Naguib Sawiris, the Egyptian billionaire who made his fortune building a telecoms empire extending from Algeria to Pakistan, is behind a deal to create a £3bn London-listed gold producer.
His family has a large stake in Toronto-listed Endeavour Mining, which on Friday revealed discussions with Acacia Mining, a fellow Africa-focused gold miner, over a “possible combination”. They are pushing for a merger of the companies to create a pan-African gold company with the scale to rival Randgold Resources, London’s largest gold producer, according to sources familiar with the talks. “On the face of it this appears a sensible African-focused fit,” said analysts at Investec.
“A merged company would be of a similar production scale to Randgold.” Acacia’s assets are in Tanzania, while Endeavour produces gold from mines in Mali, Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Combined, the two companies would have annual output of 1.5m ounces compared with the 1.3m ounces Randgold is expected to produce this year. Randgold is currently London’s largest listed gold miner with a market capitalisation of £6.29bn.
Full Content: Financial Times
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