Baker Steel says Polar Acquisition (which it has a 49.99% stake in) is selling its net smelter royalty related to the Prognoz silver project. The sale is for $11m in cash. Baker Steel’s look through share of that is $5.16m, which should arrive in Q3. The value of the royalty in the end May NAV is just $1.24m. The NAV per share is 92.2p, and this adds about 2.7p to that.
This closes a chapter for the trust, which first invested in Polar Acquisition many years ago. The royalty was created when Polar sold its 50% stake in Prognoz to Polymetal in 2017. The trust sold the Polymetal shares it received for a decent price. Overall, the trust made a total return of $48.9m or around three times the total $15.9m invested. This despite Prognoz being a privately owned project located in Russia with all the complications that entailed, especially after Russia attacked Ukraine.
The board is keen to narrow the discount, which was 33.3% last night. It will let investors know what it plans to do in due course.
BSRT : Baker Steel flags uplift from Prognoz silver sale
