Merrill Lynch

Merrill Lynch merged with the Bank of America (qv) in January 2009, and in August announced that its metals trading team would be expanded, in light of a recent supposed “rebound” in metals prices [Bloomberg, 14 August 2009].

Over the previous decade, and while not the biggest direct investor in mining, Merill Lynch came to possess what was almost certainly the most diversified portfolio of mining investments, through its eponymous World Mining Trust plc.

However, in April 2008, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers had already merged with BlackRock, and, in a “full product rebrand”, launched the BlackRock World Mining Trust PLC which then replaced the former World Mining Trust. [BlackRock WMT statement, 13 August 2008].

NOTE: Information on BlackRock’s mineral-related and mineral commodities holdings can be found under BlackRock World Mining Trust PLC.

Shareholders in the World Mining Trust then included:

• Rensburgh Sheppards Investment Management Ltd (5%),
• Legal & General Investment Management Ltd (4.31%),
• Lazard Asset Management LLC (3.59%),
• and Newton Investment Management (3.01%), which is part of the Bank of New York (see also: Mellon HBV Alternative Strategies LLC) [Hemscott 19 February 2008]

Merrill Lynch Gold and General Account/Fund is part of Merrill Lynch/Black Rock’s Natural Resources team, which manages around six billion dollars work of investments on behalf of individual and institutional investors, with nearly £1.5 billion of this allocated to gold.

In 2005 the Fund claimed to be the biggest buyer of gold shares in the world. [Guardian 10 December 2005].

“God in his wisdom has put gold in emerging markets”

Graham Birch, Manager of Merrill Lynch Gold and General Fund [Guardian 10 December 2005]

In early February 2009, Merrill Lynch & Co. became joint lead manager, bookrunner and underwriter for an Aus$ 750 million share sale, on behalf of Newcrest, Australia’s largest gold miner. Goldman Sachs Group, JB Were and UBS AG also assisted with the sale [Bloomberg, 2 February 2009].

Goldman Sachs Group, along with CIBC World Markets as co-lead managers and joint book runners; and including National Bank Financial -, along with UBS Securities Canada, Merrill Lynch Canada Inc., RBC Dominion Securities Inc., Raymond James Ltd, Salman Partners Inc and Canaccord Capital Corp as co-managers, launched a share offering for Pan American Silver in February 2009 [MarketWire 5 February 2009].

In July 2010, Drummond Coal - the US mining company which is Colombia's second largest miner of the "black stuff" - hired Bank of America Merrill Lynch to represent it in financial markets, as it looked for partners to help expand its operations in the South American state [MJ 23 July 2010]..

Merrill Lynch Investment Managers Ltd in 2008 held 5.91% of Lonmin PLC [Hemscott 23 January 2008].

Bank of America Merrill Lynch also advised Peabody and China's Hanlong in its Australian coal acquisitions during 2011 [ Reuters, 17 January 2012].