[miningmx.com] – IMPALA Platinum (Implats) has concluded the sale of control of its 87%-owned Zimplats to the Zimbabwean government in a deal that complies with the country’s indigenisation laws and brings the curtain down on an uncertainty that has been with Implats for more than a decade.
The agreement is to transfer 51% of Implats’ shareholding in Zimplats, according to an article by BDLive which also cited Bloomberg News as a source.
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed but it wouldn’t be beyond the bounds of imagination to suppose that it’s similar to indigenisation transactions that were completed by Anglo American Platinum and Aquarius Platinum last year.
In terms of these deals, a portion of the shares are ‘sold’ directly to the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Fund (NIEFF), while a portion are transferred to the mine’s local community and to employees in the form of an employee share ownership programme, or Esop.
It is also likely that part or all of the share transfer would be vendor-financed: in other words, the buyers would fund their shareholdings through dividends earned by the company. Whether the parties would be diluted if they failed to follow capital calls remains to be seen.
Invitations have been sent to Zimplats stakeholders inviting them to a signing ceremony on Friday, said BDLive. It added that Zimbabwe’s vice-president Joyce Mujuru, Zimplats, Implats and empowerment ministry officials will be present at the ceremony, according to the invitation.
Implats executives said on Thursday they could not discuss the terms of the agreement before they had signed the documents.
“We have concluded the (indigenisation of the) mining sector and the platinum sector,” said Saviour Kasukuwere, the minister for empowerment, youth affairs and indigenisation, and the person who was spearheaded a renewed effort to complete the deals are years of stalling.
“We are looking at this as the completion for the platinum and mining industry. There is compliance in the sector and this heralds a new era for the transfer of resources to our people,” he is quoted in the BDLive article as having said.
If the indigenisation transaction has been completed, it will represent relatively short work by Terence Goodlace, who began work as CEO of Implats in July last year.
The run-up to the transaction was not without its travails, however.
In December, a leaked company memorandum expressed the view that Implats should delay signing the indigenisation deal until next year when it was possible a new government would be elected following the country’s national elections.
Zimplats produced 187,000 ounces of platinum in matte in its 2012 financial year and is known to be one of Implats’ solid performers.
