Wheaton Precious Metals seeks London Stock Exchange listing
Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. [WPM-TSX, NYSE], the world’s leading precious metals streaming company, said Monday September 21 that it is seeking to have its shares listed on the London Stock Exchange. The move is part of a growth strategy and would enhance Wheaton’s ability to access pools of equity capital available in the United Kingdom and key financial centres in the EMEA [Europe, the Middle East and Africa] region, the company said in a press release on Monday.
“As a leader in the precious metals sector, Wheaton is excited to take our place amongst the largest mining companies globally on the London Stock Exchange,” said Wheaton President and CEO Randy Smallwood. “The listing will complement our existing North American stock exchange listings, which have served us well over the years and supported our growth.”
Unlike traditional mining companies, Wheaton makes upfront payments and in return it purchases a fixed percentage of the future silver and/or gold production from a mine at a predetermined price. It can then sell the metal in the open market. In many cases, these agreements are for the life of the mine.
The company has streaming agreements covering 20 operating mines and nine development stage projects. These include Vale’s Salobo mine in Brazil, Glencore AG’s Antamina mine in Peru and Newmont Goldcorp Corp.‘s [NGT-TSX, NEM-NYSE] Penasquito mine in Mexico.
Smallwood has said it’s a business model that shelters investors from some of the risks associated with traditional mining because after making the up-front payment, Wheaton typically has no ongoing capital or exploration costs.
The company recently reported record first half years results for the six-month period ended June 30, 2020, including record revenue of over US$500 million, nearly US$330 million in operating cash flow, a record 322,000 gold equivalent ounces sold and average cash costs of US$418 per gold equivalent ounce.
On Monday, the shares eased 2.5% or $1.70 to $65.83 on volume of 433,927 and trade in a 52-week range of $76.69 and $26.99.