New | General Nice fails again to complete IRC share purchase deal

General Nice Development, the mainland’s largest privately owned steel-smelting raw materials trader, has failed for the fourth time to meet its commitment to buy shares in iron ore miner IRC amid the mainland’s credit-tightening and may have to defer completing the deal yet again.

Jay Hambro, chairman of Hong Kong-listed IRC, an iron ore miner in Russia’s far east that serves northeast China, said General Nice had already completed 72 per cent of the payment and was “fully committed” to completing the remaining HK$451.4 million of shares purchase.

“We met [on Tuesday] with General Nice about the deal’s completion and their need for staged payments,” he told a teleconference. “We don’t have an urgent need for the funding ... and we continue to see them as a key partner for us.”

He would not elaborate on the reason for General Nice’s need for staged payments, but in January, IRC chief financial officer Raymond Woo said General Nice faced difficulty raising bank loans due to credit-tightening in the wider mainland financial market.

General Nice exercised last October a right to buy 863.6 million IRC shares at 94 HK cents each, for a total of HK$811.8 million. Adding to HK$800.5 million worth of shares already bought, it was due to own 31.3 per cent of IRC by November 18.

The date was deferred to December 30 on General Nice’s request, but it paid only a quarter of the outstanding sum.