Nickel firm posts P4.8B in 6-mo net income

Global Ferronickel Holdings Inc. (GFNI) posted a net income of P4.8 billion for July to December last year, the first semester of its current fiscal year.

Based on the mining firm’s latest financial report, the amount is almost thrice the figure for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014.

Also, GFNI said ore sales for the six months to December reached P9 billion, which was already about one-and-a-half times the P5.7 billion recorded for the 12 months prior.

Last week, the company announced that its stockholders, during a yearly meeting, had approved a plan to acquire two assets—one in Palawan and the other, in Zambales.

According to GFNI, stockholders representing some 72 percent of the company’s total outstanding shares “unanimously approved and ratified” the acquisition of all shares in Ferrochrome Resources Inc. (FRI) for $30 million.

Also approved was the purchase of all outstanding shares of Southeast Palawan Nickel Ventures Inc. (SPNVI) for $50 million.

The company’s board decided on these acquisitions in a meeting last November.

In January, GFNI executive vice president Dante R. Bravo said the company was gearing up for a follow-on offering to raise at least $170 million or about P7.4 billion, which could cover the cost of the Zambales and Palawan assets.

Bravo said GFNI was planning to raise the amount mainly through the issuance of primary shares although plans also provided for the issuance of secondary shares—a total of about 6 billion shares—which it hoped to do in April.

GFNI, which currently operates a mine in Surigao del Norte, believes that the addition of a project in Palawan could ramp up production to about 10 million metric tons yearly from the current six to seven million tons.

Bravo said the company was prepared to spend $30 million for the Palawan project and $20 million for Zambales.

According to GFNI, FRI has two existing operating agreements in Zambales—covering a total of 4,305 hectares—to explore, develop and utilize surface and underground chromite and other platinum group metals mineralization.