France's Truffle to keep CMT stake for 3-4 years

CASABLANCA, June 4 (Reuters) - French energy investment firm Truffle Capital plans to keep its stake in newly-floated Moroccan mining company CMT (CMT.CS) for at least three to four years, Truffle's co-founder said.

CMT (Cie. Miniere de Touissit) listed on the Casablanca bourse on Wednesday, though trading was immediately suspended as orders exceeded a stock market limit.

Truffle and Emerging Capital Partners (ECP) bought CMT last November for $53 million through a special purpose vehicle named OSEAD Maroc Mining (OMM) of which Truffle's managed funds owned 68 percent.

After the IPO, which valued CMT at 901 million dirhams ($122.6 million), OMM's stake fell to 67 percent.

CMT explores and extracts silver-bearing lead and silver-bearing zinc and treats it at a plant at Tighza near Meknes in northern Morocco.

Truffle, founded in 2001, aims to dramatically improve CMT's profitability by investing in the latest mineral extraction technologies and acquiring new mining permits.

"We surrounded ourselves with the world's top experts to accompany the techniques of extraction and concentration of minerals," Truffle co-founder Jean-Francois Fourt told Reuters on the sidelines of a ceremony to mark CMT's trading debut.

Asked whether Truffle planned to sell its remaining CMT stake, he said: "We would like to develop CMT before doing anything like that, so not before three to four years."

CMT is the first French-controlled small-cap firm to trade on the small Casablanca bourse.

Its owners sold 33 percent of the company, or 490,040 shares, for 613 dirhams per share. Subscriptions closed early after the offer was heavily oversubscribed -- investors received only 6.94 percent of the stock they requested overall.

The stock was bid at 895 dirhams when the bourse opened on Wednesday morning. (Reporting by Tom Pfeiffer; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)