South Africa-based mining company Sibanye-Stillwater has made an offer to acquire the remaining stake in Australian mining company New Century Resources for $103m.
New Century Resources is a tailings management and rehabilitation company that owns and operates the New Century zinc tailings retreatment operation in Queensland, Australia.
In October 2021, Sibanye-Stillwater acquired a 19.99% stake in New Century Resources for a total cash consideration of $46m.
Sibanye-Stillwater will acquire the remaining stake in New Century at a price of A$1.10 ($0.73) per share in cash, on a fully diluted basis.
The company’s offer price implies an equity value of $103m for New Century.
Sibanye-Stillwater stated: “The investment in New Century signifies further geographic diversification for Sibanye-Stillwater, providing a foothold in Australia, a high-quality international mining jurisdiction.
“The acquisition will potentially enable the sharing of technological best practices and synergy realisation across Sibanye-Stillwater’s various investment platforms, further advancing the company as a global, ESG-focused industry leader in tailings reprocessing.
“New Century’s investment in the Mt Lyell copper mine in Tasmania will also provide an opportunity for sustainable green copper production, large-scale tailings reprocessing and rehabilitation.”
New Century Board of directors considered the Sibanye Offer to be best and final and recommended its shareholders to unanimously accept the offer.
The Board confirmed that it has not received any competing proposals.
Sibanye-Stillwater said that its offer delivers certain value in the form of cash consideration, and provides a liquidity opportunity for New Century shareholders.
Its offer price represents a premium of 42.9% to the trading price of New Century shares on the ASX on 20 February 2023, and 21.5% to the one-month VWAP.
Furthermore, the offer is not subject to any minimum acceptance condition and is subject only to no prescribed occurrences before the end of the offer period, said New Century Resources.
