Oz Minerals in limbo after delayed takeover decision

A stock market analyst says the future of OZ Minerals is in limbo after the Foreign Investment Review Board delayed its decision about whether China Minmetals can take over the struggling miner.

Gavin Wendt says OZ Minerals relies on support from a consortium of banks.

He says it may take the board three months to decide if it approves the bid, and that is bad news for the miner.

"OZ Minerals is currently surviving with the support of its bankers; that support could be withdrawn at any moment and currently the company that is Oz Minerals is trying to negotiate an extension of that banking support and that's not an easy thing because it's a consortium of bankers that are involved," he said.

"It only takes one of those banks to pull out... that could spell disaster."

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Tue 24th March 2009 - 03:18pm