Gold miner Centamin acquired for £1.9bn

Centamin leaves the stock market after accepting a £1.9bn takeover offer.

The board of the FTSE 250 gold miner said yesterday it will recommend that shareholders accept the £1.63 a share offer from South Africa’s AngloGold Ashanti.

Centamin shares rose 22.9 percent, or 27.4 pence, to 146.9 pence. A deal would leave scandal-hit Endeavour Mining (which tried to buy Centamin in 2019) as the only major primary gold miner on the London Stock Exchange.

The sector has struggled since the exit of Randgold, which went private when it merged with a Canadian gold mining giant six years ago.

More recently, Russian gold miners left the exchange after the invasion of Ukraine.

The proposed takeover of Centamin comes as the London stock market struggles with a broader exodus of companies and a lack of new listings.

AngloGold is eyeing Centamin’s Sukari site, which is Egypt’s largest gold mine and one of the largest in the world.

Since operations began in 2009, Sukari has produced over 5.9 million ounces of gold.

Russ Mould, investment director at investment platform AJ Bell, said the Centamin deal was the “end of an era” for mid- and large-cap gold mining companies on the UK stock market.

He said: ‘Centamin is one of the last pure gold producers left on the London Stock Exchange.

‘Over the years, gold producers of any notable scale have been acquired by rivals or merged with others, leaving investors with limited options on the London Stock Exchange and effectively forcing them to search overseas stock markets for a wider range of gold miners.’

Randgold went private when it merged with Barrick of Canada in 2018.

The city lost another gold miner when Barrick bought back its publicly traded African operations in 2019, nine years after spinning off the unit.

Silver producer Fresnillo, which also mines gold, remains listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The mining industry has seen significant consolidation in recent years. US giant Newmont, the world’s largest gold producer, is set to buy Australia’s New Crest Mining for £13bn by the end of 2023.

Last month, Johannesburg-based Gold Fields paid £1.2bn for Canadian company Osisko Mining.

That deal came two years after its pursuit of Yamana was thwarted by a rival bid from Agnico Eagle and Pan American Silver.

Meanwhile, BHP abandoned a £39bn plan to buy Anglo American earlier this year.

AngloGold chairman Jochen Tilk said the deal “offers attractive returns for our shareholders.”

Following the deal, AngloGold shareholders will own around 83.6 percent and Centamin shareholders will own around 16.4 percent of the combined company.