LSE woos family-owned Latin American miners

By Pav Jordan

SANTIAGO, June 13 (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) is looking to Latin America to woo new capital to a quickly growing stable of businesses, honing in on the mining sector where family companies are looking for ways to go global.

Exchange officials have already visited Buenos Aires, Lima and Sao Paulo, and were in the Chilean capital Santiago this week to promote the exchange and its smaller, Alternative Investment Market, known as AIM.

"We are absolutely trying to attract companies from Chile to list on our market," Graham Dallas, senior manager for international business development for the London Stock Exchange, told Reuters after a presentation to companies in Santiago.

"Mining is a particularly good, active sector in London these days, and I think London has got the wind in its sales where the mining industry is concerned."

Dallas said Latin America had other attractive sectors, but that they weren't as globalized as the mining sector, where geology is a universal language.

Joining him on a panel of British experts were brokers and corporate lawyers from London, in Chile to meet with companies interested in a listing abroad.

"We've seen a number of Chilean, family-owned companies, already yesterday and again today and tomorrow that are considering moving from the family ownership model to an IPO and London is a serious contender for that," said Seema Paterson, managing director for corporate finance for London brokerage Collins Stewart.

Local media speculated that between seven and 15 Chilean companies, across sectors are considering a London listing.

Listing provides opportunities for family-run businesses to raise capital and diversify family interests. In cases where they don't have another generation of family coming through, a listing can be an opportunity to bring in new, experienced management.

Latin America has given up a few major miners to London markets, both the LSE and the AIM, a market for smaller but growing companies in search of institutional investors.

Mexico's Fresnillo Ltd. (FRES.L), the world's biggest silver producer, raised 905 million pounds ($1.77 billion) in a London flotation in May.

Chile's Antofagasta PLC (ANTO.L), a major world copper producer, has been listed on the exchange since 1982.

It costs about 100,000 British pounds to maintain a listing in London and pay for public relations and other services, and companies with a market capitalization of under 5 million need not apply, analysts say.

Paterson, from the Collins Stewart brokerage, said her firm likes to see minimum financing of 30 million to 35 million pounds, although she prefers a range between 50 million pounds and 250 million pounds.

David Royce, a partner with Ernst and Young, is convinced there are other family-owned businesses in Chile and elsewhere in Latin America that would be candidates to list in London.