AngloGold to buy Centamin for £1.9bn in blow to London stock market

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AngloGold Ashanti has agreed a £1.9bn deal to take over rival gold miner Centamin in a blow to the London stock market as consolidation heats up in the precious metals mining sector.

If the agreement goes ahead, Centamin will be the latest mining group to leave London, which has struggled following Randgold’s exit when it merged with Barrick Gold and the exodus of Russian gold miners following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The deal would leave Endeavour Mining as the only large precious metals mining company on the London exchange. The company has been shrouded in scandal this year after firing chief executive Sébastien de Montessus for serious misconduct.

The cash and share deal, which comes at a 37.6 per cent premium to Centamin’s share price in the 30 days before the announcement, will add one of the world’s largest gold mines in Egypt to the portfolio of AngloGold, the sixth-largest gold miner. The fragmented sector has been consolidating in the past decade with market leader Newmont buying Australia’s Newcrest for $19bn last year.

AngloGold moved its primary listing from Johannesburg to New York last year to access deeper pools of capital in a bid to boost its valuation.

Each Centamin shareholder will receive 0.06983 of new AngloGold shares and 12.5 cents in cash, handing them a total of 16.4 per cent of the combined entity.

“Today’s transaction is highly compelling and builds on the strong foundation we have built,” said AngloGold chair Jochen Tilk. “It adds to our portfolio as the pre-eminent gold producer in Egypt and offers enormous geological potential that we are very well placed to develop.”

If the deal goes ahead, the enlarged AngloGold will produce about 3mn ounces of gold a year, making it the world’s fourth-largest gold company.