The chief executive of Kenmare Resources said he recognises that some shareholders think that selling the mining company is the “right thing” to do “in time”, but not necessarily now, when the market for its products is “hopefully” reaching the bottom of a price cycle.
It comes after the Dublin-listed company, which laid off 15 per cent of its mining staff and suspended its dividend earlier this year, reported an adjusted after-tax loss of $34.1 million in its half-year report on Wednesday morning.
Still, the company said it expects to meet its shipment targets this year despite a 34 per cent decline in production at its titanium minerals mine in Mozambique in the first six months of 2026 and plunging revenues amid “challenging market conditions”.
Kenmare also said that progress has been made in its talks with the government of Mozambique, which is seeking higher mineral processing and export royalties from the company, in recent weeks. The protracted discussions have weighed heavily on Kenmare’s share price in recent times.
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Against this backdrop, the company last year walked away from takeover talks with its former managing director Michael Carvill and an Abu Dhabi private equity firm after the consortium made it clear it would only be willing to proceed with a bid that was below its initial £473 million (€553 million) proposal.
Asked whether the company would accept a similar offer today, given the weak performance of its share price since last summer, CEO Tom Hickey reiterated that the consortium had never made a formal bid for the business.
“If it had finalised its arrangements and put an offer to the board, we would have consulted with our shareholders,” he said, adding: “It’s not like we refused an offer. There was an approach.
“Having said that, our share price hasn’t thrived in the intervening period, and people might have a different view on what a value would be now, because the market is a bit tricky,” Hickey told The Irish Times.
On Kenmare’s future as a publicly traded company, he said that shareholders value the “exposure” Kenmare’s listing gives the company. “But I think equally, they’re frustrated by the challenge of being a small cap, single country, single commodity [company].
“Some shareholders are of the view that, in time, a deal is the right thing, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that a deal now is the right thing.”
Hickey said it’s “pretty clear” that Kenmare is “hopefully towards the bottom of a price cycle” for its products and “cash flows and value could be significantly better” in a few years.
Kenmare reported a 16 per cent year-on-year decline in mining product revenues to $134.5 million in the first half, as global prices for its main product, ilmenite, remained depressed.
Production has also been impacted by the slow ramp-up of its main plant at the Moma mine site, which accounts for about 50 per cent of its capacity, after a series of upgrades. The plant is being moved to a different part of the site to target a new ore body, but Hickey said “teething problems” have taken some time to address.
He also said that discussions with the Mozambique government over the royalties agreement have made “good progress” but that he did not want to put a timeline on the process. “We’ve had a few false starts here and I think everyone wants to avoid another one.”
