EDITORIAL: Gold Fields deal is encouraging and sobering for SA Inc
Local policymakers should note the miner’s expansion in countries with a lower risk profile
It’s little more than a year since Chris Griffith took the helm as Gold Fields CEO and he hasn’t wasted much time, launching a bold $6.7bn bid for Toronto-based Yamana that will vault Gold Fields into the big league of global gold miners — and position his company very clearly as one of the sector’s leading growth plays.
The market hasn’t fallen over with enthusiasm for the all-share deal, which was priced at a 33% premium. Griffith will have to do the hard sell to Gold Fields shareholders anxious that he is overpaying for Yamana and concerned that there are few direct cost synergies. But if equity investors are nervous, ratings agencies are not, with Moody’s Investors Service waxing lyrical about the deal, which it sees enhancing the credit quality of both companies...
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