SA investors among bidders for Amplats mine

A group of South African investors known as Union Resources has made a bid for Anglo American Platinum's Union mine, its chairman said on Wednesday.

Union Resources chairman Tshepo Bokaba said the group was bidding for the mine, but declined to say how much his company was offering. "We are among the bidders," he told Reuters.

Anglo American Platinum or Amplats, part of global miner Anglo American , is considering sale or stock market flotation for its Rustenburg and Union operations, partly to offset a sharp fall in the platinum price.

Amplats has been struggling to offload the mines around Rustenburg, the epicentre of last year's five month strike, but sources have previously told Reuters the company had offers that undervalued the assets.

Amplats said it was still weighing up options on whether to separately list Union and Rustenburg mines, which are not part of the company's recently announced overhaul that included possible job cuts.

"We are still working on both options, an IPO (initial public offering) and a potential sale for the disposal of Union and Rustenburg. An IPO is the most likely option," spokeswoman Mpumi Sithole said.

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Union Resources, a consortium formed in 2013 for the sole purpose of acquiring the mine, had offered around $240 million for the Union mine and Amplats' stake in nearby Masa Chrome Enterprise smelter, a document seen by Reuters showed.

When asked about the offer price Bokaba said: "We've done a due diligence but that's not the price we want to pay. Maybe that's what Anglo wants for the asset but that mine is not worth R3 billion."

One banker familiar with the situation said Union Resources might have taken Amplats' stake in the smelter off its shopping list.

Excluding Amplats's stake in the smelter, Union Resources bid values the mine at around 2 billion rand, according to the document, which was dated April 10.

Union Resources is advised by Nedbank Capital, the investment banking arm of South African lender Nedbank, which would provide 750 million rand funding for the transaction, the document seen by Reuters showed.

Nedbank did not immediately respond to a Reuters request to comment.

A 15 percent stake in the Union mine is owned by Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela, a tribal community on whose land the mine is located. The rest of the smelter is held by unlisted investment firm Siyanda Resources.

- Reuters