Daily Mail, Wednesday, March 4, 2020^
Potash miner
saved despite
backlash
by Francesca Washtell
Boris bounce for builders
BRITAIN’s construction industry powered
up last month as Brexit uncertainty lifted
and the controversial High Speed 2 (HS2)
project was finally approved.
The sector grew for the first time since
April, and the IHS Markit/CIPS construc-
tion purchasing managers’ index rose
from 48.4 in January to 52.6, its highest
since 2018. Above 50 indicates growth.
Firms reported a surge of orders, with
February’s numbers at their highest since
- Some said contracts from the HS2
rail network and other transport projects
could boost their businesses.
Max Jones, at Lloyds Bank Commercial
Banking’s infrastructure and construction
team, said: ‘The mood among contractors
is broadly positive after HS2 was given the
green light. Next week’s Budget has the
potential to improve the outlook further
given the Government’s hints that infra-
structure will feature prominently.’
THE Bank of England’s new Governor is
preparing to defend himself in court along-
side RBS in a fresh claim brought by a vic-
tim of the lender’s toxic Global Restructur-
ing Group (GRG).
Andrew Bailey and the Financial Conduct
Authority (FCA) are named as defendants
in a legal claim brought by Chris Gordon,
44, a former property developer.
It is another headache for Bailey, head of
the FCA, who is to be grilled by the Treas-
ury Select Committee today over whether
he is the right person to take over as Gover-
nor of the Bank of England this month.
In a trial due to be heard in a Belfast High
Court later this year, Gordon alleges RBS
deliberately ran his property development
business into the ground following the
bank’s £45.5bn taxpayer bailout in 2008.
He claims RBS, through its subsidiary
Ulster Bank, fraudulently or negligently
advised him to take out complicated inter-
est rate hedging products on his loans.
Gordon also alleges that Bailey and the
FCA failed in their duty to supervise RBS.
An FCA spokesman said: ‘Mr Gordon
has issued a claim in Northern Ireland
against a number of parties. Mr Bailey
and the FCA maintain that the claim is
without merit.’
RBS declined to comment.
Bailey to face
court grilling
£292m British Steel bill
TAXPAYERS face a hefty bill after British
Steel was finally rescued by Chinese buyers- 292 days after it collapsed.
The company ran out of cash in May due
to poor trading, rising costs and the weak
pound. Since then it has been kept afloat,
while losing an estimated £1m a day, by the
Government while a buyer is sought.
Yesterday China’s Jingye, which has been
in talks for months, confirmed it will take
control of the company from Monday.
But taxpayers face a bill for keeping it
afloat since May – possibly as much as
£292m. That is after accounts showed Brit-
ish Steel made a loss of £371.6m in the year
to March 31.
Accountants at EY have reportedly been
making £1m a week for running it on behalf
of the Official Receiver, which claimed
reports of losses of £1m a day were inaccu-
rate, but declined to say how much the cost
to taxpayers would be. The takeover saves
around 3,700 jobs, with 400 roles axed.
Jingye has vowed to pump in £1.2bn.Page 73positive outcome from today’s
meeting secures a return for share-
holders, and provides greater cer-
tainty in terms of safeguarding the
project, protecting the jobs of our
employees, and allowing the com-
munity, region and the UK to con-
tinue to benefit from the project.’
Sirius has estimated that its
sprawling Woodsmith Mine would
generate £100bn for the UK econ-
omy over the next 50 years.
The result of the vote, which was
released late last night, came after
a meeting in London where angry
shareholders grilled bosses about
the deal and why the company has
ended up on the brink of collapse.
Sirius installed extra security
guards at the meeting in the City
after what Scrimshaw described
as online ‘abuse’ and ‘threats of
violence’ against management.
Sirius was trading at 24p a share
last April and peaked at around
44p in August 2016. But the
shares collapsed last September
after it failed to raise £400m that
would have given it access to
more cash needed to complete
the mine, after the Governmentdeclined to commit to guarantee-
ing funding.
Shareholders rallied together to
urge the company to either get a
better offer from Anglo or find an
alternative deal that would have
seen it stay on the stock market.
Cliff Weight, a director at investor
body ShareSoc who oversaw a Sir-
ius Shareholder Group, said: ‘Many
individual shareholders will be
thankful that they get 5.5p – which
was the only offer on the table.
‘The 20pc backlash is very high
and reflects the enormous dissatis-faction of many individuals who
financed this project in its early
stages and, very sadly, have now
lost significant sums.’
Major institutional shareholder
Jupiter Asset Management urged
the company to seek a better offer,
and hedge fund Odey Asset Man-
agement last week said it would
vote against the deal.
Chief executive Chris Fraser (pic-
tured) yesterday said: ‘This is not a
great price, but it is the price, and
the alternative is most likely
administration.’AN AMBITIOUS project to build
a potash mine in the North York
Moors has been saved from col-
lapse despite a backlash from furi-
ous shareholders.
Sirius Minerals investors voted in
favour of a £405m rescue takeover put
forward by FTSE 100 mining giant
Anglo American.
Just over 80pc of votes were cast in favour
and nearly 20pc against. That meant the
result was close as Anglo needed to secure
the support of 75pc of votes for it to pass.
It was expected to be a close call after
angry retail investors pledged to vote it
down because they felt it undervalued
the company.
Anglo offered 5.5p per share to buy
Sirius, which is much less than many
private shareholders will have paid for
their stock.
Sirius had an estimated 85,000 private
investors who held around 50pc of its
shares. This is a much higher proportion
than for most companies.
The voter turnout was around 43pc –
which is higher than the roughly one-third
who tend to vote at Sirius meetings.
Sirius bosses insisted it would run out of
money and collapse within weeks if Anglo’s
offer wasn’t voted through.
It has spent years developing a huge
mine in the North York Moors national
park, near Whitby, to access a naturally
occurring fertiliser called polyhalite.
Chairman Russell Scrimshaw said: ‘The
Anglo American seals Sirius Minerals deal