The sale leaves Harmony with around 26.6 million Gold Fields shares, which the company says it will hang on to.
“Gold Fields’ invitation to appoint Norilsk Nickel to its board seems to circumvent some of our potential to deploy this entire stake strategically,” says Harmony CEO Bernard Swanepoel. “We retain a 5.4% stake in Gold Fields in the interim to allow us to participate in any appropriate restructuring of Gold Fields that should happen.”
Gold Fields recently said that Russian-based
Harmony acquired an 11.5% stake in Gold Fields via the early settlement portion of its terminated takeover bid. South Africa’s High Court recently ruled that the bid had lapsed on Dec. 18, 2004, rather than on May 20, the same date the Court handed down its ruling.
In the end, the 7-month battle (five months of which were fought in vain) cost Harmony an estimated 159.1 million rand (US$24.5 million), and Gold Fields 170.4 million rand (US$26.2 million). Those figures exclude the millions carved from each company’s share value.
Harmony plans to use proceeds from the sale to retire short-term debt and fund its Hidden Valley project in Papua New Guinea, where construction is expected to begin in July. The plan allows the project to remain hedge-free.
Hidden Valley is reportedly home to a proven reserve of 2 million tonnes grading 3.1 grams gold and 29 grams silver per tonne. The company was granted a development licence earlier this year following a comprehensive environmental review.
The proposed open-pit operation is expected to chip in 300,000 oz. gold and 4 million oz. silver per year to Harmony’s coffers; cash cost are pegged at US$224 per oz. The project carries a US$124-million price tag, and a rate of return of 28%. The first gold pour is slated for early 2007.
Meanwhile, Harmony is considering a buy-back of its own shares.
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