COMPANY COMMENT
Selling it forward the best option for Sibanye
It was one of the factors behind the halving of its share price in 2018
Sibanye-Stillwater has joined a growing list of mining companies that sell forward a portion of their future production to secure funding to tackle debt or complete projects. Sibanye was one of those companies labouring under a heavy debt burden, with net debt of R23bn, some R6bn more than its market capitalisation. It was one of the factors behind the halving of its share price in 2018 as investors and analysts fretted that the company would have to issue shares to raise capital in a heavily discounted and dilutive rights issue. CEO Neal Froneman had repeatedly said a rights issue was not on the cards. He has also said raising money through bonds or other debt instruments was too expensive and one of the objectives in the capital raising was to remove debt from Sibanye’s balance sheet and reduce interest repayments.The streaming deal with the US’s Wheaton Precious Metals, which provides $500m cash upfront, means Sibanye will hand over all its gold production now and into the future...
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