To: Enigma who wrote (42587 ) 10/10/1999 8:37:00 PM From: long-gone Respond to of 116767
existing gold in fewer hands (takeover)& hedged stance: Date: Monday, October 11, 1999 ANGLOGOLD BIDS FOR ACACIA RESOURCES The Board of AngloGold, the world's largest gold producer, is pleased to announce that it has launched a bid to acquire Acacia Resources, one of Australia's premier gold companies. AngloGold's offer to acquire the entire issued share capital in Acacia involves an exchange of AngloGold shares for those of Acacia at the rate of 3.5 AngloGold shares per 100 Acacia shares. Acacia has advised AngloGold that its Board intends to recommend acceptance of the offer, in the absence of a higher offer. It is anticipated that the offer will be dispatched in the first half of November and will be open for one month. The offer will not be subject to a minimum acceptance condition but will be conditional on South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and Australian Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval and on there being none of the standard prescribed occurrences in Acacia as defined by Australian Corporations Law. It is AngloGold's intention to declare its offer free from all conditions following dispatch of its offer to shareholders and after receipt of SARB and FIRB approval. AngloGold's closing price on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Friday, 8 October 1999 was R375 (approximately A$94 or US$62) and the Acacia price on the Australian Stock Exchange was A$2.66. The offer represents a premium of 24 per cent on the Acacia price, giving the offer a value of A$3.30 per Acacia share and the transaction a value of A$832 million (US$546 million). AngloGold is pursuing value through growth. It seeks to lower its risk profile through country, ore body and technology diversification. The acquisition of Acacia will increase AngloGold's production by half a million ounces a year and the open cut portion of its gold production from 16 per cent to approximately 23 per cent. The Acacia assets, with their lower projected cash costs, will also enhance AngloGold's cost profile. The purpose of this acquisition is to combine quality African, United States and South American gold production with quality Australian production, creating a global player well positioned to play a leading role in the new millennium. The combination of these companies will offer shareholders the opportunity to hold one of the world's leading gold investments. Both AngloGold and Acacia management anticipate real benefits for the enlarged company to come from access to pooled managerial and technical expertise and a commitment to further develop a world-class Australian business. The transaction has a broadly neutral effect on AngloGold's earnings per share (excluding goodwill) and a positive effect on cash flow and net asset value per share. AngloGold shares are tradable in New York, Johannesburg, London, Paris and Brussels. The company intends to seek a listing of its shares on the Australian Stock Exchange. The stock is most liquid on the Johannesburg and New York exchanges. AngloGold produces approximately 7 million ounces of gold a year and has 126 million ounces of reserves and 173 million ounces of resources. Its current market capitalisation is approximately US$6 billion. It was formed in June 1998 through a merger of the gold operations, mineral rights and exploration activities of Anglo American Corporation of South Africa. Since then, its shares have out-performed the S & P Gold Index by 32 per cent. For the year ended 31 December 1998, its profit after tax was US$318 million and it distributed US$257 million to shareholders in dividends. The company has 14 operations in South Africa, one in each of Namibia and Mali, two in the United States, two in Brazil and one in Argentina. It is exploring for gold in 12 countries. AngloGold has some of the lowest total production costs globally and has steadily reduced its cash operating costs to competitive international levels, despite operating the deepest underground mines in the world. The AngloGold hedging policy is to price forward a conservative amount of production in order to obtain a measure of revenue certainty. At the end of the second quarter of 1999, the company reported forward sales of 13 million ounces, spread over a number of years, but equal to less than 40 per cent of production over five years. That hedge remains in place and the company will continue to manage its forward position actively into the future, as it has in previous periods of rising gold prices. Acacia was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1994 when Shell Australia floated off its mineral assets. Its gold assets include four operations producing more than 500,000 ounces a year. These are Sunrise Dam (100% owned) and Boddington (33.33%) in Western Australia and Pine Creek (100%) and Tanami (40%) in the Northern Territory. In October 1999, the company had 3.8 million ounces of reserves and 11.4 million ounces of resources. It is extensively involved in exploration in Australia and has a well-managed forward selling programme. Acacia also has interests in bauxite and magnesite. anglogold.com