PERTH (miningweekly.com) - South Africa-focused gold miner Gold One has signed a transaction implementation agreement with a consortium of Chinese investors who will take up a majority stake in the company.
The consortium, which has already secured a 17,7% stake in Gold One was hoping to increase its shareholding to between 60% an 75%, by injecting around A$150-million in capital.
As part of the interdependent transactions structure, the consortium would make a A$0,55 a share cash offer to Gold One shareholders, allowing those who wish to exit the company, the opportunity to do so in a value accretive manner.
The A$0,55 a share offer represented a 27,9% premium to the latest ASX closing price and a 25,1% premium to the 30-day volume weighted average price of Gold One shares on the ASX.
Company president and CEO Neal Froneman said in a statement on Monday that the company had been in dialogue with its future partners for some time.
“We share a common vision, and have a similar culture and ambition for Gold One. In addition, we have identified many areas where we can leverage off our complementary skills.”
Froneman said that he was confident that the partnership would create long-term value for those Gold One shareholders who elected to remain invested in Gold One, while also providing an attractive opportunity for shareholders who elected to accept the consortium’s offer to realise the value of their Gold One shareholding.
“Gold One has developed a clear and achievable strategy to increase its scale and production capacity and complementary to this strategy, identified the consortium as a unique investment partner to strengthen Gold Ones’ acquisition capabilities,” he added.
The consortium intended to use Gold One as its listed vehicle for future consolidation of high quality mining assets throughout Africa and the world.
Meanwhile, Froneman added that Gold One would retain its current listing on both the ASX and the JSE, and would possibly look to a future listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
