AngloGold Ashanti is switching its primary listing to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and its corporate base to the UK, accelerating its exit from South Africa.
The miner divested its last operating assets in South Africa in 2020 to focus on operations in Australia, the Americas, and other parts of Africa such as Ghana, Tanzania, and Congo.
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Its business in South Africa was affected by geological hurdles, making mining more expensive in the region, reported Reuters.
However, the company will retain secondary listings on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and A2X Markets in South Africa, as well as on the Ghana Stock Exchange in Ghana.
Subject to shareholder approval, the corporate restructuring is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2023.
With the move, AngloGold Ashanti looks to gain access to the deepest pools of capital, enhance share trading liquidity, and focus on the discount its shares currently trade at in comparison to its North American peers.
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By GlobalDataThe company said that its existing secondary listing in the US already contributes to nearly two-thirds of its shares’ daily liquidity.
A base in the UK, which the company believes to be a ‘low-risk’ jurisdiction, is said to reduce incremental costs for shareholders while the wider “investment appeal and regulatory environment” is projected to boost “strategic and financing flexibility”.
AngloGold confirmed in a stock exchange filing that the move will not lead to job cuts, or board or management changes.
AngloGold CEO Alberto Calderon said: “The changes announced today will complement the work already underway to reduce our cost of capital, enhance our cost competitiveness versus our peers and optimise our portfolio by providing improved access to the world’s largest capital markets and pool of gold investors.”
In addition, the company secured clearance from the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) to delist from the exchange.
The delisting from the ASX will take place on 27 June 2023.
AngloGold had called for the delisting due to the low trading frequency, as well as low volumes of its securities traded on the ASX versus that on the JSE and NYSE.
The company opines that the administrative and compliance needs and expenses tied to retaining the listing are not in its shareholders’ interests anymore.
In a filing with the exchange, it said: “As of Friday 5 May 2023, the shares represented by the CDIs held on the Australian register have declined to approximately 4.1% of the company’s total issued share capital and represent less than 0.1% of the year-to-date average daily trading value of the company’s equity securities across all exchanges.”
