Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
The Australian interviews investment bank Renaissance Group founder Stephen Jennings about investing in Africa.
The New Zealand-born billionaire made his money in emerging markets, specifically Russia, in the 1990s, and tells the paper “sub-Saharan Africa will be one of the few markets globally offering real growth in the next few years”:
Part of that reluctance was a legacy of Africa’s history and perceptions of sovereign risk, factors Mr Jennings said were overstated.
In addition, there is an added perception that Africa’s current growth spurt is a direct result of the commodities boom, which looks increasingly susceptible to weakening global conditions.
Not so, according to Mr Jennings, who said Africa continued to grow through the global financial crisis despite the plummeting commodity prices.
“You had Nigeria growing at 7 per cent in 2009 at the same time that Russia had a 7 per cent GDP contraction,” he said.
“That proved that it was a very broad-based organic growth process that was involved.”
Renaissance’s major African investments have been in real estate and the bank is now one of the leading landowners on the continent. Jennings’s most recent clients include iron mine developers Sundance Resources active in Cameroon and Congo-Brazzaville, Bellzone Mining (Guinea) and African Minerals (Sierra Leone). While Sundance and Bellzone are small players London-listed African Minerals (LON:AMI) is worth $2.4 billion.
The company in November shipped the first iron ore from its Tonkolili mine via its own rail and port infrastructure. African Minerals stock has had a great start to 2012 gaining more than 14% with 6.75% of that coming on Wednesday.
