North American Palladium shareholders back Implats deal

Canada’s North American Palladium (NAP) shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favour of an all-cash, R11bn takeover of the company by SA’s Impala Platinum.

As the third platinum miner in SA to spread its interests to North America, Implats launched its bid to take over the whole of NAP in October. The deal is expected to close on about December 13.

The vote in favour of the transaction was virtually assured, given the NAP board urged shareholders to support the takeover, while Brookfield Business Partners, which owned 81% of the company, had also given its support to the transaction.

Shareholders outside Brookfield would receive C$19.75 (about R220) about per share and Brookfield would be paid C$16 for each of its shares.

Close to 97% of shareholders represented at the meeting voted in favour of the deal, which would give Implats the Lac des Iles mine in Ontario, Canada. The mine produced 237,461oz of palladium at a profit.

The life of the mine could be doubled to 15 years and the transaction would be repaid within four years, Implats CEO Nico Muller said in October when the deal was unveiled.

There remained a final court order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice approving the deal, which is expected to be received on December 9.

There are a few remaining regulatory approvals to secure, but NAP said in a statement that the transaction should be concluded on about December 13, leading to its delisting from the Toronto Stock Exchange.

NAP describes itself as “the world’s only pure play palladium producer” from its surface and underground mining operations that employ 675 people.

Sibanye bought the whole of Montana-based palladium and platinum miner Stillwater in a $2.2bn (about R32bn) cash transaction, while Northam Platinum bought the assets out of the defunct A1 platinum group metals recycler based in the US.

Anglo American Platinum, which has the Unki mine in Zimbabwe, a country in which Implats and Sibanye both have assets, it will not look further afield, its CEO Chris Griffith has said.

seccombea@businesslive.co.za