BC Business cover story. Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 Winner: Lukas Lundin, Lundin Group of Companies, October 9, 2007. By Katya Holloway
Lukas Lundin greets me with a boyish grin as I step into his glass office 21 floors above downtown Vancouver. A flicker of his youthful, almost mischievous personality pierces through an intense facade as he sits back in his chair, fingers lightly brushing the top of his desk.
At 49 years old, Lundin – who oversees a stable of mining and resource-related companies within the Lundin Group of Companies – appears electrically charged, which certainly explains his penchant for high-adrenalin activities such as motorbike racing, heli-skiing and bungee jumping.
He has hiked Kilimanjaro (Africa’s highest mountain), thrown himself out of airplanes and competed in the gruelling, 10,000-kilometre motorbike race from Paris to Dakar four times. But Lundin insists he’s not a danger-seeker, that everything he does is carefully thought out.
“I don’t want to be reckless,” he stresses in a serious tone. “I take calculated risks.”
Lundin calls the punishing Dakar Rally, with its off-road trek through the African desert, “one of those great adventures.” He adds, “It’s just you, the bike and nature, and you really have to focus on the road. For me it’s a very good way to tune out. My brain is always going a hundred different ways, and this is a very tough ride, so focusing on one thing is kind of a way to relax for me.”
Calculated risks pay off
Lundin’s appetite for risk has clearly helped elevate the Lundin Group’s mining portfolio into what it is today. He oversees a growing empire of companies within the group – including Vancouver-based Tenke Mining Corp. and Lundin Mining Corp. – while his brother Ian is chair of Lundin Petroleum AB. Today the group of international, publicly traded companies has an amassed market capitalization of more than $10 billion.
Lukas and Ian took over operations of the Lundin Group in 2006, following the death of their father, Adolf, whose career as an independent oil and mining entrepreneur spanned three decades.
During the 1980s, the Lundin Group began investing in emerging regions with unstable political environments. Spearheaded by Lukas, the Lundin Group was the first foreign investor in Argentina following political reform, acquiring the Baja de la Alumbrera gold and copper projects.
The group was also an early investor in Russia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it acquired the enormous Tenke Fungurume copper and cobalt deposits – a project that was 13 years in the making.
“My philosophy is to go for calculated risk and go for large assets,” Lundin explains. “Don’t be too worried about a country or its politics.”
Need for speed
On the day I meet Lundin at his downtown office, he has just returned from a motorbike trip from Turkey to Mongolia. A banner tacked to the receptionist’s desk reads, “Welcome back, Lukas!” and includes a cartoon of a man riding a motorbike.
Lundin’s office has a pleasant smell of wood polish and looks newly renovated, with a carved totem pole at the entrance symbolizing courage, strength and a sense of adventure (so says a framed sign posted to the wall).
Lundin is leaving again the next day for Stockholm. But this jet-setting life is nothing new; he was introduced to the business at a young age. Born and raised in Stockholm, the high achiever was attending corporate board meetings and flying around the world looking at mines by the age of 15. By age 21, he was running a 50-man gold exploration crew in Sierra Leone.
Lundin moved to Dubai in 1984 to head International Petroleum Corp.’s rapidly growing international operations. But his career really began to take off after his move to Vancouver in 1989, made with the intention of fixing ailing mining companies International Musto Explorations Ltd. and Eastmaque Gold Mines Ltd.
Lundin sold Eastmaque and then travelled to Argentina, which had an unstable political environment at the time, to spearhead Musto’s acquisition of the Baja de la Alumbrera deposit. It would later be the subject of a $500-million takeover by Rio Algom Ltd. and North Ltd., and a mine on the site is now one of the largest gold and copper producers in the world.
Lundin was also instrumental in the acquisition of the multimillion-ounce Veladero gold deposit in Argentina, which was the subject of a $300-million takeover by Homestake Mining Co. in 1999. He was also a senior director of Lundin Oil AB and played a key role in the $480-million takeover of Lundin Oil by Talisman Energy Inc. in 2001.
Record sales
Closer to home, Lundin Mining recently reported record sales and earnings in the second quarter of 2007. Profits were US$160 million for the three months ending June 30, more than four times the US$37.2 million earned during the same period in 2006. This follows the $1.5-billion stock-swap purchase of Tenke. Lundin Mining is also in the process of acquiring Toronto-based Rio Narcea Gold Mines Ltd.
Following years of doing business in Africa, Lundin decided he wanted to give something back to the people who were so good to him, and started a non-profit organization aimed at improving the lives of Africans in need.
Today Lundin for Africa (LFA) has 11 projects across five countries. Lundin’s philanthropic efforts made headlines in July, when he revealed that LFA would be pledging US$100 million through committed projects in pre-approved stages to the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative, which aims to tackle poverty in Africa.
A life of adventure
When he’s not motorbiking across Africa or embarking on other adventurous pursuits, Lundin – a father of four sons – lives in Vancouver and takes regular trips to Sweden. Only time will tell whether his sons (the eldest is 21) will take up the family business, but one thing is for certain: Lundin has never regretted his decision to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“I love it,” he says, of his multi-faceted career. “I wouldn’t do anything different.”
