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- AngloGold Ashanti to gain control of Egypt’s Sukari mine as part of deal
- Located in the Arabian Nubian Shield, Sukari employs around 4,450 people.
AngloGold Ashanti has agreed to acquire FTSE 250 gold miner Centamin for around $2.5bn (£1.9bn).
The deal values Centamin shares at 163 pence, a 36.7 per cent premium to the group’s closing share price on 9 September.
Centamin investors will be entitled to receive $0.125 in cash and approximately 0.07 new AngloGold Ashanti shares for each Centamin share they hold.
Big business: Located in the Nubian-Arabian Shield, the Sukari mine employs approximately 4,450 people, the vast majority of whom are Egyptian.
Following the transaction, AngloGold Ashanti will gain control of Centamin’s Sukari mine in Egypt, which has produced more than 5.9 million ounces of gold since production began in 2009.
Located in the Arabian Nubian Shield, Sukari employs approximately 4,450 people, the vast majority of whom are Egyptian, and achieved annual gold production of 450 koz last year.
In a separate trading update, Centamin revealed it produced 93,278oz of gold and sold 102,563oz of gold from Sukari in the two months to August.
Its other assets include the ABC and Doropo projects in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as the Eastern Desert Exploration Project in Egypt.
AngloGold Ashanti shareholders will own around 83.6 percent of the enlarged business once the acquisition is completed, while Centamin investors will own the remaining 16.4 percent.
AngloGold Ashanti chairman Jochen Tilk said the deal was “very attractive… and offers tremendous geological potential that we are very well positioned to develop.”
He added: “The transaction offers attractive returns for our shareholders and is aligned with our approach of prudently allocating capital to optimize our portfolio.”
Centamin shares rose 24.7 percent to 149 pence on Tuesday morning, taking their gains over the past year to around 71 percent.
If Centamin investors approve the deal, Endeavour Mining would become the latest major primary gold producer to list on the UK stock market.
The gold sector has seen significant consolidation in recent years amid growing concerns about depleting gold reserves.
Newmont Corporation acquired Australia-based Newcrest Mining for £15.7bn in November 2023, while Randgold Resources, once listed on the FTSE 100 index, merged with Canada’s Barrick Gold in December 2018.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said Centamin’s proposed acquisition “comes at an interesting time for the gold mining sector”.
He notes that shares of many gold producers have followed rising gold prices as rising cost inflation has squeezed profit margins, but these pressures have recently begun to ease.
“Gold miners that feel more confident about the future may be more willing to make acquisitions, meaning the Centamin acquisition may not be the only one we see in the sector over the next six months or so,” he said.
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