SIBANYE-Stillwater has filed its application for the merger of its platinum group metal (PGM) operations with Lonmin, with South Africa’s Competition Commission adding that it was “fully committed” to completing the transaction, announced on December 14.
In terms of the transaction, each Lonmin shareholder will received 0.967 new Sibanye-Stillwater shares. Following completion of the acquisition, Lonmin shareholders will hold approximately 11.3% of the enlarged Sibanye-Stillwater group and Sibanye-Stillwater shareholders will hold about 88.7% of the enlarged Sibanye-Stillwater group.
“Sibanye-Stillwater and Lonmin remain fully committed to the proposed transaction which they continue to expect to close in the second half of this year,” it said in a statement. “We are delighted to have filed the submission with the South African competition authorities,” said Neal Froneman, CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater.
“The proposed Transaction remains in the best interest of stakeholders and will create a leading mine-to-market producer of PGMs in South Africa,” he added.
On February 8, Sibanye-Stillwater won Competition Commission approval for a separate tie-up with DRDGold in which it proposes to swap a 38% stake in its shares for large gold tailings resources owned by Sibanye-Stillwater on the west Rand.
DRDGold will build facilities to re-mine the tailings which occur at a higher grade to its current operations. There is also an option for Sibanye-Stillwater to improve its stake in DRDGold to 51%.
