Macquarie to submit new deal to OZ Minerals -paper

SYDNEY, June 10 - Australian investment bank Macquarie Group <MQG.AX> is set to offer a new A$1.4 billion ($1.11 billion) recapitalisation proposal to indebted miner OZ Minerals <OZL.AX> as early as Wednesday, the Australian Financial Review said.

OZ Minerals' shareholders are set to vote on Thursday on a $1.2 billion agreed bid for most of the firm's assets by China's Minmetals, but Macquarie is believed to have strong support for its proposal, the business daily said in an unsourced report.

The new proposal involved a share placement and rights issue worth up to A$1.4 billion, both underwritten and priced at a 20-25 percent discount to the theoretical ex-rights price, the Review said. OZ Minerals stock last traded at A$0.91.

OZ, which needs to raise money to repay A$1.1 billion in debt, on Tuesday rejected two recapitalisation proposals, saying they were not superior to the Minmetals bid.

One proposal was from investment advisory firm RFC Group and Royal Bank of Canada <RY.TO>, and the other was reported to be from either Macquarie or Morgan Stanley.

The proposals were bolstered by a recent rally in OZ Minerals shares and a pick-up in commodity prices. Some shareholders have also questioned the Minmetals' offer as it was below the $1.4-$1.6 billion value arrived at by a valuation expert.

OZ Minerals' reaffirmation of its Chinese deal came only days after Rio Tinto <RIO.AX> <RIO.L> scrapped a $19.5 billion tie-up plan with another Chinese state-owned firm, Chinalco [ID:nSYD73514].