The Competition Appeal Court granted Gold Fields a partial interdict on Friday against Harmony’s early settlement offer, until final approval had been received for Harmony’s acquisition of Gold Fields shares by the Competition Tribunal or the court itself.
Justice Ismail Hussain delivered judgment in the Johannesburg High Court.
The court granted Gold Fields an interdict to stop Harmony from using any Gold Fields shares, received from its early settlement offer or otherwise, to vote or exercise any right usually afforded Gold Fields shareholders.
Justice Hussain gave no reasons for the ruling because of the urgency of the matter and reasons will be released in due course.
Harmony was ordered to pay the costs of Gold Fields’ appeal, which include the costs of two legal counsel. The result of the ruling leaves Harmony without the right to use their shares to vote — these are the shares it received from its early settlement offer which closed at 12h00 on Friday and thus Harmony won’t be able to participate on voting on the merger of Gold Fields and Canada’s Iamgold with the shareholders’ vote scheduled for December 7.
“The order handed down by the Competition Appeal Court means that Harmony may buy shares in Gold Fields but Harmony may not exercise any right in terms of these shares and this will include voting on the Iamgold deal,” said Competition Tribunal CEO Shan Ramburuth on the sidelines of the Johannesburg High Court where the ruling was handed down.
Gold Fields appealed the Competition Tribunal’s decision to dismiss its application to interdict implementation of Harmony’s early settlement offer as part of Harmony’s bid to buy out Gold Fields.
Gold Fields argued that the implementation of the early settlement offer would amount to the implementation of a merger without prior authorisation from the relevant competition authorities. – I-Net Bridge