Oppenheimer family

"The first action was the open-market purchase by Barrick of 4.9 percent of Consgold. Rudolf Agnew, the CEO of Consgold, perceived the potential of a Munk takeover bid, and was threatened because he thought that was what it was. Agnew made immediate contact with Munk. The two men met on January 13, and discussed the promising possibilities of Consgold’s two mines in North America—Mesquite and Chimney. At that time, the Oppenheimer family of South Africa were the largest single shareholders of Consgold, with about 30 percent of its stock. Under British law Munk couldn’t talk to or deal with the Oppenheimers. It would disqualify Barrick from bidding as a “concert party bid."

"In the second half of 1986, American Barrick, a newcomer that had existed for less than four years, took a run at the mighty Britishbased Consolidated Goldfields, a company that had been founded by Cecil Rhodes in the previous century and that was a member of the Financial Times 100 index. With a market capitalization of more than £2 billion, compared with American Barrick’s puny couple of hundred million dollars, Consgold was startled, to say the least, at the Canadian company’s chutzpah. Munk built a position of 4.9 percent of Consgold with purchases on the open market, but failed to consummate the takeover when the stock price took off in response to his initiative. The gutsy move, however, paid off in the long run. Not only did Barrick end up with a profit of $9.4 million when it sold its position, but the takeover bid attracted the attention of some of the biggest stock-market players in the world—people like the Oppenheimer family and Sir James Goldsmith, who became part of Munk’s network and led him to great opportunities later on."