Cetamin move no ASX slight

GOLD miner Centamin Egypt’s move to cancel its Australian listing does not herald an exodus of local miners from the Australian bourse, according to local industry players.

Since 1995, Perth-based Centamin has gone from struggling explorer to a $2 billion powerhouse as it has steadily developed its 13 million ounce Sukari gold mine, which poured first gold in June.

Yet the exotic lure of Egypt’s first modern gold mine has never appealed to local investors as much as to their less risk-averse counterparts in London and North America.

With less than 15 per cent of the miner’s shares now in Australian hands, and local share trade accounting for less than 3 per cent of its turnover during the past year, Centamin last week said it would delist from the Australian Securities Exchange at the end of January.

Instead, it would move its primary listing on to the main board of the London Stock Exchange and retain its existing listing on the mining-heavy Toronto Stock Exchange.

But despite the continued appeal of a Canadian or London listing to Australian miners, few expect a rush of other miners deserting the Australian bourse.

Resolute Mining chief Peter Sullivan, whose company has just commissioned the massive Syama gold mine in Mali, said an offshore listing was regularly considered.

“It’s horses for courses,” he said. “Generally speaking if you have offshore assets, there is an argument that they would be priced better in London or Toronto.

“So we’ve looked at it many times over the past 10 years and will continue to do so. But the biggest issue is having a sufficient capital base for the market to move into.”

Though 30 per cent of Resolute was held by a handful of European institutions, that holding was relatively illiquid compared to the smaller stake held by 4,000 or so retail investors in Australia.

Liam Twigger, managing director of corporate advisory PCF Capital, said listing on a major offshore exchange such as the TSX was often a logical step for miners, especially those with assets in offshore locations.

But that was not mutually exclusive with retaining an ASX listing, he said.

“Investors tend to want to trade their stock where there is the most liquidity ... so if there is no trading here it becomes a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy,” Mr Twigger said.

“But the ASX and TSX are the two great mining centres, and if you are raising capital for mining, I think it’s good to have a foothold in both.”