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Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority has given its unconditional clearance to miner Sibanye-Stillwater’s proposed takeover of Lonmin on Thursday, saying it would not refer the merger for a second phase investigation.
The South African precious metals miner made an all-share offer for London-listed Lonmin in December in a 285 million pound (about R5.1 billion) deal to create the world’s No.2 platinum producer.
The South African Reserve Bank gave its approval for Sibanye-Stillwater’s acquisition of Lonmin in May. At the time, Lonmin’s chief executive Ben Magara expressed his pleasure at the Reserve Bank’s approval.
“Lonmin remains committed to its strategy of focusing on operational performance, controlling costs and preserving cash,” he said .
In March, Fin24 reported that unless the transaction between Lonmin and Sibanye-Stillwater was completed soon, platinum miner Lonmin would need to retrench some 12 600 workers between 2018 and 2020. About 2 000 jobs had already been lost, and 1 700 more were expected to be lost during the remainder of 2018.
About 5 300 retrenchments were expected in 2019 and 3 600 in 2020, Fin24 reported.
According to Magara, job losses were primarily due to either redundancy or the shutdown of shafts.
He added that in view of the strengthening of the exchange rate, additional job losses could even be accelerated by delays in the transaction.
The submission by Sibanye-Stillwater, to consider the proposed transaction, was filed to the Competition Commission in March.
Both Lonmin and Sibanye-Stillwater have made headlines over the deaths of miners.
Lonmin was the scene of the so-called Marikana massacre and in 2016, City Press reported how it was one of the worst-performing when it came to its safety record.
In an article titled Mines of Death, City Press quoted a mineral resources department inspector as saying that a series of audits by his office found “serious non-compliance and dangerous conditions” at Lonmin’s operations.
Several Lonmin mine workers, who spoke to City Press on condition of anonymity, said they were pressured to reach production targets, or face disciplinary charges or risk losing their jobs.
Sibanye, meanwhile has lost 21 workers since the beginning of the year, prompting the chairperson of the portfolio committee on mineral resources, Sahlulele Luzipo, to call for strong action to be taken against Sibanye-Stillwater, including possibly suspending the mining company’s operating licence.
Read: Suspend Sibanye-Stillwater’s operating licence: Mineral resources committee
-Additional reporting by Reuters
