Barrick to sell off shares in its African unit

Toronto, Canada — MININGREVIEW.COM — 09 March 2010 – Barrick Gold Corporation “’ the world’s largest gold producer “’ is seeking to raise as much as US$978 million (R7.3 billion) by selling shares of its African unit in a London initial public offering.

Barrick will sell about 100 million shares of African Barrick Gold Plc for 550 pence to 650 pence each, according to terms of the sale obtained by Bloomberg News. The books for the sale will close March 18, according to the document. JPMorgan Cazenove and Morgan Stanley are joint global coordinators and joint book-runners, the document showed.

Barrick revealed last month it would sell at least 25% of its African unit. That would give African Barrick a market value of about £2.6 billion (R19.5 billion), should the shares sell at the top of the price range. Randgold Resources Ltd., which trades in London, has a market capitalisation of £4.6 billion (R34.5 billion). London-based gold miner Petropavlovsk Plc is valued at £1.96 billion pounds (R14.7 billion).

“It’s a massive tick in the box for London in terms of gold producers,” said John McGloin, a mining analyst at Arbuthnot Securities Ltd. in London. “It creates more competition for Randgold and Petropavlovsk.”

African Barrick comprises Barrick’s Tanzanian assets. It produced 716 000 so-called attributable ounces of gold last year “’ more than Petropavlovsk, which mines in Russia, or Randgold, which operates in West Africa. Africa accounted for 10% of third-quarter sales at Barrick, which also mines in North America, South America, and Australia.