Wyloo's frontman fends off IPO offers

Wyloo Metals chief executive Luca Giacovazzi says ‘every banker on the street’ has pitched an IPO to the Andrew Forrest-owned group, receiving inbound interest since arriving at Diggers & Dealers.

Addressing media following his first time speaking at the conference, Mr Giacovazzi said the assets the private mining group had managed to pull together was ‘not lost’ on them, but that the group was not looking to go public.

“We’ve of course had every banker on the street pitch the idea of an IPO to us, it’s not lost on us that what we’ve pulled together as portfolio is quite unique,” he said, confirming that he had been approached since arriving at Diggers & Dealers on Tuesday afternoon.

“We’re not thinking about [listing] at the moment… we’re just focused on our own operations, integrating Mincor into the business.”

Wyloo - which has been spearheaded by Mr Giacovazzi since 2017 - is part of Andrew and Nicola Forrest's private family office, Tatarrang. 

The company recently completed a takeover of Mincor, launching the process when the target was at the pointy end of the ramp-up process at its Kambalda nickel operations, assets the target had brought back to production in 2022 after being suspended in 2016.

Mr Forrest's company already had a substantial foothold of 19.9 per cent before moving in on the company in March this year.

Some 300 Kambalda employees have joined Wyloo as a result of the takeover, with its combined head office now comprising of approximately 50 people. 

Addressing a Diggers audience on Wednesday, Mr Giacovazzi outlined the potential of its Ring of Fire project in Ontario, which was acquired following a bidding war against BHP. 

He said construction was likely to start at the project in 2027 in hopes of mining by 2030.

Outside of nickel, Wyloo also has a cornerstone investment in ASX-listed rare earths developer Hastings Technology Metals through a secured exchangeable notes arrangement. 

The company is developing the Yangibana project in WA's Gascoyne region but has faced rising costs at the project amid general inflationary pressures. 

Hastings is busily trying to secure funding arrangements for the first stage of the build and is in discussions on a range of debt and equity funding options. 

Mr Giacovazzi, who has been public about the strategic nature of the investment in the company, said he was confident in the plan the team had come up with. 

"They've split the project in half to manage some of the cost pressures...and I think there's such strong support from federal, state export agencies that want to see the project get up," he said. 

"The thing we really like about Hastings is it's more than shovel ready, they've started building it, and I think that's quite rare."