BVI Company News

French nuclear energy group Areva launched an agreed takeover for UraMin Inc., having valued it at more than $2.5 billion, which is a 21% premium over UraMin 20-day average trading price as of June 8, 2007.  It was announced that Areva and UraMin entered into an agreement in respect of Areva’s friendly cash offer for 100% of the share capital of UraMin, while Areva already owned 5.5% of UraMin. The cash offer was pitched at $7.75 per UraMin share.

Also, in connection with the offer, all directors and some other shareholders representing approximately 25% of the outstanding UraMin shares have entered into lock-up agreements with Areva pursuant to which they have agreed to tender all their UraMin shares to AREVA’s offer.

The support agreement entered into between Areva and UraMin provides for, among other things, in case a superior proposal is accepted by UraMin, a right to match in favour of Areva. The agreement also includes a break up fee of US$ 75 million in favour of AREVA under certain circumstances.

UraMin is an emerging Africa-focused uranium producer, having mineral rights in Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Chad and the Central African Republic. The company was registered in February 2005 in the British Virgin Islands and is listed on London and Toronto stock exchanges. The Company currently has working capital of approximately US$285 million, and a market capitalization of approximately US$2 billion.

UraMin’s shares, which have already doubled this year, jumped another 10% after the sale announcement. The company has three projects that are due to start production by the end of 2009.

A 51% stake in a newly established British Virgin Islands-registered subsidiary BSI Logistics has been acquired by Grand Power Express International through Parkway Global.

About C$207,774 was planned to be invested for a 51% interest in BSI Logistics by Grand Power Express. The remaining 49% were acquired by the minority shareholder, Centervision International. The acquisition came into effect on June 1.

To oversee the operations of BSI Logistics, Grand Power Express will appoint all of the directors to the BSI’s board. It should be noted that the principals of Centrevision International are pioneers in the airfreight industry in Hong Kong having big experience in both the European and North America markets.

In May 2006, BSI was incorporated as a Hong Kong-based freight forwarding and logistics company to offer a comprehensive variety of supply chain management services and logistics solutions as well as such value-added auxiliary services as pre-shipment estimating, banking, and documentation for different industry customers.

The president & CEO of Grand Power Logistics, Ricky Chiu, said that this acquisition is relatively small, however it is valuable because it provides the company with another efficient and well-established access to cargo consolidation markets. According to him, since the middle of  2006, the company was focused more on direct clients, rather than the co-loading or air-cargo consolidation, therefore working with a specialist company in order to consolidate cargo meant for Europe and North America is valuable for Grand Power. Chiu also added that the company hopes to contribute between C$1 million and C$1.5 million in sales revenue to the company by means of this arrangement.