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Edmonds riches as speculators pile in

By Robert Lea
Updated: 04:00 EDT, 11 May 2006

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STOCK MARKET speculators in Phil Edmonds' African mining and exploration interests have sent the personal fortunes of the former England cricketer and his business partner Andrew Groves soaring to more than £140m.

The elevation of Edmonds, 55, from maverick, Ashes-winning spin bowler to Britain's rich elite comes from stakes in four companies digging for the likes of platinum and gold in the African jungle and searching for oil south of the Sahara.

Those holdings in a rapidly growing African empire are currently valued at a staggering £1.7bn on the London stock market, rating Edmonds' shares at around £85m.

With previous share sales and property interests in the UK and Europe, that would have Edmonds knocking on the door of the top 500 in the Sunday Times Rich List which so far has not included him.

The soaring paper fortune comes after speculators and hedge funds have ferociously pushed up shares in Edmonds stocks on hopes the companies will become major producers of oil, metals and minerals at a time of record prices on worldwide commodity markets.

Shares in Edmonds' original African vehicle Camec - Central African Mining and Exploration Company - have rocketed by 800% since the turn of the year.

The company, whose last financial results showed annual earnings of just £2.5m, is now valued on the market at around £900m. According to Stock Exchange filings, Edmonds has a 4.3% stake and 38-year-old Zimbabwean prospector Groves 3.1%.

White Nile, the Sudan oil explorer whose debut on the stockmarket last year hit controversy amid wild swings in the share price, has seen its stock nearly double in the past five months, valuing the company at £550m. Edmonds and Groves hold just under 5% apiece.

White Nile has yet to locate exactly where oil might be in South Sudan amid claims that it may not have legal rights to any finds. The latest glitch for the company's credibility came this week when Groves admitted dynamite being imported to start seismic testing had gone missing on its sea journey from the US.

Edmonds and Groves also have holdings in Central African Gold and African Platinum. Edmonds has put himself into purdah. 'He has decided to elect for a low profile, feeling he has been rather battered by the media,' said a spokesman.

That, however, has not prevented Camec coming back to the stock market to raise a further £100m from shareholders with the first tranche of new shares from the placing starting trading on the market today.

In a statement, Edmonds said the money would be used for acquisitions and new projects mining for cobalt, copper and uranium in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and South Africa.

Edmonds shot to fame as one of the Middlesex spin twins - with John Emburey - who became fixtures in the England cricket side in the 1980s. He began his colourful business in the 1990s, wheeler-dealing in Russia and looking for gold in the Philippines.

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