Incwala Platinum (Pty) Ltd, the wholly owned subsidiary of BEE group Incwala Resources, has successfully raised R900m from a consortium of local and international banks to refinance its existing preference shares and redeem its Akanani Mining (Pty) Ltd (“Akanani”) bridge finance.
Incwala Resources is now the unencumbered owner of its 26% stake in Akanani which it bought in November 2006 for R800m. The investment has appreciated 250% in value and is now worth close to R2 billion.
Incwala CEO, Zanele Mavuso Mbatha, said that that she was delighted with the attractive refinancing rate which was secured against Incwala’s 18% equity interest in Lonplats, a subsidiary of Lonmin plc.
“We were able to secure good terms in a tough credit market through hard negotiations and the quality of our assets. It means we are a lot closer to being operational. We will now be hiring people to that end in the next quarter.
“The refinancing gives us a lot of room to leverage our balance sheet for attractive acquisitions. We look forward to working with Lonmin to develop and grow Akanani for our shareholders in the true spirit of broad based empowerment. It’s a very exciting time for us now that we are moving ahead so strongly.”
Mbatha said that the refinancing also meant that the existing preference shares have been successfully redeemed and the new preference shares issued at significantly better, more flexible terms.
The consortium of leading banks that provided the equity collateralised funding includes Absa Capital, Investec, RMB, Standard Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
Mbatha concluded that she was encouraged to have the financial backing and support of the high-quality banks some of which had financed Incwala from inception and had pulled in more to participate in the refinancing.
Akanani holds new order prospecting rights in terms of the Mineral Resources and Petroleum Development Act (MRPDA) to prospect for minerals including Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) on two farms, Moordkopje 813 LR and Zwartfontein 814 LR that together cover 4 095ha (the Akanani Project). |
