Umbono has invested extensively from its principal investment fund in the mining, exploration and natural resources sector, and has historically served mining and natural resources corporate finance/investment banking clients including large “mining majors” such as Rio Tinto, De Beers, Anglo American, Mondi and Harmony Gold, and “junior companies” including emerging BEE companies in the Southern African environment.

In our client business, Umbono’s unique focus has been on “major to junior” investment banking services where larger mining companies seek to dispose assets to juniors, or seek to acquire juniors. Also, we assisted junior companies in raising equity capital in the Southern African and international markets. In the Southern African context, we have a special focus on BEE and local “empowerment” structuring and financing transactions, a crucial factor ensuring sustainable natural resource development

Our experience, in our combined principal investment and client advisory businesses, spans a range of minerals and natural resources, specifically including expertise in platinum, diamonds, gold, base metals, ferrometals, coal, uranium, forestry, and agricultural land related businesses

We have client advisory experience in the energy industry in South Africa and across the rest of Africa, covering power generation (including conventional and clean-coal technologies, CCGT gas, hydro and nuclear power generation projects), gas transmission and distribution, and petroleum pipeline projects. For several years until 2007, Umbono served as the primary financial advisors to Eskom, a leading global power company, in respect of their new power generation capacity project selection process including the specific assessment of new baseload generating capacity projects from 2010 onward.