SIBANYE BID
Lonmin warns of ‘significant’ covenant breach
Lonmin, the embattled platinum miner, warned that its debt covenant, which has been temporarily waivered, will be "significantly" breached because of an impairment of its assets, the size of which will be released in its long-awaited full-year results on January 22. Lonmin, one of the world’s leading sources of platinum group metals (PGMs), has skated dangerously close to breaching the tangible net-worth valuation of $1.1bn stipulated in its debt covenants, but the timely all-share takeover bid by Sibanye-Stillwater has staved off major financial problems. "The slow-motion train smash of a once great PGM miner has been ongoing for some time now, but the end became clearer since the Public Investment Corporation — a 29% shareholder in Lonmin — approved the Stillwater purchase by Sibanye," Nedbank analysts Leon Esterhuizen and Arnold van Graan said recently, noting the $2.2bn cash purchase of the American palladium and platinum miner by Sibanye. Lonmin’s lenders have conditionally agr...
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