La Mancha launches US$1.4 billion gold mining fund

La Mancha Holdings, owned by Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, has unveiled a US$1.4 billion fund to hold the magnate’s gold mining investments and pursue new opportunities in the sector.

The vehicle, named La Mancha Fund SCSp, is open to new investors and will also invest in battery metals needed for electric vehicles, the Luxembourg-based private firm said.

It noted that the first closing had already been completed with the receipt of all of La Mancha’s gold mining assets, which include a 19.1% stake in Endeavour Mining (TSX: EDV; LSE: EDV), 33.4% in Golden Star Resources ( TSX: GSC; NYSE-AM: GSS), and a 35.1% interest in Altus Strategies (TSXV: ALTS; AIM: ALS).

The fund is also in possession of US$100 million provided by an unnamed strategic partner now investing alongside the Sawiris family.

It will look into junior miners and encourage further consolidation through mergers and acquisitions. It will also seek to improve the environmental, social and governance performance of the sector and broaden its appeal.

“Creating a fund is the natural consequence of what we have been doing since we vended-in our operational assets into Evolution and Endeavour in 2015,” Naguib Sawiris, chairman of La Mancha’s board, said in a media statement.

“Transitioning to a fund structure and welcoming new investors is timely when we are seeing opportunities in a gold mining sector which is fragmented and needs further consolidation,” he said.

Sawiris, the son of Onsi Sawiris, who founded Orascom Construction, built a name by investing primarily in the telecom sector in Egypt and in less popular markets including Iraq, Pakistan, North Korea and Bangladesh.

He also bought Italy’s Wind Telecomunicazioni before merging it, along with a number of his telecom assets, with Veon Ltd. in 2011. Since then he has diversified into the mining and financial sector.

La Mancha Capital Advisory LLP (LMCA) will advise the new fund, after consulting an advisory committee made up of mining professionals and chaired by Sawiris.