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Eurasia Mining plc the commencement of a formal sale process (FSP) on 1 July 2020, following a number of inbound expressions of interest from multiple parties in recent months.

The international mineral exploration company, which primarily operates in Russia, saw a sharp increase in its share price in October 2019, from 0.47 pence per share to around 3 pence per share in the space of a week. This spike followed its announcement ‘that CITIC, one of China's largest investment banks and VTB Capital, one of Russia's largest investment banks have already started (even prior to signing their respective engagement letters) assisting the Company with strategic options for its current mining assets.’

The company’s share price continued to climb to a high of 7.2 pence on 7 February 2020, however ‘social media speculation’ regarding its relationship with Chinese conglomerate CITIC found Eurasia temporarily suspended from AIM on 11 February 2020. The company released a statement on 27 May 2020 confirming that shares remained suspended pending further clarification of the relationship between Eurasia and CITIC.

Eurasia’s announcement that it is putting itself up for sale marks the ninth FSP announced in 2020. This suggests a significant increase from the previous year, where only four FSPs had been announced by the end of H1 2019, with 10 announced during 2019 as a whole. Market Tracker will review this in more detail, along with a general update on market developments in takeovers, in its upcoming Public M&A H1 2020 trend report, to be published later this month.