South African petrochemicals and fuels group Sasol has sold 20% of its mining subsidiary to a black women-controlled mining company for R1,9-billion, the company said on Thursday.
”Heralding the second phase of Sasol Mining’s broad-based black economic empowerment [BEE] strategy, this transaction enables Sasol Mining to achieve compliance with the Mining Charter’s ownership requirements,” the firm said in a statement.
Sasol said the black women-controlled firm, Ixia Coal, will acquire the stake through the issue of new shares.
Ixia Coal is a venture with Women Investment Portfolio Holdings (Wiphold) and Mining Women Investments — a newly established company comprising women drawn from the areas where Sasol Mining has operations and coal reserves.
Through its affirmative action BEE programme, the South African government has been encouraging companies to sell stakes to black South Africans to draw them into the mainstream economy after decades of exclusion under apartheid.
Sasol said Ixia Coal would become an investor in its mining unit and over the longer term would develop operational capacity enabling it to operate its own coal mines.
”With sound business acumen and a strong empowerment track record, Wiphold will help us build Ixia Coal into a new, sustainable women’s empowerment company that over time will become involved in operating coal mines. This will include transferring skills to the new company,” Sasol’s mining managing director Hermann Wenhold said in a statement.
Wiphold is an investment and operating company owned and managed by black women, with interests in a range of companies including Old Mutual. – Reuters