Tanzanian gold magnate Ketan Patel has lost £1.07 million ($1.44 million) from his stake in Shanta Gold Limited, an East African gold producer.
Shanta Gold is a gold mining company registered in Guernsey in the Channel Islands. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and maintains active operations in Tanzania and Kenya.
Shanta’s most important project is the New Luika Gold Mine in the Lupa Gold Field of southwestern Tanzania. The project saw its first gold in August 2012.
Ketan Patel, who founded the Tanzania-based miner in 2001, holds 44,274,017 ordinary shares, which amounts to 4.22 percent of Shanta Gold.
The recent decline in the market value of his stake can be attributed to a fall in the miner’s share price on the London bourse despite posting a $3.1-million profit in the first half of 2021.
Data retrieved from the exchange revealed that the market price of the company’s shares decreased from £0.15 ($0.21) on June 1 to £0.13 ($0.17) by close of day on Sept. 29. This led to a 16-percent loss for shareholders of the company in 120 days.
Between June 1 and Sept. 29, the market value of Patel’s stake fell from £6.7 million ($9.1 million) to £5.7 million ($7.6 million). This translated to a £1.07-million ($1.44 million) loss for the Tanzanian businessman despite solid growth in profit in the first half of 2021.
In the first half of 2021, Shanta Gold recorded a 210-percent growth in profit, from $1 million in the first half of last year to $3.1 million. The growth in profit can be linked to tax adjustments in the period.
In line with this result, the mining company proposed an interim dividend of £0.001 ($0.0014) per share payable in October 2021. Patel is expected to earn £44,270 ($59,750) from the interim dividend payment.
