Mongolian Mining’s Proposed Equity Issuance Is Credit Positive
Last Friday, Mongolian Mining Corporation (MMC, Caa2 negative) announced that it will raise equity
through the issuance of around HKD1.56 billion. The equity raise is credit positive because it will alleviate
the company’s liquidity pressures, given its large debt-servicing requirements and challenging operating
environment.
The company said that it will mainly use the proceeds to strengthen its liquidity position and replenish
working capital. Assuming MMC uses all of the proceeds to pay down debt, MMC’s reported debt would
decline by around 22% to $693 million from $893 million at June 2014, while adjusted debt/EBITDA
would fall to 7.7x from around 10.2x.
A successful equity raise would boost MMC’s liquidity position by about $200 million, which, along with
existing cash on hand of $60 million as of 30 September 2014, would be sufficient to address debt principal
repayments of $144 million over the next 12 months.
MMC is suffering from net operating losses and is unable to generate positive operating cash flow, based on
our current estimate of the Queensland benchmark coking coal price of around $120-$125 per ton (the
break-even price is around $152 per ton). The company has been focused on cost cutting and preserving
liquidity for the past 12-18 months through asset divestments (such as the sale of its paved road to Erdenes
MGL), minimizing capex and inventory and restructuring the amortization of its bank loans.
The largest privately owned coking coal mining company in Mongolia, MMC has two producing mines in
the Gobi Desert: the Ukhaa Khudag mine, which produced 9.2 million tonnes of coking coal in 2013, and
the Baruu Naran mine, which MMC acquired in 2011 and which produced 500,000 tonnes of run-of-mine
coal in 2013.