[miningmx.com] — GOLD One International announced on Wednesday that the Chinese government has approved its Jintu transaction, which will see a Chinese consortium become a strategic shareholder in its company.
The consortium – which is made up of China’s biggest state-owned investment company, the Citic Group, which is involved through the Baiyin Non-Ferrous Group and China Development Bank through its China-Africa Development Fund, as well as Long March Capital – has informed the company that it has received approval to proceed with the transaction from the National Development and Reform Commission of the People’s Republic of China, one of the key Chinese government approvals required by the consortium and a major condition precedent to completion of the transaction.
Approvals by the Ministry of Commerce and subsequently, the State Administration for Foreign Exchange are believed to be on track.
“I am very pleased that we have reached another significant milestone in this transaction. We understand that the NDRC approval is probably the most significant of the Chinese approvals, and look forward to receiving the other approvals,” said Gold One president and CEO Neal Froneman.
Announcing the transaction in May, Gold One said that the offer by the Chinese consortium for all of its shares implied a post-transaction enterprise value of R5.9bn.
The deal has certainly been a company-changing one in that the company started off the year as a gold junior bringing its first production from Modder East online and now it has the potential to become one of the world’s top five producers, it said.
