GOLD Fields said on Friday it had raised about A$1.1bn ($725m) through the sale of its 3.4% stake in Sydney-listed Northern Star Resources.
This takes cash realised by the Johannesburg-headquartered company this week to about $833m following the sale on Tuesday of its 19.1% equity stake in the Toronto-listed Ghana miner Galiano Gold, grossing about C$151m ($108m).
Gold Fields said it had offered about 49.3 million shares in Northern Star for A$22.05 each. That reflected a discount of about 2.6% to Northern Star’s closing price of A$22.66/share on Thursday (September 25).
The trade comes after the Johannesburg-listed miner agreed in May to buy Gold Road Resources in a deal valuing its Australian joint venture partner at about $2.4bn (A$3.7bn). The deal gave Gold Fields control of the 350,000 ounce a year Gruyere gold mine, a transaction that was endorsed by shareholders in Gold Road on September 22.
Mike Fraser, CEO of Gold Fields described the acquisition of Gold Road as “a strategically logical” and “low risk”. Proceeds from the sale will be used to repay part of a bridging loan arranged to pay for Gold Road Resources.
On September 23, Gold Fields sold 50.5 million shares in Galiano via two block trades at C$3.00 per share through BMO Capital Markets, Scotiabank and CIBC Capital Markets.
The sale price represented a 16% discount to Galiano’s close on September 22 (C$3.45/share). However, shares in Galiano are nearly 60% stronger since the turn of the year partly driven by record gold prices.
Gold Fields and Galiano were joint venture partners in Asanko Gold Mines following a $202m investment by Gold Fields in 2018. But the mine struggled resulting in a decision by Gold Fields in March last year to sell its mine stake for $170m. Gold Fields retained a stake in Galiano which it held via subscription to an earlier rights issue.
