MMX Ordered to Pay Tax Bill Equaling Four Times Annual Sales

MMX Mineracao (MMXM3) & Metalicos SA, the mining company controlled by billionaire Eike Batista, was ordered to pay 3.76 billion reais ($1.86 billion) in back taxes, more than four times its estimated 2012 sales. Shares fell.

Brazil’s Internal Revenue Service said taxes are due after Anglo American Plc (AAL) boosted its stake in the Minas-Rio mining business, Rio de Janeiro-based MMX said in a regulatory filing today. The agency also claims back taxes on gains related to share sales between companies that indirectly control the miner, according to a regulatory filing today.

MMX, which plans to appeal the ruling, said it won’t make provisions for the payment. The total claim is more than four times its estimated 2012 sales of 839 million reais, the median of 11 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

MMX dropped 4 percent to 4.27 reais at 1:22 p.m. in Sao Paulo. Earlier, the stock fell as much as 4.5 percent to the lowest since Dec. 18.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lucia Kassai in Sao Paulo at lkassai@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net