News

January 25, 2008

Peter Hambro on track for one million ounces production, but politicians not helping the cause

By Alastair Ford

“Who suffers here? Does Russia suffer? No! I suffer! My shareholders suffer!” Peter Hambro’s in a fairly downbeat mood about the current state of Anglo-Russian relations and their effect on business. At this stage in the game, it’s not so much the tangible side of things that’s taking a hit – the troublesome Oleg Mitvol has gone quiet, and threats of asset seizures seem to have died down. It’s more that the climate of goodwill that Mr Hambro hitherto enjoyed has evaporated. As Mr Hambro says, Mr Putin’s anti-British pronouncements are beginning to affect the Russian “man in the street”. And on the other side of the fence, it’s getting harder to get his Russians visas for the UK.

Still, Mr Hambro is impatient with the idea that there ought to be a Russian discount, or at the very least one that delivers such a disparity between the Russian-focussed companies and African ones. In his view the risk in Africa is markedly greater. And it’s in that context comments by Liberum Capital’s Michael Rawlinson on Peter Hambro’s recent trading update make interesting reading. In complex analyst-speak - setting enterprise value against projected earnings before tax, interest and host...