‘MOPANI IS A GOOD DEAL’

By KETRA KALUNGA THE acquisition of majority shares in Mopani Copper Mines is a well negotiated deal, says Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Mines, Barnaby Mulenga. Mr. Mulenga was responding to concerns from some stakeholders that the company may have been undervalued. He clarified that there was no valuation of the assets in the acquisition process because the negotiations were centred on reducing the US$4.8 billion loan Mopani owed to its shareholders. Mr Mulenga said in an interview that the only negotiations which took place were on reducing the US$4.8 billion dollars debt owed by Mopani in shareholder investments to US$1.5 billion. Mr. Mulenga explained that the US$1.5 billion debt was not about the value of the assets but the reduced debt of the company owed to the shareholders. “There was no valuation, the issue which was there was the debt, the debt of US$4.8 billion, it was then negotiated to US$1.5 billion,” he said. The government through ZCCM-IH which already has 10 percent shares bought a 90 percent stake in Mopani Copper Mines when it sealed an agreement with Glencore to reduce the US$4.8 billion debt owed to its shareholders. The loan would be repaid through an off-tale agreement granted to Glencore International using 10 percent of the production.