South African mining group Gold Fields has agreed to buy Yamana Gold in an all-share deal valuing its Canadian peer at $6.7bn, the latest consolidation in the fragmented sector.
Yamana shareholders will receive 0.6 Gold Fields shares for each share they hold, giving them about 39 per cent of the combined company that will have a $15.6bn market capitalisation. The offer represents a 33.8 per cent premium to Yamana’s average share price over the past 10 days.
The takeover comes as big gold companies try to revive their fortunes after being shunned by investors who have grown tired of the sector’s lacklustre performance at a time when gold prices are under pressure from rising interest rates and a stronger US dollar.
The deal will create a miner with annual gold production of about 3.4mn ounces, overtaking South African rival AngloGold Ashanti to become the world’s fourth-largest gold mining group, behind Newmont, Barrick and Agnico.
Gold Fields, which was founded by Cecil Rhodes in 1887, produces about 2.4mn ounces of gold a year from nine sites in Australia, Ghana, Peru and South Africa, It is also developing its flagship growth project, Salares Norte in Chile. Yamana is focused on the Americas, with large sites at Malartic in Quebec and El Peñón in Chile.
The gold market has been volatile this year, briefly trading above $2,000 a troy ounce in March as investors looked for safe places to park cash after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, the price has slipped back to about $1,850 as the US dollar and Treasury yields have strengthened.
A stronger US dollar makes gold more expensive for holders of other currencies while rising interest rates increase the opportunity cost of owning the metal, a non-yielding asset.
The two companies said the deal would strengthen their portfolio of assets, diversify their geographies, improve their financial position to develop large projects and achieve $40mn of annual cost savings.
Chris Griffith, chief executive of Gold Fields, said the main rationale was to create a growth engine for beyond the next four years, when its output will begin to drop after Salares Norte has been developed.
“What we wanted to do was grow our pipeline, bulk up our South American operations and get a presence in Canada,” he said in an interview.
Analysts believe there are too many gold mining companies given the size of the industry. The sector has a reputation for overspending, poor capital discipline and, in North America, excessive executive pay.
The deal follows a “merger of equals” between Canada’s Kirkland Lake Gold and Agnico Eagle Mines, and Australia’s Newcrest Mining’s takeover of Vancouver-based Pretium Resources last year.
Other potential deals in the sector could involve Canada’s Kinross, which is seen as vulnerable to a bid after selling its Russian mines at a knockdown price following the invasion of Ukraine.
