This company keeps on raising money at 20 cents. There are 635M shares on issue.
In 2014 the company bought 2 Potash Assets in Kazakhstan for $285M.
Last month it bought the third and largest potash asset - Satimola for $70M US and borrowed that amount from the China Minsheng Bank. The company received the loan only after the Chairperson of KPC, Madame Cheung gave her personal guarantee for the loan.
To understand this company, you have to understand what is happening with China.
In just 30 years, China has developed from a poor inward-looking agricultural country to a global manufacturing powerhouse. Its model of investing and producing at home and exporting to developed markets has elevated it to the world’s second-largest economy after the USA.
China’s leadership is looking for new channels to sustain its appetite for growth at a time when developing neighbours are experiencing rapidly rising demand.
At the heart of One Belt, One Road lies the creation of an economic land belt that includes countries on the original Silk Road through Central Asia, West Asia, the Middle East and Europe, as well as a maritime road that links China’s port facilities with the African coast, pushing up through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean.
They are re-creating land and sea trade routes to Europe.
So how does this fit with KPC.
In December 2014,
The Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visiting Kazakhstan and with the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov - KPC, CITIC Construction Co., Ltd (CITICC), the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC) and the Ministry of Investment and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan (MID) signed a four-party Framework Agreement on Cooperation in relation to a Potash Resources Development Project.
ICBC which is the world’s largest bank by assets intends to provide financing and financial support to the Potash Project. It will bring its corporate capability and related advantages to the development of the Potash Project. Funding from ICBC will be determined in consultation with KPC and its partners and will take the form of various types of financing options.
CITICC will be the EPC partner to the Potash Project. CITICC is a world-renowned engineering company, particularly in the area of the construction of potash production base.
Under the terms of the Framework Agreement, KPC plans to build a potash production base (Potash Project) in Kazakhstan within 10 years and achieve potash fertilizer production capacity of over 7 million tonnes per annum in order to meet China and Kazakhstan agriculture markets’ demand.
There are all sorts of links back between KPC's shareholders and the Chines SOE's. That is how China does this sort of thing.
In essence, KPC is the tiny little Aussie company being used as the vehicle to build a very significant Potash business in K'stan to supply the Chinese Government with Potash. It hasn't been an easy road for this company and the battles to get satimola have taken ages.
KPC Price at posting:
15.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held