Hind Copper plans Rs1,700 crore

Hindustan Copper will come up with a follow-on public offer (FPO) to offload 10% of its equity to fund its expansion plans.

The company intends to raise Rs 1,700 crore through the FPO, which is half the Rs 3,500 crore requirement for the expansion.

The government has decided to divest 10% of its 99.59% stake in the miniratna copper major next year. With the FPO, the total dilution would be 20%.

“The disinvestment proceeds would go to the government, but we need money for our own capital expenditure plans. And that is the reason we are thinking in terms of an FPO,” Shakeel Ahmed, chairman and managing director, said on Thursday. 

He said the company is in talks with a private player in Namibia for acquiring mining leases.  “We are also eyeing copper mines in Afghanistan and Chile.”

On ore production, Ahmed said that the company planned to raise it to 11.4 million tonnes by 2019 from the present 3.19 million tonnes. “We plan to raise the output by 3.5 times in 5-7 years through reopening of closed mines, optimising production  and
acquisitions,” he said.