AngloGold to Buy Gold Miner Centamin in $2.5 Billion Deal
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. agreed to buy Centamin Plc in a deal that values the gold miner at about £1.9 billion ($2.5 billion), as soaring prices for the precious metal drive producers to seek expansion.
The deal gives AngloGold control of the Sukari mine in Egypt, long seen as one of the best gold deposits in the world that isn’t owned by one of the top producers. Yet it has been dogged by operational and political challenges since an uprising that led to the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak.
The cash and share offer represents a 37% premium to Centamin’s closing price on Sept. 9, AngloGold said in a statement on Tuesday. AngloGold shares fell as much as 9.8% in Johannesburg, the biggest intraday drop in three years. Centamin jumped as much as 25% in London.
The Centamin deal is the latest sign that big gold producers are looking to snap up smaller rivals as bullion trades near a record high. Last month, Gold Fields Ltd. agreed to buy Canada’s Osisko Mining Inc. in a $1.6 billion transaction.
“M&A activity in the sector will only increase with producers keen to sustain output,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Emmanuel Munjeri.
Adding Sukari to its assets, which stretch from Australia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, will add about 450,000 ounces of production to AngloGold, taking its annual output to more than 3 million ounces.
The acquisition continues AngloGold’s progress in moving away from South Africa, after selling its last mine in the country in 2020. The company that emerged from a mining empire created by Ernest Oppenheimer has since moved its headquarters to Denver and its primary listing to New York.
Once the deal is completed, AngloGold shareholders will own about 83.6% of the company with Centamin investors owning approximately 16.4% of the enlarged share capital.
