Small cap corner - Pensana - Part 2

Shares in Pensana, the London-listed rare earth minerals supplier, are up almost 10pc stoday after the company issued shares via placing at a premium to a blue chip investment house.

M&G Investment Management is paying 81p a share, or £10 million, for just over 12.3 million shares (around 5pc of the company) in Pensana. Below is a link to the company's press release:

https://www.investegate.co.uk/pensana-plc--pre-/prn/issue-of-equity/20211222080000P9852/ ​​​​

Now, subscribers to Betaville Intelligence will be familiar with Pensana as this website issued an uncooked alert in October suggesting an activist fund has built up a sizeable stake in the business, raising speculation there may soon be some corporate activity at the firm.

The latest update with regards to the activist situation is that an investor called Artisan Partners has secretly been accumulating a large shareholding in Pensana, according to people following the situation.

Artisan, which is rumoured to own just below 3pc, isn't quite the ultra activist such as Elliott Advisers but it does have a track record of activism with some European companies, such as French food giant Danone and Swiss luxury goods company Compagnie Financiere Richemont.

Indeed, this year Artisan joined Bluebell's activist effort at Danone and also recently backed some of Third Point's views about Compagnie Financiere Richemont, the luxury goods giant controlled by South African billionaire Johan Rupert.

Whether Artisan is the previously rumoured "activist" fund targeting Pensana remains to be seen.

People following the situation previously said the fund accumulating a large shareholding in Pensana - which is trying to establish a sustainable supply chain of rare earth metals for electric vehicles and the offshore wind industry - is based in the US.

According to one person following the situation added the activist fund's position is said to be held through Pershing Nominees. According to Pensana's website, Pershing Nominees currently owns around 15.9pc of Pensana...

Date: Wednesday, 22 December 2021, 11:39 am

[Disclaimer - the information on Betaville does not consitute any form of investment recommendation and is not intended to be relied upon by readers in making, or refraining from, any investment decisions].

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