Keen to take advantage of growth opportunities in various Asian economies, LontohCoal plans to open its first Hong Kong office in early February 2012 and list on the city’s stock exchange within a few months, Mining Weekly reports.
A series of meetings have been held between the company’s bosses and leaders of a Hong Kong business delegation for South Africa. All parties are convinced that establishing offices in the city represents an important positive step for LontohCoal in Asia.
The company’s vice president, Renita Moonsamy, will lead development at its Hong Kong offices.
For Lontoh, the move represents a key step in a plan to float on the Hong Kong stock exchange, raise large-scale investment, and build an enormous coking and thermal coal mine in Zimbabwe.
Plans are also in place for the company to dramatically increase the scale of coal production in its native South Africa, with capital raised in Hong Kong expected to make this possible.
“This requires a deep equity capital pool, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange provides the company with the opportunity of being able to raise large-scale capital to fast-track these developments,” Lontoh’s chief executive, Tshepo Kgadima, is quoted as saying.
The expansive development plans outlined by the mining group’s bosses recently are based largely on the likelihood that demand for energy and coal, in particular, will continue to rise sharply across Asia in coming years.
According to a report from CBRE earlier this year, Hong Kong’s offices are some of the world’s most expensive to rent in terms of price per square foot. London’s West End and the City also made the property adviser’s list of the most costly places to rent offices.
Editor’s notes: As of May 2024, it appeared that LontohCoal was no longer trading.
Research discovered that a journalist had reported an alleged misappropriation of investors’ monies and that the company had taken subsequent legal action against the reporter.
It also appeared that, as stated by the search engine, “In response to a complaint that we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed” results from Google’s search results.
LontohCoal did not have a live website in June 2024.