Yong Keu Cha, the former chief executive of Kazakhmys, is to pocket more than £250 million by selling his remaining shares in the mining group.

The multmillionaire is placing his remaining 4.5 per cent stake in the Kazahkstan mining group — about 21.1 million shares — through Credit Suisse today, bringing the total that he has made over the past two years to £1.2 billion.

The sale comes only months after the 50-year-old South Korean-born executive made nearly £600 million in the biggest director share sale.

In September he cut his stake by 11.1 per cent two weeks after announcing his resignation.

BACKGROUND

• Former Kazakhmys boss gets £250m

• Higher costs hit Kazakhmys

• Kazakhmys's departing chief sells shares for nearly £500m

• Kazakhmys hit by resignation

Kazakhmys is not for the faint-hearted

Far from being the ideal widows and orphans stock, it is developing in ways that calm the nerves.

Related Internet Links

• Kazakhmys company information

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The bulk of the shares were picked up by Vladimir Kim, the chairman.

Mr Cha decided to quit the company last summer to spend more time in his homeland.

He joined in 1994 and made £340 million when Kazakhmys floated on the London Stock Exchange two years ago.

Since 2005, the shares have soared from 560p on the back of the commodity boom and closed last night at 1220p.

They were down 30p at 1190p after details of the placing emerged today.

Credit Suisse is placing the shares through an accelerated bookbuild.

Mr Cha was in the right place at the right time.

He was in charge of Samsung’s operations in Kazakhstan when the top job at Kazakhmys came available.

He lived in Putney, southwest London, before his retirement and his two children go to university in the UK.

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