Eldorado shares jump on Greek snap election
Shares of Eldorado Gold rose as much as 14.6 percent on Monday on optimism that a snap poll called by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras could result in the election of a new business-friendly party and help resolve permitting problems the miner has faced for years in Greece.
Tsipras said he would call a snap vote following his leftist SYRIZA party’s defeat in European Parliament elections to the opposition conservative New Democracy party.
Eldorado shares were up 13.7 percent at C$4.74 in afternoon trade in Toronto, compared with a 0.3 percent decline in the benchmark S&P/TSX Global Gold Index.
The stock earlier rose to the day’s high of C$4.78.
The Vancouver-based company has two operating mines and two development projects in Greece, and has struggled with permitting delays at its Skouries location for years, mainly over environmental regulations.
The country accounts for 42 percent of Eldorado’s operating net asset value, according to Desjardins.
“A political shift to a more pro-business climate has potential positive implications for the company’s outlook in-country,” Josh Wolfson, an analyst at Desjardins, wrote in a note.
Eldorado halted construction in November 2017 at Skouries, which has reserves of 3.7 million ounces of gold and 1.7 billion pounds of copper, citing the delays.
The company said in September it would seek 750 million euros from the government for damages it said it had suffered due to the delays.
Eldorado chief executive George Raymond Burns said in an analyst call in February that the company was “feeling fairly optimistic that the election process could bring about a significant change in sentiment.”
[Reuters]
