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Norway's sovereign wealth fund to reduce European exposure
By Balazs Koranyi and Joachim Dagenborg
Reuters
Friday, March 30, 2012
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/30/norway-wealthfund-idUSL6E8EU2U...
Norway's $610 billion sovereign wealth fund, Europe's biggest equity investor, plans to sharply reduce its European exposure while raising investments in emerging markets and Asia-Pacific, the finance ministry said on Friday.
Of its entire bond, fixed income and real estate portfolio, European investments will be "gradually" reduced to 41 percent from 54 percent, while Asia-Pacific's share will rise to 19 percent from 11 percent, Finance Minister Sigbjoern Johnsen told a news conference.
"We're reducing our European exposure because we see that economic development in the global economy is changing and this should also be reflected in our investment strategy," Johnsen said. "Most likely we'll have to sell some assets in Europe."
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Prophecy Platinum (TSXV: NKL) and Ursa Major Minerals
Sign Combination Agreement
Company Press Release
Friday, March 2, 2012
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada -- Prophecy Platinum Corp. (TSX-V: NKL, OTC-QX: PNIKF, Frankfurt: P94P) and Ursa Major Minerals Inc. have signed a binding letter of agreement for a business combination through a proposed all-share transaction. In doing so Prophecy and Ursa have acted at arm's length and the transaction has been negotiated at arm's length.
Prophecy will issue one common share in exchange for every 25 outstanding common shares of Ursa. Ursa options and warrants will be exchanged for options and warrants of Prophecy on an agreed schedule.
Prophecy's offer represents a value of about $0.15 per each common share of Ursa based on Prophecy's share price of $3.70 as at March 1, representing a premium of 130 percent to Ursa's March 1 closing price of $0.065.
Prophecy is to subscribe for $1 million common shares of Ursa by way of private placement financing at $0.06 per share, subject to regulatory approval. Upon placement completion, John Lee and Greg Hall, current Prophecy directors, will be appointed to Ursa's board.
Prophecy thus will become a mid-tier resource company with a robust and
diversified pipeline of platinum nickel projects, including:
-- The fully permitted open-pit Shakespeare PGM-Ni-Cu mine close to Sudbury, Ontario, infrastructure with near-term production capabilities.
-- The flagship Wellgreen (Yukon) PGM-Ni-Cu project with more than 10 million ounces of Pt-Pd-Au inferred resource. Drilling is under way and a preliminary economic assessment study is pending.
-- Manitoba's Lynn Lake Ni-Cu project with more than 262 million pounds Ni and 138 million pounds Cu measured and indicated.
For the complete announcement, please visit Prophecy Platinum's Internet site here:
http://www.prophecyplat.com/news_2012_mar02_prophecy_platinum_ursa_major...
As a result, the share of emerging markets in the fund's total portfolio will rise to 10 percent from 6 percent and the share of the Americas and Africa will rise to 40 percent from 35 percent.
"It is just not possible to say how long this will take ... it should be gradual and taking into account market circumstances," ministry State Secretary Hilde Singsaas said.
Johnsen added that a previous rebalancing took two years.
The fund, which now holds over $120,000 per man, woman, and child in Norway, is forecast to grow to 5.86 trillion crowns or $1.03 trillion by the start of 2020 as it collect the country's lucrative oil and gas revenues.
It had a return on investment of 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and -2.5 percent in all of 2011 as it remained heavily exposed to Europe amid its market turbulence.
Shares from developed Europe, now making up 47 percent of the Fund's equity portfolio, will be reduced to 38 percent. In the fixed-income portfolio, developed Europe's weight will be cut to 40 percent from 60 percent.
In fixed income, developed Asia-Pacific's share will be lifted to 11 percent from 5 percent while its share of the equity portfolio will rise to 15 percent from 11 percent, the finance ministry said.
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Sona Discovers Potential High-Grade Gold Mineralization
at Blackdome in British Columbia -- 13.6g over 1.5 Meters
From a Company Press Release
November 22, 2011
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- With its latest surface diamond drilling program at its 100-percent-owned, formerly producing Blackdome gold mine in southern British Columbia, Sona Resources Corp. has discovered a potentially high-grade gold-mineralized area, with one hole intersecting 13.6 grams of gold in 1.5 meters of core drilling.
"We intersected a promising new mineralized zone, and we feel optimistic about the assay results," says Sona's president and CEO, John P. Thompson. "We have undertaken an aggressive exploration program that has tested a number of target zones. Our discovery of this new gold-bearing structure is significant, and it represents a positive development for the company."
Sona aims to bring its permitted Blackdome mill back into production over the next year and a half, at a rate of 200 tonnes per day, with feed from the formerly producing Blackdome mine and the nearby Elizabeth gold deposit property. A positive preliminary economic assessment by Micon International Ltd., based on a gold price of $950 per ounce over eight years, has estimated a cash cost of $208 per tonne milled, or $686 per gold ounce recovered.
For the company's complete press release, please visit:
http://www.sonaresources.com/_resources/news/SONA_NR18_2011-opt.pdf
