RE: RE: RE: you have to start talking about it aga From the yahoo board:
"TCK has a dual share structure, and this prevents buyouts by its very nature. The holders of the super voting Class A shares (trusts and holding companies controlled by Norman Keevil, and Sumotomo direct stake) likely won't allow a buyout. They have 100 votes for every vote a Class B shareholder has. Total Class A votes > total Class B votes. Norman Keevil is the chairman and builder of what is now Teck Resources. However he is 74 yrs old. and who knows what his heirs will do with the shares upon his demise. His blacksheep son Scott will likely step into some directorship role at TCK at some point, but likely only to protect the family trusts Keevil's shares get dumped into upon his demise. Sumotomo is keiretsu (yes, it does exist and is real) and won't allow TCK (who supplies them and their keiretsu group's industrial partners, namely Sumotomo Metals w. large portions of their met coal & base metals needs) to fall into the hands of BHP or RIO, who supply enemy Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and Dai-Ichi Kangyo(DKB) groups, respectively. [Incidently, our Sojitz friends at Endako are part of the DKB empire, by the way.] Hence Sumotomo's 48% Class A super voting stake in TCK, one of their primary met coal and base metal suppliers for the Sumotomo Metals group. Canada has also been burned by allowing their corporate champions to get taken out by foreigners. Canadians feel their country got the wrong end of the stick regarding the Falconbridge/Xstrata and Vale/INCO deals, so politically, doubt Canada lets TCK get consumed. Just as Canuck pols chased off BHP, who came calling for Potash, I'd think BC provincial goes into attack mode if someone brushes up against TCK. So, buyout of TCK by foreign major... unlikely. Doesn't mean that some big outfit can't try, but I doubt (!!!) it would close without regulatory approval (emphasis added). In the future, when commodity markets are more favorable, and after TCK gets their oil sands operations going (if...), some type of spin off more likely, dependent upon any valuation difference in energy vs. mining. TCK didn't saddle up $435mm and bed down w. Silverbirch for just the giggles, but the product of that union is a decade away. Later."