Gold miner Centamin snapped up in £1.9bn takeover

Centamin is leaving the stock market after accepting a £1.9billion takeover bid.

The FTSE 250 gold miner’s board yesterday said it will recommend that shareholders accept the £1.63 per share offer from South Africa’s AngloGold Ashanti.

Centamin shares soared 22.9 per cent, or 27.4p, to 146.9p. A deal would leave scandal-hit Endeavour Mining – which tried to buy Centamin in 2019 – as the only large primary gold miner on London’s stock exchange.

The sector has struggled after the departure of Randgold, which delisted when it merged with a Canadian gold mining giant six years ago.

Buy-out: Centamin ’s board said it will recommend shareholders accept the £1.63 per share offer from South Africa’s AngloGold Ashanti

More recently, Russian gold miners have left the exchange after the invasion of Ukraine.

The proposed takeover of Centamin comes as London’s stock market battles with a wider exodus of companies and a lack of fresh listings.

AngloGold is targeting Centamin’s Sukari site, which is Egypt’s largest gold mine and one of the biggest in the world.

Since operations began in 2009, Sukari has produced more than 5.9m ounces of gold.

Russ Mould, investment director at investment platform AJ Bell, said the Centamin deal was the ‘end of an era’ for mid- and large-cap gold miners on the UK stock market. 

He said: ‘Centamin is one of the last pure-play gold producers remaining on the London Stock Exchange.

‘Over the years, gold producers of any notable scale have been snapped up by rivals or merged with others, leaving investors with limited options on the London Stock Exchange and effectively making them look at overseas stock markets for a broader range of gold miners.’ 

Randgold left the exchange when it merged with Canada’s Barrick in 2018.

The City lost another gold miner when Barrick bought back its listed African operations in 2019, nine years after it had spun the unit off.

Silver producer Fresnillo, which also digs for gold, remains listed in London.

The mining industry has seen significant consolidation in recent years. US giant Newmont, the world’s top gold producer, bought Australia’s New Crest Mining for £13bn in late 2023.

Last month Johannesburg-based Gold Fields paid £1.2billion for Canadian firm Osisko Mining. 

That deal came two years after its pursuit of Yamana was scuppered by a rival offer from Agnico Eagle and Pan American Silver.

Meanwhile, BHP walked away from a £39bn plan to buy Anglo American earlier this year.

AngloGold chairman Jochen Tilk said the deal ‘offers attractive returns for our shareholders’.

 Following the deal, AngloGold shareholders will hold around 83.6 per cent and Centamin shareholders will own around 16.4 per cent of the merged company.