Sheffield appoints UBS

Sheffield Resources has appointed global investment bank UBS as its corporate adviser to help assess potential investments by a strategic partner in the Thunderbird mineral sands project in the Kimberley.

Sheffield has previously worked closely with Perth-based Azure Capital, which acted as corporate adviser for Sheffield when it secured $335 million in debt funding.

That arrangement comprised a $240 million debt facility with Taurus Mining Finance and a $95 million loan through the Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund.

In a statement to the ASX, Sheffield said interest from a number of potential strategic partners, particularly in relation to the funding of Thunderbird, had increased following completion of key permitting, offtake, and debt-funding milestones.

“Consequently, Sheffield has engaged UBS to manage a structured, formal process to evaluate and progress this interest and identify whether the introduction of a strategic party would assist the company in achieving its objective of optimising the outcome to shareholders through Thunderbird’s development,” the statement read.

“The introduction of a strategic party to Thunderbird via this process could have the effect of reducing the residual equity funding requirement attributable to Sheffield, as the strategic partner would likely be responsible for their proportionate share of residual capital requirements in the case of a project level investment.”

UBS’s Perth office is led by Tim Andrew, who joined the investment bank late last year, after previous Perth head Tim Day and his local staff left the company in mid-2017 to establish Sternship Advisers.

Sheffield also announced it had initiated a share purchase plan to raise up to $3 million, following completion of a share placement in December which raised $16 million.

Credit Suisse and RBC Capital Markets acted as joint lead managers.

Shares in Sheffield were up 0.8 per cent to trade at 63 cents each by the close of trade.