Draft:Peter Bacchus

• Comment: In addition to the above, many of the sources make no mention of Bacchus so are useless and others are routine announcements/press releases, not to mention much of content is unsourced. You may find Your first article helpful. S0091 (talk) 19:55, 9 September 2024 (UTC)

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Peter Bacchus is an investment banker, known for his experience in M&A and corporate defence, particularly within the mining and natural resources sectors. He is currently the Chairman and Chief Executive of Bacchus Capital Advisers (“BCA”), an independent boutique investment and merchant banking firm headquartered in London, UK, with operations in Canada and Australia.

Bacchus also serves as a Non-Executive Director of Gold Fields, a large global gold producer, and is the Chairman of BCA’s venture companies, including BG Gold, 308 Services and Green 14. Bacchus has around 30 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, has held senior positions at several global investment banks, and has participated in some of the industry’s largest transactions. Bacchus founded the green energy vehicle, Yellow Cake plc, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of £1.11 billion as of September 5^th, 2024, and is one of the world's largest holders of physical uranium U₃0₈.

Career

Early Career

Bacchus graduated with a degree in economics from St John's college, Cambridge University, and, after a short period with the British Government, joined Price Waterhouse in 1992, in London, where he achieved his ACA qualification.

Investment Banking Career

In 1995, Bacchus joined Robert Fleming & Co, an asset manager and merchant bank which was acquired by Chase Manhattan Bank in 2000, and shortly thereafter merged with JP Morgan. In 1997 he relocated to Indonesia, as Vice President at Jardine Fleming, the Asian affiliate of Robert Fleming & Co, and from there to Australia, with its affiliate company, Ord Minnett.

Between 2000 and 2006, Bacchus worked at Salomon Brothers, Inc., which was owned by Citigroup and became Citigroup’s Global Markets division. Bacchus was promoted to Managing Director of Mergers and Acquisitions after identifying the wave of investment into Australian mining companies and engineering multiple successful transactions, including acting for several of the large South African Mining Houses on takeovers in Australia. Bacchus was appointed Co-Head of Asia-Pacific Diversified Industrials and Head of Mining and Metals, Australia, Asia & Africa at Citigroup. During this time, Bacchus formulated early outbound Chinese acquisitions of international natural resource companies and many of the transactions that integrated China and Mongolia into the international metals and mining environment. He also led the successful takeover defence of Australian major mining company, WMC, which, when then sold to BHP, was the subject of the largest cash takeover in Australian corporate history. During this defence, he first developed the thematic that uranium (a key by-product of WMC’s Olympic Dam asset) was structurally undervalued and would increase significantly in value.

In 2006, Bacchus moved to Morgan Stanley in London, to establish Morgan Stanley’s International Mining team and was made Managing Director in Morgan Stanley’s Global Basic Materials Group and Global Head of Metals and Mining investment banking activities. During this period, he defended Rio Tinto from the unsolicited pre-conditional offer from its rival BHP and was also an adviser to Nordgold, a Russian gold company that went on to become a leading global producer.

In 2011, Bacchus moved to Jefferies as Joint Head of European Investment Banking and Global Head of Metals and Mining Investment Banking to found Jefferies’ global metals and mining team. During his tenure at Jefferies, Bacchus was responsible for some of the bank's largest ever M&A transactions, oversaw the bank's acquisition of the Hoare Govett corporate broking franchise, and expanded the primarily American bank’s footprint in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

In 2016, Bacchus stepped down from his positions as Global Head of Metals and Mining and Co-Head of European Investment Banking to establish an independent advisory and ventures firm, Bacchus Capital Advisers Limited (“BCA”).

Bacchus Capital Advisers

BCA was set up to provide independent corporate finance advice to clients, and to identify and undertake value accretive ventures under its merchant banking arm. Bacchus founded Bacchus Capital with: Richard Allan, former Managing Director and European Head of Mining and Metals at Jefferies, with whom he had worked with since Ord Minnett; Chris Johannsen, former Head of Mining and Metals Advisory – EMEA at Standard Chartered; and Paul Cahill, former Group Head of Business Development and Head of Strategic Relationships Management at Anglo American.

As Chairman and Chief Executive of BCA, Bacchus oversees a team of professionals offering strategic and corporate finance advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions, defence, and capital raising. BCA focuses on long-term relationships with clients. In the vein of traditional merchant banks, BCA has invested in many opportunities and launched several companies under its ventures arm, including Yellow Cake plc, which it founded in 2017. Yellow Cake identified uranium as a structurally undervalued commodity and provided investors with direct exposure to the price of physical uranium. Yellow Cake completed a US$200 million initial public offering in 2018 on the AIM sub-market of the London Stock Exchange, during which it purchased the equivalent of 5% of the global marketed uranium production in 2016 and has continued to expand its uranium holdings since. As of August 22, 2024, Yellow Cake holds 21.7 million pounds of uranium, and its market capitalisation exceeded US$2 billion during 2024.

In November 2021, BCA founded the environmental carbon company, Green 14, in partnership with African conservation charity, Space for Giants. Green 14 underwrites the restoration and protection of heritage landscapes in Africa by creating high-integrity carbon credits.

In December 2022, BCA established BG Gold to acquire Northquest and the Whale Cove project, formerly known as the Pistol Bay project, in Nunavut, Northern Canada. The Whale Cove project is a gold exploration project with 1.6 million ounces of gold on the west coast of Hudson Bay. Its 781 km² of mineral rights are within the Rankin-Ennadai greenstone belt with high-grade intersections including approximately 100 meters at 12 grams of gold per tonne.

Notable Transactions

Bacchus has been involved in many transactions throughout his career, including the following:

Argyle

In 2000, Bacchus advised Rio Tinto on its bid to gain sole ownership of the Argyle diamond mine through a takeover of Ashton Mining. De Beers had sought to acquire the Argyle mine to maintain its influence over the international diamond market, and Rio Tinto launched a competing bid. Despite offering a lower final offer price, Rio Tinto was successful in its bid, having more tactically navigated the regulatory and market environment. Rio Tinto gained sole ownership of what would become the largest producing diamond mine in the world.

MinMetals / Noranda

In 2004, Bacchus acted as a strategic advisor to Chinese state-owned MinMetals on its attempted acquisition of Canada's Noranda, which at the time was the largest attempted outbound Chinese public takeover offer in the sector.

Defence of WMC

In 2005, Bacchus was defence adviser to WMC against an unsolicited offer from Xstrata and ultimately its sale to BHP. The deal was Australia's largest cash offer at the time, valued at US$7.7 billion.

Fortescue Innovative Bond Financing of US$2.5 billion

Bacchus was lead adviser to Fortescue Metals, helping secure US$2.5 billion in financing in 2006 to build strategic port, rail, and mine infrastructure in Western Australia.

Defence of Rio Tinto

In 2007, Morgan Stanley acted as a defence adviser to Rio Tinto in relation to the unsolicited pre-conditional offer from BHP. The deal was valued at US$147.4 billion and was the largest ever proposed transaction in the mining sector at the time.

Recapitalisation of Anglo American

In 2009, Bacchus advised Anglo American on its recapitalisation following the financial crisis, through a US$2.0 billion senior notes offering and US$1.7 billion convertible notes offering.

FQM / Inmet

Bacchus advised First Quantum Minerals on its C$5.1 billion hostile public takeover of Inmet in 2013, creating one of the biggest global producers of copper.

Yellow Cake

Shortly after founding BCA, Bacchus established Yellow Cake, initially negotiating a US$1.1 billion uranium supply contract with NAC Kazatomprom JSC ("Kazatomprom") in Kazakhstan and securing a multi-year storage contract with Cameco in Canada. The contract with Kazatomprom included a right to purchase US$170 million of uranium upon completion of an initial public offering in July 2018, with an option to purchase an additional US$100 million per year for the next nine years on an undisturbed price basis. Since Yellow Cake’s initial public offering, BCA has advised on the raising of approximately US$600 million of follow-on capital, through seven equity raises, to significantly increase Yellow Cake’s uranium holdings.

Board Roles

Bacchus has served on the following boards:

Between 2014 and 2017, Bacchus served on the board of Nordgold as a Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the audit committee. Nordgold was an internationally diversified gold producer operating a portfolio of mines located in Russia, Kazakhstan, Burkina Faso, and Guinea.

In 2016, Bacchus was appointed a Non-Executive Director of Gold Fields, a NYSE and Johannesburg listed gold producer. Gold Fields is a large gold mining company with a globally diversified portfolio of operating mines in Australia, South Africa, Ghana, Chile, and Peru. Bacchus currently serves as chair of the Strategy and M&A Committee and chair of the Risk Committee.

From 2017 to 2021, Bacchus served as a Non-Executive Director of Kenmare Resources, an LSE-listed mineral sands producer with operations in Mozambique, acting as Chair of the Nominations Committee and as a Senior Independent Director.

From 2017-2021, Bacchus served as Non-Executive Director of ASX-listed Galaxy Resources, a lithium producer with assets in Australia, Canada, and Argentina, stepping down at that company's merger with Orocobre in 2021 to form Allkem.

In July 2021, Bacchus became Non-Executive Director of Trident Royalties, an AIM-listed diversified mining royalty company, before being appointed as Non-Executive Chairman in May 2024 until the completion of the acquisition of Trident Royalties by Deterra Royalties.

Additionally, Bacchus serves as a Director, and former Chair, of the Africa-focused conservation charity, Space for Giants, which launched Green 14 with BCA. Space For Giants, a rapidly growing organisation, protects Africa’s ecosystems and wildlife, operating in Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, Botswana, Gabon, the US and the UK. Bacchus has also served as the Chairman of 308 Services since 2017 and BG Gold since its establishment in 2022.