Norilsk Nickel participates in the creation of the largest gold mining company in the world

Harmony gold mining in South Africa announced its intention to purchase Gold Fields for 8.1 billion, blocking its deal with the Canadian Iamgold with the help of Norilsk Nickel and creating the largest gold mining company in the world.

The official statement of Harmony says that the shareholders and the Board of Directors Gold Fields, which is the fourth largest production of the world gold mining company, is proposed to sell the company.

Harmony writes that the company has already received an irrevocable agreement of the largest shareholder Gold Fields - Norilsk Nickel, which owns 20% of the shares. At the same time, Norkel refused to maintain an alternative transaction - by the merger of Gold Fields with the Canadian Iamgold.

All GF capital is estimated at 52.9 billion South African random ($ 8.1 billion). Thus, Harmony offers GF shareholders almost a third more than the company was worth the results of exchange trading on October 14, AK&M notes.

"We are very pleased that Norilsk assessed the potential of the proposed transaction. We intend to work with them in the future in order to maximize benefits that shareholders can receive from this strategic partnership," said Harmony head, Bernard Swanpol.

According to the British The Financial Times , if the deal with Harmony is approved by GF shareholders, the united company will become the world's largest gold manufacturer with market capitalization of about $ 10 billion and the volume of production of about 7.8 million gold ounces per year.

"Barring efforts with Harmony, Vladimir Potanin, the Russian tycoon, who controls Norkel, will continue the geographical diversification of his business in the period when many oligarchs of the country feel uncertainty regarding their prospects in Russia," the British business newspaper notes.

Norkel bought 20% of Gold Fields shares for $ 1.16 billion in March 2004. After this transaction, the companies announced the possibility of deepening cooperation and increasing Norilsk Nickel’s share in GF capital, but in August the South African company announced the upcoming merger with IAMGold.

The Norilsk Nickel GMC is the world's largest producer of Nickel and Metals of the platinum group, one of the ten world gold mining companies.