Sibanye-Stillwater is forging ahead with its R5bn all-share takeover of world number three platinum producer Lonmin despite dramatic falls in both firms’ share prices in 2018. The deal, which took the market by surprise in December and thwarted the advances by Northam Platinum to cherry-pick some of Lonmin’s assets, will save tens of thousands of jobs at the financially distressed Lonmin, which could be forced into business rescue or liquidation if the transaction failed. The Lonmin deal and the purchase of two other local platinum operations by Sibanye is being closely watched by Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe, who said recently: "I want to see the experiment of Neal Froneman [Sibanye CEO] in platinum for my own interest. He comes from the Harmony model in gold mining where there is a lean management structure and there’s a lot of emphasis on the mines. I want to see how that works in platinum. I suspect it will work." So far in 2018 shares in Sibanye and Lonmin have fal...
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