RE:RE:Wyloo offer at 70 cents or keep investing Toutching on your point.
Noront Resources
The Odey fund's position in Noront Resources is at 11.59% of its net asset value, and Courtenay said it is subject to scaling back within UCITS guidelines. He highlighted the stock in his July letter. He said the company is already on its path of acceleration to intrinsic value with a counteroffer from Wyloo Metals in August.
The Odey fund secured its initial position in Noront at a 1.5% premium to the initial binding offer from BHP Billiton. Although it was unusual for the fund to pay above a binding offer price for a stock, Courtenay judged the upside potential of the situation as "highly unusual," with net asset value estimates between $2 billion and $11 billion compared to the initial offer for the company. He explained that the situation offered 98.5% capital preservation but is combined with an "unusually high" equity upside optionality.
Andrew Forrest, the controlling shareholder of Wyloo Metals, issued a statement with the company's competing bid for Noront Resources. He noted that 17 years ago, some people told him Fortescue Metals' deposits would never be mined due to a lack of infrastructure, but they proved those critics wrong. He wants to do the same thing with Noront. He added that if shareholders share his view, "it's impossible to place a value today on a new mining district with the immense potential of these assets."
Courtenay said the Fortescue development Forrest spoke of made him the second-richest person in Australia and the 87th richest person in the world. Now Forrest must compete with BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, to determine who buys Noront Resources. Courtenay doesn't expect Forrest to give up quickly, especially given his personal net worth of $20 billion.
In Canada, the two offers from BHP and Wyloo have a three-month duration, so the Odey fund will see an accelerated timeline to the intrinsic value this competitive auction clears at by the end of November.