Court rules Grupo Mexico to pay Asarco $6.88 billion in cash, share

16 April 2009

A US federal judge on Wednesday ruled that Mexican miner Grupo Mexico's Americas Mining Corp unit must pay Asarco $1.38 billion in cash and to return much of its stake in Peruvian miner Southern Copper, now worth almost $5.50 billion.

Judge Hanen of US District Court in Brownsville, Texas, earlier this month ruled that Americas Mining Corp had wrongly stripped Asarco of its shares of the Peruvian mine.

If the new judgment goes through, Grupo Mexico's about 80 per cent stake in Southern Copper will be sharply reduced.

The judge ordered that more than 260 million shares of Southern Copper be returned to Asarco, representing about a 30 per cent stake in the company.

The original 2003 transfer to Grupo Mexico involved 43.3 million shares, or about 50 per cent of the company then, but Southern Copper has been recapitalised since that time.

"What (the judgment) is saying is we're just going to start over as if the transaction didn't happen," said Irvin Terrell, the Baker Botts attorney who represented Asarco in the case.