Peter Bacchus

Peter Bacchus is an investment banker and founder of Bacchus Capital Advisers (“BCA”),^[1] with experience in M&A and corporate defence, particularly within the mining and natural resources sectors.^[2] He is currently the Chairman and Chief Executive of BCA, an investment and merchant banking firm headquartered in London, UK, with operations in Canada and Australia.^[2][3]

Bacchus serves as a Non-Executive Director of Gold Fields,^[4] an international gold producer, and Apex Royalties, a mining royalty company.^[5] Bacchus is also a Director of BCA’s venture companies, including BG Gold,^[6] 308 Services,^[7] and Green 14.^[5] Bacchus founded Yellow Cake plc, which holds physical uranium and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.^[8][9]

Career

Early career

Bacchus graduated with an Economics degree from Cambridge University, and, after a short period with the British Government, joined Price Waterhouse in 1992 in London.^[10][11]

Investment banking career

In 1995, Bacchus joined Robert Fleming & Co, which was acquired by Chase Manhattan Bank in 2000, and shortly thereafter merged with JP Morgan.^[12][13] Bacchus became a director in the M&A team at JP Morgan.^[14]

Between 2000 and 2006, Bacchus worked at Salomon Brothers, Inc., which was owned by Citigroup and became Citigroup’s Global Markets division.^[15] Bacchus was appointed Co-Head of Asia-Pacific Diversified Industrials and Head of Mining and Metals, Australia, Asia & Africa at Citigroup.^[16] Bacchus managed many of Citigroup's metals and mining transactions in Asia and Australia. In 2004, Bacchus acted as a strategic advisor to Chinese state-owned MinMetals on its attempted acquisition of Canada's Noranda.^[17] In 2005, Bacchus was defence adviser to WMC against an unsolicited offer from Xstrata and ultimately its sale to BHP.^[18][19] The deal was Australia's largest cash offer at the time, valued at US$7.7 billion.^[18][19] Bacchus was responsible for advising Fortescue Metals, helping secure US$2.5 billion in financing in 2006 to build strategic port, rail, and mine infrastructure in Western Australia.^[20]

In 2006, Bacchus moved to Morgan Stanley in London and became Managing Director in Morgan Stanley’s Global Basic Materials Group and Global Head of Metals and Mining investment banking activities.^[21] During this period, Bacchus acted as a defence adviser to Rio Tinto in relation to the unsolicited pre-conditional offer from BHP.^[2] The deal was valued at US$147.4 billion and was the largest ever proposed transaction in the mining sector at the time.^[22][1][2]

In 2011, Bacchus moved to Jefferies as Joint Head of European Investment Banking and Global Head of Metals and Mining Investment Banking.^[23][24] At Jefferies, Bacchus advised First Quantum Minerals on its C$5.1 billion hostile public takeover of Inmet in 2013, which created one of the biggest global producers of copper at the time.^[25][26][27] Bacchus also oversaw the bank's acquisition of the Hoare Govett corporate broking franchise.^[28][29]

In 2016, Bacchus stepped down from his positions as Global Head of Metals and Mining and Co-Head of European Investment Banking to establish an independent advisory and ventures firm, Bacchus Capital Advisers Limited (“BCA”).^[30][23]

Bacchus Capital Advisers

Bacchus is Chairman and Chief Executive of BCA, an investment and merchant banking firm.^[31][2] Bacchus founded BCA with: Richard Allan, former Managing Director and European Head of Mining and Metals at Jefferies, with whom he had worked with since Ord Minnett;^[2] Chris Johannsen, former Head of Mining and Metals Advisory – EMEA at Standard Chartered;^[2] and Paul Cahill, former Group Head of Business Development and Head of Strategic Relationships Management at Anglo American.^[2]

BCA has launched several companies under its ventures arm, including Yellow Cake plc, which it founded in 2017 as a uranium buy and hold vehicle to provide direct exposure to the price of physical uranium.^[32][31] Yellow Cake completed a US$200 million initial public offering in 2018 on the AIM sub-market of the London Stock Exchange, during which it purchased the equivalent of 5% of the global marketed uranium production in 2016.^[33][32] As of August 22, 2024, Yellow Cake holds 21.7 million pounds of uranium,^[34] and reached a market value of US$2 billion in the financial year ending 31 March 2024.^[35][9]

In November 2021, BCA founded the environmental carbon company, Green 14, in partnership with African conservation charity, Space for Giants.^[36][37] Green 14 focuses on restoring and protecting landscapes in Africa by creating carbon credits from conservation.^[36][37]

In December 2022, BCA established BG Gold to acquire Northquest and the Whale Cove project, formerly known as the Pistol Bay project, in Nunavut, Northern Canada.^[38] The Whale Cove project is a gold exploration project covering 842 km² with 2.4 million ounces of gold on the west coast of Hudson Bay.^[39][40][6]

Board roles

Between 2014 and 2017, Bacchus served on the board of Nordgold as a Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the audit committee.^[41] Nordgold was an international gold producer operating a portfolio of mines located in Russia, Kazakhstan, Burkina Faso, and Guinea.

In 2016, Bacchus was appointed a Non-Executive Director of Gold Fields, a NYSE and Johannesburg listed international gold producer.^[4] Bacchus currently serves as chair of the Strategy and M&A Committee and chair of the Risk Committee.^[4]

From 2017 to 2021, Bacchus served as a Non-Executive Director of Kenmare Resources, an LSE-listed mineral sands producer with operations in Mozambique, acting as Chair of the Nominations Committee and as a Senior Independent Director.^[42][43][44]

From 2017-2021, Bacchus served as Non-Executive Director of ASX-listed Galaxy Resources, a lithium producer with assets in Australia, Canada, and Argentina, stepping down at that company's merger with Orocobre in 2021 to form Allkem.^[45]

In July 2021, Bacchus became Non-Executive Director of Trident Royalties, an AIM-listed diversified mining royalty company, before being appointed as Non-Executive Chairman in May 2024 until the completion of the acquisition of Trident Royalties by Deterra Royalties.^[46][47]

Additionally, Bacchus serves as a Director, and former Chair, of the Africa-focused conservation charity, Space for Giants, which launched Green 14 with BCA.^[36][37] Bacchus has also served as the Chairman of 308 Services since 2017 and BG Gold since its establishment in 2022.^[6] Since September 2024, Bacchus is Non-Executive Director of Apex Royalties, a diversified mining royalty company.^[5]

Bacchus is also an adviser to the Board of Skylark Minerals, which in November 2024 brought in a new CEO, former CEO of Nordgold Nikolai Zelenski, and recapitalised the company.^[48]