ANGLOGOLD announced on Friday it had closed its offer for Normandy Mining. AngloGold’s chairman and CEO, Bobby Godsell, said AngloGold had not achieved a level of acceptance that warranted an extension of the offer. The company believed that it was not possible for AngloGold to obtain majority control of Normandy. ”We are clearly disappointed at not being able to do this transaction,” Godsell said. ”We gave the bid our very best effort. ”The competing bidder has seen more value in the Normandy assets than we were able to identify reliably and therefore made a higher offer.” Newmont’s original offer valued Normandy at A$1.70 per share and Newmont subsequently offered an additional cash consideration of 45 cents per share. In contrast, AngloGold’s original offer valued Normandy at $1.43 per share and it subsequently increased this offer by 30 cents per share. The relative performance of the Newmont and AngloGold shares has considerably narrowed this gap during the course of the bid. Said Godsell: ”We have made it clear that we will not overpay for acquisitions and we could see no basis to further increased our offer for Normandy.” AngloGold would continue to grow the value of the company through organic growth. The company currently has five major capital projects in development which will be coming into production over the next three years, and which will produce around 20-million ounces of gold in total over the life of the projects at an average cash cost of approximately $147 per ounce. AngloGold will also seek value growth through its substantial and focused exploration programme. Godsell said: ”AngloGold has long been an advocate of the need for consolidation in the gold mining industry and this process has been given considerable impetus by the contest for Normandy. ”AngloGold’s long-term strategy formulation will continue to be informed by our belief in the importance of value-creating consolidation. ”AngloGold’s major strategic objective remains strengthening value creation, earnings, profitability and dividend performance, in the interests of all of its stakeholders and, most particularly, its shareholders.” – Sapa
Wednesday January 16, 2002