South Africa’s third-largest gold miner, Harmony Gold, on Wednesday announced that it has sold its remaining 26,5-million Gold Fields shares, constituting 5,4% of Gold Fields’ issued shares, at an average price of R93,228 per share.
The process was concluded through market disposals, which started on November 10, and an open-market offering on November 15 and 16, Harmony said.
“The disposal of our remaining shares in Gold Fields has significantly strengthened our balance sheet. In addition, with Harmony’s restructuring process being concluded during the previous quarter, the company is well positioned to fully exploit the current higher gold price in rand-per-kilogram terms,” Harmony CEO Bernard Swanepoel said in a statement.
A Harmony spokesperson confirmed that the company garnered R2,46-billion from the latest Gold Fields sale.
“This bodes well for Harmony who, through the development of our range of growth projects in South Africa and Papua New Guinea, will be transformed from a high-cost marginal producer to producing high-margin quality ounces,” Swanepoel added.
Merrill Lynch South Africa acted as sole book runner for the transaction.
“A full … announcement with more details regarding the disposal will follow,” Harmony added. — I-Net Bridge