Polo Resources

Value investor Laxey Partners has indicated a potential bid for Polo Resources, which has made a £40m profit selling out of uranium star Extract Resources.

AIM-quoted Polo, co-chaired by entrepreneurial Stephen Dattels and managing director Neil Herbert, says Isle of Man-based Laxey has emerged with a 4% holding and has notified the company it is considering making an all-share offer for Polo through a special-purpose vehicle.

Polo is cool about Laxey's approach, suggesting its present management already has the key resources sector expertise needed to make it thrive. Having doubled its money investing in Aussie-quoted Extract, owner of Namibia's rich Husab uranium project, Polo is now purring at prospects for another holding, 29.8% of AIM counter GCM, whose large-scale coal project in Bangladesh stands to gain from coming into favour with the government there.

Highlighted by Growth Company Investor at 83p last year as risky but potentially exciting, GCM shares are now strong at 230p. Polo, which is considering whether to pay a special 3p dividend to shareholders out of its Extract gains or launch a share buy back, points out that deal was one of a series in which the company has made average gains of 40 to 45%.

Herbert also sounds enthusiastic about prospects for yet another AIM concern, Queensland-focused coal play Caledon Resources, where Polo has a 27% holding and hefty outstanding loans. Recent merger talks between the two came to nothing, but he argues it still looks a winner.

Highlighted here last year as a speculative buy at 3.78p, Polo shares have now reached 5.13p and should have further to go.