re: Ann: Notice of initial substantial holder... UOB Kay Hian...

re: Ann: Notice of initial substantial holder... UOB Kay Hian Private LTD are still keen to take money off the table, hence why SP is in holding pattern.

Remember this.....

Kagara Zinc Ltd., the best performer in Australia's benchmark stock index this year, said it has been "informally approached" by a number of interested parties, stoking speculation that the company could be a takeover target.

None of the approaches has been attractive to the board, the Perth-based miner said in a statement today. Kagara, which raised A$5.25 million when it first sold shares to the public in 1999, is worth A$1.5 billion ($1.2 billion) today.

Mining companies are scouring the world for assets to expand output as prices of commodities soar. The price of zinc, which is mainly used to galvanize steel, rose to a record yesterday for a fourth straight day.

"The company has got a proven track record of developing their projects," said Albert Landman, a strategist at Tricom Futures Services Pty., who helps advise on A$80 million in Australian equities. "It's probably fair to say that the investment community, as a whole, has been behind the curve in the strength and upside in base-metal prices."

Shares of Kagara rose 27 cents, or 3.6 percent, to A$7.72 on Australian Stock Exchange at the 4:10 p.m. close of trade in Sydney. The stock has more than tripled this year.

"We are not currently in discussions with any interested parties," Kagara's Executive Chairman Kim Robinson said in the statement, which was lodged with exchange. Robinson didn't specify what the approaches had been about.

The company sells all of its output to Korea Zinc Co., the world's biggest smelter of the metal, which also holds a 14 percent stake in Kagara.

Zinc Surges

Kagara said July 28 that its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization will rise to about $230 million in the year ended June 30, 2007, from $73 million last year, provided metal prices stay at current levels.

Zinc prices have gained as supplies of the metal have failed to keep pace with surging demand. The metal will average $1.95 a pound, or $4,299 a metric ton next year, up from a previous forecast of $1.30 a pound, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts led by Oscar Cabrera said in a report yesterday.

Zinc for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange, the world's largest such bourse, gained $95, or 2.1 percent, to $4,515 a ton yesterday. The metal has averaged $3,078 a ton so far this year, compared with $1,392 in 2004.

Global zinc use will increase by 3.9 percent to 11.1 million tons this year, and by a further 2.6 percent to 11.4 million tons in 2007, the International Lead and Zinc Study Group said Oct. 9.

Chinese Demand

Demand for the metal in China, the world's biggest zinc consumer, may rise 56 percent by 2010, Beijing Antaike Information Development Co. forecast in August. The country may need 4.8 million metric tons of zinc by the end of the decade, from 3.08 million tons in 2005, Feng Juncong, a senior analyst at the research agency, which advises the government, said.

Founded in 1981 to explore for and mine gemstones and tantalite in Western Australia state, Kagara became interested in zinc mining in Queensland state in 1997, according to the company's Web site.