“There is no political interference in our work”

The following is the text of the interview D.Sugar, Chairman of the State Property Committee, gave on the Mongolian National Broadcasting channel on March 21.

Have you decided on the number of Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi shares to be given free to citizens and also on the price at which they will be sold to businesses? 
Yes, all the technical preparatory work on distributing these shares to citizens and business entities is complete. Every one of  the population of 2,785,969 will get 538 shares [In a later announcement, the Government has said this number is 536: MMJ], and each of  53,336 business entities will get 28,123. I cannot say more as the Cabinet is yet to take an official decision. Each share will have  a face value of between MNT300 and MNT1,000. The Cabinet will fix the exact price. I don’t know how they will be issued to the business entities, but everything is going according to plan.

The unit share price of “Small Tavan Tolgoi” or Tavan Tolgoi LLC has crossed MNT1 million. Do you think Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi shares will reach the same level?
Yes, a Tavan Tolgoi LLC share was MNT1,053,000 at close of trading day on March 18. There is nothing to worry when a Mongolian company’s share price is high, but I am not sure how it has become so  high, particularly as an Energy Resources share at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is HKD9.55 or USD1.20. What I noticed is that only a few shares are traded in one session in Mongolia, sometimes 20, sometimes 2. I don’t think it is right to expect Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi shares to jump from MNT1,000 to MNT1million immediately. The movement of Energy Resources share prices will give you an idea of how things work. Share prices are determined by many factors, but I am sure Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi shares will reach a good price on the international market, even it not as much as MNT1million.

Parliament decided not to split the Tavan Tolgoi deposit, so how could the Government  divide it into Western Tsankh and Eastern Tsankh?
The country’s development and people’s lives depend on how the Tavan Tolgoi issue is handled, and I can guarantee that nobody divided the deposit and made a profit. We are state officials and we have to work for the people. There is actually no confusion. The licence has not been split and remains the property of Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi LLC. There will never be separate licences over the two parts. The shares, too, will not be of either the eastern or the western Tsankh. They are of the Tavan Tolgoi deposit which is forever indivisible. Put simply, what it means is that we have divided our property into two parts, but have retained complete ownership of the whole.

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