Mongolian coal giant Tavan Tolgoi plans to sell US$1 billion of shares in Hong Kong, vindicating city’s push to attract foreign IPOs

• Tavan Tolgoi has hired an adviser to oversee preparations for the share sale, including the underwriter selection process, according to people familiar with the matter
• The company has been interviewing banks seeking a role on the IPO, targeted for 2020

Mongolian state-owned coal miner Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi JSC is ramping up work on a planned Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) that could raise more than US$1 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

The coal miner has hired an adviser to oversee preparations for the share sale, including the underwriter selection process, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. The company has been interviewing banks seeking a role on the IPO and targets a listing as soon as next year, the people said.

A successful share sale would mark at least the third effort to raise money to develop the Tavan Tolgoi mine after international partnerships failed in 2011 and 2015. Mongolian lawmakers in 2018 approved a plan to sell up to 30 per cent of Tavan Tolgoi mine.

IPOs in Hong Kong have raised US$20.4 billion this year, down from US$32.7 billion during the same period in 2018, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A successful listing of Tavan Tolgoi would represent a victory for the Hong Kong bourse 

after years of seeking to lure

 big foreign mining companies to list in the city.

Deliberations on the share sale are at an early stage and details including size and timing may change, the people said. Representatives for Mongolia’s Ministry of Mining and Tavan Tolgoi didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Tavan Tolgoi, which means “five hills,” refers to the original location of the coal ore, according to its website. Tavan Tolgoi coal mine, located in the Gobi desert, is the largest coal ore deposit in Mongolia. Its deposit is estimated at a total of over 6 billion metric tonnes of coal, and more than one-third of which is high-grade hard coking coal, the website said.

Mongolia has been hopeful of a share sale of Tavan Tolgoi since the country started exporting coal to China in 2011.

A US$3 billion international share sale plan for 2012 didn’t materialise after Ulan Bator changed its plans for investment in the coal mine. An attempt to shore up $4 billion investment from a consortium including China Shenhua Energy and Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. fell through in 2015 after the parliament stepped in saying it needed to review terms of the deal.

Source:Bloomberg news