The shares of Gabriel Resources (TSX: GBU), the Canadian company that owns 80% of the Roşia Montană gold mining project in Romania - traded at the Toronto Stock Exchange - boasted a 37.6% advance as of February 6 from five days earlier when international media reported the Romanian state would pay at least USD 2bn in compensation, in litigation at World Bank’s ICSID court.

However, the company's market value reached only CAD$663mn, the equivalent of USD 490mn, Ziarul Financiar announced. The sentence is expected on February 10. This indicates an increase in the company’s market capitalization by USD 140mn – a small portion of the USD 2bn, the lowest value of the compensations Romania may have to pay.

Five shareholders own 70.4% of Gabriel Resources shares, according to Ziarul Financiar. The investment group Kopernik Global Investors, based in Florida, owns a 17.11% stake. The financial services firm Tenor Capital Management, established 20 years ago in New York, USA, has a 16.3% stake. 

Electrum Global Holdings owns 13.25% of the capital. Electrum is an investment and consulting company, also from New York, founded and led by Thomas Kaplan, an entrepreneur and investor in natural resources.

The hedge fund Paulson & Co has 12.5% ​​of Gabriel Resources shares. The company was founded by the American John Paulson, who in the last decade and a half became one of the best-known investors on Wall Street, being married to a Romanian woman until recently.

Hedge fund The Baupost Group, based in Boston, USA, owns a 10.8% stake. With USD 25 billion in assets under management in 2022, Baupost was at one time one of the largest hedge funds in the world.

Gabriel Resources bought from the businessman of Romanian origin Frank Timiş a right to exploit a gold deposit in Roşia Montană, in Alba county, in 1998. The project never received the necessary permits, though.

(Photo: Juan Moyano | Dreamstime.com)

iulian@romania-insider.com