First Toronto president says firm a `mining house’

Lest there be any doubt, First Toronto Capital (TSE) is “first and foremost a mining house,” President Chrisilios Kyriakou told shareholders at the annual meeting in Toronto.

First Toronto, which went public in December, 1986, is negotiating to acquire 100% of Walhalla Mining of Australia, an investment bank with natural resources interests. (First Toronto currently has an approximate 65% interest in Walhalla.) In turn, Walhalla is nearing completion of a deal which would boost its interest to 42% in Forsayth NL, a gold-mining company in Australia which produced 64,000 oz in 1987 and which is hoping to increase that output to an annualized rate of 150,000 oz by the end of this year.

Forsayth, Kyriakou said, accounts for 60-to-65% of First Toronto’s investments.

At the annual meeting, both Kyriakou and First Toronto chairman Senator Jack Austin addressed the issue of confusion by the investment community as to the exact nature of the company’s business, and they said plans are being discussed to better explain the company to investors. Varied interests

Kyriakou and director John Byrne, two Australians, are the founders of First Toronto, which in addition to gold, has interests in diamonds, base metals and industrial minerals, and oil and gas. There is also an investment banking arm. The company’s business interests extend from Canada and Australia to the U.S., Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand.

Among First Toronto’s base- metal interests is a chrysotile (asbestos) property at Baie Verte, Nfld.; First Toronto has a 35% interest, while Mineral Commodities, in which First Toronto is the major shareholder, has a 45% interest.

Kyriakou said First Toronto has increased shareholders equity from an initial $12 million to $50.3 million at the start of 1988. Total assets have also grown dramatically, from $12 million to $155 million.

For 1987, the company reported net income of $31.9 million on revenue of $70.1 million, compared with net income of $485,337 on revenue of $1.3 million for the previous year. During the first quarter of 1988, First Toronto recorded net income of $669,000 compared with $4.2 million for the same period in 1987. At the end of May, the company declared an initial dividend of 50 cents , payable July 15.

As of June 1, First Toronto had about 6.2 million shares outstanding. Should the company be successful in acquiring 100% of Walhalla, a further 3.9 million shares will be issued. (In its effort to acquire all of the shares of Walhalla it does not already own, First Toronto is offering one First Toronto share for five Walhalla shares.)

Walhalla is a former parent firm of Pamour Inc. (TSE) and until earlier this year, Kyriakou and Byrne sat on the latter’s board of directors.