Estate of Ken Talbot tipped to start selling mining company stakes

Trustees for the late mining entrepreneur Ken Talbot are expected to start selling off his extensive portfolio of mining shares, after offloading a stake in Sundance Resources for just over $190 million late on Friday.

Talbot, who died last June after a plane carrying him and six Sundance Resources employees crashed in Africa, left a fortune worth more than $1 billion, almost $500 million of which is tied up in stakes in small mining companies.

The biggest stakes include a $180 million share in Karoon Gas, a $17 million stake in Robust Resources and a $10 million stake in Sphere Resources.

The surprise sale of the stake in Sundance Resources comes about a month after Talbot Group sold its 19.9% in Marathon Resources for about $13 million to private equity fund Mount Kellett Capital Management.

The timing of further sales by Talbot’s trustees remains unclear.

Talbot Group chief executive Shane Edwards told SmartCompany this morning that as a private company he would not be commenting on any asset sales.

But the liquidation of the share does not come as a surprise – the creation and running of the portfolio was very much Ken Talbot’s personal passion.

Talbot’s trustees, led by the executor of Talbot’s will, US-based UBS executive Paul Bret, have begun the process of splitting up Talbot’s will between his various beneficiaries.

According to reports, about 30% of Talbot’s wealth is to go to his charitable foundation, called the Talbot Foundation, with the other 70% going to his family.

Of this proportion, about 52% will go to his widow Amanda and their two young children Claudia and Alexandra, with Talbot’s two oldest children (from his first marriage) Liam and Courtney to get the remainder.

However, it appears there will be some challenge to the way the estate has been divided up.

In March, the Courier Mail reported that Giovanni Francesco Morandini, who is the father of Talbot’s widow Amanda and grandfather of Claudia and Alexandra, has launched a challenge in the Queensland Supreme Court, claiming the younger children have not been adequately provided for.

Ironically, Talbot specifically mentioned in his will that he would “sincerely ask that all beneficiaries are sensible and do not argue” and asked that “beneficiaries… demonstrate some give and take”.