Mining giant hit with class action lawsuit

via CAAI

Monday, 13 December 2010 15:00 Catherine James

TELIASONERA AB fell 0.7 percent over the week in Stockholm trading last week, after announcing a merger between its Cambodian company Star-Cell and Smart Mobile.

The value of shares in Sweden’s biggest phone company initially climbed 0.65 percent on Monday to 54.2 kronor (US$7.85), as it announced a plan to merge its Cambodian operations with its rival. It said would take a 25 percent stake in the new Smart Mobile-branded company, pending approval from Cambodian authorities.

Share price continued to rise during the week to 54.5 kronor on Wednesday, but ultimately closed Friday at 53.8 kronor.

Meanwhile, the Australian Stock Exchange’s (ASX) fourth gold miner with a Cambodian focus began trading last week.

Indochine Mining Ltd, which is exploring 4,000 square metres of land in Ratanakkiri and Kratie provinces, debuted on the ASX on Thursday at A$0.20 (US$0.197) a share, with a market capitalization of $54 million following a $20.1 million capital raising.

Its share price fell in the first day’s trading to $0.17, and closed the week marginally higher at $0.175.

As Indochine’s debuted, another ASX-listed gold miner OZ Minerals, which operates concessions in Mondulkkiri province, was slapped with a class action lawsuit by Slater & Gordon.

OZ’s share price initially traded up to A$1.675 from its $1.66 open on Thursday, but fell back to $1.63 by Friday’s close.

Slater & Gordon filed a statement Thursday with the ASX saying it would begin contacting OZ Minerals 94,000 shareholders about the class action from Friday. It claimed OZ Minerals failed to disclose the full extent of its debt and refinancing difficulties as it “struggled to stay afloat” in 2008.

Bank of China, which opened the doors of its first branch in Cambodia on Wednesday, saw its share price drop 2.84 percent over the week on the Hang Seng in Hong Kong, closing Friday at HK$4.10 (US$0.53).

The bank said Friday 99.1 percent of shareholders took up the rights issue for the Hang Seng-listed shares, raising a gross amount of HK$20.8 billion ($2.7 billion), on top of the 41.8 billion yuan ($6.3 billion) raised from its Shanghai-listed rights issue a month ago.

Its share price has declined more than 10 percent since November 4 when it hit near-12-month-high of HK$5 as it undertook its $9 billion capital raising to meet new, tighter capital requirements.