Salim spends US$571 million to control Philex

First Pacific Company Ltd, a company controlled by Salim Group, has just entered into conditional sale agreement through its Philippine affiliate, Two Rivers, to acquire an additional 5.9% shares in Philex which will make the company controls 15.1% shares. First Pacific has previously purchased 31.5% shares in Philex for US$234 million.

On completion of the Acquisition, Two Rivers’s total investment cost in acquiring approximately 15.1% interest in Philex will amount to approximately US$337 million and the Group’s total investment cost in acquiring approximately 31.5% interest in Philex will amount to approximately US$234 million, thereby making up a total of US$571 million.

Philex is a mining company. The company has operated for the past 51 years the Sto. Tomas II deposit at Padcal, Tuba, Benguet. The Padcal mine is the first underground block cave operation in the Far East. Total ore mined to year-end 2008 was 332.2 million tones, with a metal production of 162.2 million grams of gold (5,218.4 thousand ounces), 897.4 million kilograms of copper (1,981.7 million pounds), and 177.9 million grams of silver (5,732.7 thousand ounces). The Padcal mine is the only remaining large-scale copper-gold operation in the Philippines.

First Pacific is a major player in the Philippines with 26.5% economic interest in PLDT (telecommunications), 54.1% in MPIC (infrastructure), and Philex (40.7%). First Pacific controls 50.1% shares in PT Indofood Sukses Makmur (INDF) Tbk which currently has market cap of US$3.5 billion.

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