odey’s eponymous boutique recently acquired a 1.3% stake in Sirius for 4.9p a share and has said it will continue buying up shares to keep the price above 5.2p.
Sirius’ claim to fame is setting up a polyhalite mine, the material used in fertiliser, in North Yorkshire in 2003. Once a FTSE 250 company worth more than £1bn, the mining group now faces a cash crunch after being hit by rising costs.
Anglo put in a share offer of 5.5p a share for the London listed miner on 8 January, a 34% premium to its closing price of 4.1p the previous day.
But Odey’s firm has said the company is worth at least £893m and said the lowest bid they would accept is 7p.
Jupiter’s Davies critical of Anglo deal
Jupiter, Sirius’ second largest shareholder, has also taken issue with Anglo’s offer.
Jupiter UK Growth manager Davies, who owned a 6.4% stake in Sirius at the end of June 2019, said at the end of January he would like the board “to pursue any alternative options” including a $680m rescue bid proposed by an unnamed consortium of investors.
But Sirius confirmed last week that offer is no longer on the table. Its board has said the choice is between Anglo buying the business or entering into liquidation.
It is unclear how Jupiter will stand when shareholders vote on the takeover on 3 March. Jupiter owns 4.7% of the potash miner, according to disclosures on Sirius’ website, behind hedge fund Polygon Global Partners which owns 7%.
Other major shareholders include Citigroup Global Markets, Pelham Capital and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.
Sirius’ flagging share price has made life difficult for several Jupiter funds with exposure to the minerals group, including the pint sized Jupiter UK Alpha which the fund group decided to close this year.
Davies’ fund is fourth quartile over one, three and five years. His Jupiter UK Growth Investment Trust, which also had exposure to the mining group, has been handed over to Richard Buxton after delivering similar poor performance.
