AngloGold Ashanti to buy Centamin in $2.5 billion deal
Add share move in paragraph 2, details on AngloGold portfolio in paragraph 11
Sept 10 (Reuters) -AngloGold Ashanti AU.N will buy Egypt-focused smaller rival Centamin CEY.L in a $2.5 billion stock and cash deal, the companies said on Tuesday, as the U.S.-listed global miner expands its operations in Africa.
Shares in Centamin jumped about 24% to 148.10 pence in early trade, their highest level since October 2020. Shares in Centamin's London-listed peer Hochschild HOCM.L rose about 4%.
Under the terms of the deal, Centamin shareholders will receive 0.06983 new AngloGold shares for each Centamin share and $0.125 in cash.
The implied 163 pence ($2.14) per share offer represents a premium of 36.7% to Centamin's Monday closing price of 120 pence, the companies said in a statement.
The acquisition coincides with a flurry of deal activity in the gold mining sector over the past couple of years, with the world's top gold producer Newmont NEM.N buying Australia's Newcrest Mining for $16.8 billion in late 2023.
In May, miner BHP Group BHP.AX walked away from its $49 billion plan to take over rival Anglo American AAL.L after its last-ditch request for more time was rejected by the London-listed firm, ending its six-week pursuit for now.
Following the completion of the Centamin deal, it is expected that AngloGold shareholders will own about 83.6% and Centamin shareholders about 16.4% of AngloGold Ashanti's enlarged issued share capital.
AngloGold Ashanti said it expects the deal to be accretive to free cash flow per share in the first full year post completion of the transaction.
Terming the deal "highly compelling", AngloGold Ashanti Chair Jochen Tilk said the acquisition offers "enormous geological potential" that the company is well placed to develop.
Centamin's principal asset is the Sukari gold mine, which is Egypt's largest gold mine as well as one of the world's largest producing mines.
The Centamin acquisition expands AngloGold's portfolio to yet another key gold producing region. It currently has assets in nine countries - Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Australia, the U.S., Brazil, Argentina and Colombia.
The Centamin board said it intends to unanimously recommend the deal to its shareholders.
($1 = 0.7634 pounds)
Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Sonia Cheema, Miral Fahmy and Jan Harvey
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