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ONA denies need for restructuring Reuters
Casablanca: Moroccan diversified holding company ONA has no need to sell any key business lines and will press ahead with developing its mining activities after their profits waned in recent years, its chief executive said.
ONA and its main shareholder SNI, a private conglomerate controlled by the royal family, dominate Morocco's economy with interests ranging from the country's biggest private bank to supermarkets, sugar, telecoms and car retailing.
Analysts say the group's complex portfolio can make it hard to grasp its underlying performance, but management insists ONA's strength lies in an ability to achieve a smooth stream of earnings as profits of the various businesses ebb and flow.
Mining activities
"Today, the development needs of all our businesses do not necessite further funds or arbitrages (in favour of one business or another)," Chief Executive Saad Bendidi said on the sidelines of ONA's half-year results presentation.
"If several subsidiaries came to us asking for 10 billion Moroccan dirhams ($1.2 billion), maybe we'd be confronted with this choice, but it is not relevant today."
He said that applied to ONA's mining activities, which include gold, silver, zinc and cobalt mines, and hydrometallurgy refineries that use aqueous chemistry to purify metals.
After years of weak performance, ONA's mines swung to an overall net profit in the first half of 2006 after several deposit discoveries, the start of production at its Draa Sfar mine in Morocco and a hedging portfolio restructuring.
Now is no time to sell, said Bendidi, who played down the fact ONA was a relatively small player in a mining industry increasingly dominated by global giants.
"In mining, a company's size besides the ability to diversify research risks counts for nothing because site by site you have certain operating costs," he said. "There's no use being big if your sites are no good."
He said the main reason for an improved performance at mining unit Managem in recent years was not rising market prices but improvements in operations.
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