DRDGOLD bids low for Mintails

Brendan Ryan | Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:05
[miningmx.com] -- DRDGOLD is offering about R240m - around A$0.05c per Mintails share - to buy the bulk of Mintails assets which seems likely to disappoint many shareholders.

The number is not provided in either of the announcements put out by Mintails and DRDGOLD but was confirmed today by DRDGOLD CEO Niel Pretorius.

Pretorius said it was “very difficult” to predict whether the offer – which has been conditionally accepted by Mintails – will succeed.

He said, “it all depends on an assessment by Mintails shareholders over whether they believe they can restore value to their company through carrying on as a separate entity or whether they could restore that value faster through teaming up with DRDGOLD.

“We believe putting the two operations together would accelerate the process of restoring long-term value to the Mintails assets and combining the operations would create a better story to take to the market.

“The Mintails board has conditionally accepted the offer but they have until July 31 to assess the level of buy-in from their shareholders for the deal,” Pretorius commented.

The price is based on the 30 day VWAP (volume weighted average price) of Mintails on the Australian Stock Exchange as well as the 30 day VWAP for DRDGOLD shares on the JSE.

Mintails shares have traded as high as A$0.70 in the past 18 months but collapsed to current levels because the company ran out of cash to meet its commitments to the ERGO dump retreatment joint venture with its joint venture partner DRDGOLD.

Mintails was forced to raise that cash towards the end of last year under the dire market conditions created by the global credit crisis.

It eventually got the money from DRDGOLD through deals that were highly favourable to DRDGOLD which was able to increase its stake in the ERGO JV and ensure it received all the earnings for up to the first 12 years of the operation.

Trading in Mintails resumed today after a four day suspension. The shares traded as high as A$0.054 before dropping to A$0.04 at the close.

The writer owns shares in Mintails and DRDGOLD.