To Conserve Cash, SM May Merge Atlas Into an Enlarged Dominion, Then Distribute Dominion Shares as Dividends
Dominion Holdings could absorb the companies controlling Tampakan, merge with Atlas Mining, and become widely held after SM Investments distributes its Dominion shares. The ambitious sequence would conserve cash, but valuations, shareholder votes and billions of dollars in mine financing stand in the way. The Sy family’s effort to build a Philippine mining champion began with a listed holding company, a producing copper mine, and one of Southeast Asia’s largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits. The harder question is how to put those pieces together without exhausting the cash needed to operate and develop them. Dominion Holdings Inc., controlled by the Sy family’s privately held Monte Sur Equity Holdings Inc. and chaired by Isidro Consunji, has begun assembling a mining portfolio around Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. and the Tampakan copper-gold project in Mindanao. The first confirmed step is a proposed share-swap merger with Indophil Resources Phils. Inc. and ...