Atalaya Mining Copper (LON: ATYM), the European copper producer that operates the Proyecto Riotinto mine in southwest Spain, saw its shares fall sharply after commodity trading house Trafigura sold its entire remaining stake in an overnight placing at 915 pence a share.
The stock traded down as much as 5% in early dealing today, changing hands around 944.5p versus Tuesday’s close of 994.5p, within a 52-week range of roughly 474.9p to 1086.5p.
Trafigura sold its stake through Urion Investment Holdings, a Trafigura group entity and long-standing Atalaya shareholder, in a secondary placing announced yesterday and confirmed before the London open today. J.P. Morgan SE acted as sole global coordinator and joint bookrunner, alongside BMO Capital Markets as joint bookrunner. The placing covered 16,821,212 shares, raising roughly £154m gross, with Trafigura set to have exited its Atalaya shareholding in full once the deal settles.
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Because this was a secondary sale of existing shares rather than a new issue, Atalaya itself receives none of the proceeds and its cash position and share count are unchanged. The 915p placing price sat around 8% below Tuesday’s 994.5p close, a discount typically needed to clear a large block quickly, and that gap, combined with the larger free float, the portion of shares now available for public trading, accounts for the stock’s fall in early trading.
The sale marks a change of ownership rather than a verdict on the business: Trafigura’s exit reflects its own portfolio decision, not Atalaya’s operating performance.
Settlement of the placing is expected in the days ahead, at which point Trafigura will no longer feature on Atalaya’s shareholder register after years as an anchor investor.
