Stan Bharti is a Canadian businessman.^[2] He is the founder of Forbes & Manhattan, a merchant bank with a focus on resource-based sectors. He resides in Toronto, Canada.

Early life[link]

Bharti was born and raised in the Punjab Region of India and then when he was 16, his family moved to Moscow, Russia where he learned Russian. He received a scholarship to study engineering at the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia then went on to do a Masters of Engineering at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London.

Career[link]

Following his education he worked in Africa for Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines and then he moved to Canada to work as a mining engineer for Falconbridge in Sudbury. ^[3]

After 15 years as a mining and rock mechanics engineer with Falconbridge, Bharti retired from his position as the Superintendent of Mines Technical Services and started his own engineering firm which designed and operated mines: BLM Engineering Inc. BLM went public in 1994 when it was acquired by William Resources.^[4]

William Resources[link]

After the purchase, Bharti became president of William Resources. Acquisitions led the team to projects in Australia, South America, Mexico, and Scandinavia. These included Sweden's Bjorkdal gold mine and Brazil's Jacobina gold mine. Bharti and his team built the company up from a junior gold company to one that was, by 1997, producing more than 200,000 ounces of gold annually.^[5]

When the market collapsed and commodity prices dropped, the company restructured itself as William Multi-Tech (known as a 'technology incubator') during the 2000-2001 internet bubble, then again to Valencia Ventures as it's known today (under control of Forbes and Manhattan).^[5]

Following William Resources, Bharti went on to build his own company. He purchased mines from floundering companies, developed them and sold them. He eventually assembled his ventures and established the mining house Forbes & Manhattan, a leading modern mining conglomerate.^[3]

Forbes & Manhattan[link]

The Toronto-based private merchant bank is an incubator for resource companies. They seek out high potential mining assets and take them from exploration and discovery to production. They have been successful with this formula for creating profits through acquiring large holdings in businesses, growing them through technical and management expertise and then selling them for significantly more than the purchase price.^[3]

Forbes & Manhattan’s most successful project so far was in May 2011 when Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines, which began as a $1M dollar exploration iron ore company with assets in Quebec at the time of Forbes & Manhattan's first involvement,^[6][7] was developed and sold to Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. for $4.9 billion in cash.^[4]

Another successful project was Desert Sun Mining. In 2002 Bharti acquired a controlling position in Desert Sun Mining. He developed the Jacobina Mine to near production and then four years later sold the company for $735M to Yamana Gold.^[8]

Their most recent exit was the sale of Avion Gold Corp. to Endeavour Mining. Avion’s gold assets in Mali were originally acquired by Forbes & Manhattan in 2008 from Nevsun Resources for US$20 million.^[9][7] Endeavour Mining purchased Avion Gold Corp on October 18, 2012 for US$389 million.^[10]

The main difference between Forbes & Manhattan and other merchant banks is they use technical expertise to develop their companies over long - 3-5 year time frames - rather than quickly flipping them.^[11]

The company retains approximately 300 professionals: geologists, lawyers, accountants, investment bankers, financial analysts and mining analysts to support the companies under its umbrella. The five main specialty divisions are gold and base metals mining, energy, wealth management, agriculture and ferrous metals.^[1]

They currently have sixteen offices in twelve countries around the world.^[12]

Philanthropy[link]

In 2011, Bharti donated $10M to Laurentian University. In honour of his donation, the engineering school was renamed the Bharti School of Engineering.^[13]

Bharti, through The Bharti Charitable Foundation, has also made numerous other smaller donations to a wide variety of causes.^[14]

Family life[link]

Stan and Hannelle Bharti have three sons, Julian, Rene and Andre. Their children are actively involved in the family business and philanthropic efforts.^[13]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Forbes & Manhattan