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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Don S.Boller who wrote (46987)	1/11/2000 8:32:00 PM
From: The Ox	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116764

Western Areas Urges Randfontein to Reject Rival Bid Johannesburg, Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Western Areas Ltd., which wants to merge with seven other gold companies, urged Randfontein Estates Ltd. to reject a rival bid from Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd. that could scupper its plans. Western Areas said it was reviewing all its options, including co-operating with other parties to ensure that it won control of Randfontein, which is seen as key to its plans to form one of the world's biggest gold companies. Income from Randfontein's mine would help fund the development of new mines Western Areas' wants to dig in South Africa and Mali. Still, Western Areas' offer for Randfontein is about a third lower than the bid made by Harmony, and analysts say shareholders are likely to accept the 782 million rand ($129 million) Harmony bid unless given a better option. ``The only reason for (Randfontein) shareholders to reject the Harmony offer is if there is a higher bid on the table,' said Ian Ballington, an analyst at Investec Securities. Some of Western Areas' directors also sit on the board of Randfontein, including Brett Kebble who is Western Areas' chairman and Randfontein's deputy chairman. Western Areas fell 5 percent, or 1 rand, to 19 rand while Harmony declined 2.7 percent, or 1.05 rand, to 37.5 rand. Randfontein fell 20 cents to 11.7 rand. Western Areas also confirmed it will go ahead with a special dividend payment of 5.75 rand a share. Analysts had speculated that it would cancel the dividend and spend the money on expansion. Jan/11/2000 11:17