New | Trading in Hunan Nonferrous halted over possible privatisation plan

Trading of Hunan Nonferrous Metals, the mainland’s largest producer of non-ferrous metals excluding aluminium, has been halted pending an announcement about a possible privatisation plan.

The company is the mainland’s largest maker of cemented carbides, zinc and antimony, and a major producer of lead, silver, indium, tantalum and niobium.

It is 53 per cent owned by Hunan Nonferrous Metals Holding Group, a subsidiary of state-owned China Minmetals, the nation’s largest metals trader. China Minmetals also has a 9.37 per cent direct stake in the Hong Kong-listed unit.

Hunan Nonferrous announced the possible plan by its parent to buy all the shares not already owned by it in a filing to Hong Kong’s stock exchange on Wednesday.

Its shares closed at HK$2.49 on Tuesday. They have jumped 37.8 per cent to HK$3.06 from HK$2.22 between July 21 and August 6, outperforming the Hang Seng Index’s 4.9 per cent gain in the period. Its shares have given up most of the gains since, having fallen 18.6 per cent from the closing price on August 6.

The company had issued a loss warning for the year’s first-half on July 14. The company has not made any filing to the exchange to give any possible reason for the outperformance.