AngloGold Ashanti plc (AU)
NYSE: AU · Real-Time Price · USD
93.95
-4.28 (-4.36%)
At close: Apr 28, 2026, 4:00 PM EDT
93.99
+0.04 (0.04%)
After-hours: Apr 28, 2026, 5:24 PM EDT
← View all transcripts

M&A Announcement

Sep 10, 2024

Operator

I would now like to turn the conference over to Stuart Bailey. Please go ahead, sir.

Stewart Bailey
Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, AngloGold Ashanti

Thanks, Danae, and welcome everybody to the call. As the operator mentioned, it's to run through the announcement made earlier today regarding the acquisition of Centamin. We'll do a quick presentation, and then we'll go to questions. As usual, before we start, there are extensive disclaimers in the front of the presentation, and they contain important information, and we would urge you to read through those when you have a moment. Without further ado, I'll hand over to Alberto.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Thank you, Stuart. Good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to be talking to you about the announcement earlier today relating to our proposed acquisition of Centamin. Let me start by saying we've been on a journey over the past two and a half years. We have the right team at all levels of the organization. We've implemented our operating model, and we have initiated our Full Asset Potential program. We placed tremendous internal effort behind these initiatives, which have delivered predictability to our business as well as significant efficiencies and flexibilities. Those who follow AngloGold Ashanti will know that the cost gap with our peers has narrowed significantly since we started on this path early in two thousand and twenty-two.

In parallel, we have successfully moved our primary listing and headquarters to the United States, giving us an attractive and liquid currency. First, it matches our core competencies in exploration, safe and sustainable operations of large open-pit and underground gold mines in Africa, and asset optimization through the Full Asset Potential program, which is now a known quantity and proven in our existing portfolio. As I will show you so shortly, Centamin's Sukari assets is a world-class Tier 1 asset. It provides us an immediate step change in our production and an improvement in both our cash cost and all-in sustaining cost, remembering that we consolidate our subsidiaries and report joint ventures on an attributable basis. This deal is immediately accretive on a NAV per share basis and accretive to free cash flow per share from the first full year of production.

Importantly, we see the opportunity for additional value upside through implementation of our Full Asset Potential program, which has already delivered incremental EBITDA benefits of $464 million to our portfolio in the last two years. Our existing corporate infrastructure, which clearly has the bandwidth to incorporate the Centamin assets, and our global scale, which brings procurement and supply chain benefits to Centamin's assets as part of a larger global mining business. We're not currently in a position to publicly commit to a number for synergies, but we're comfortable that there's a very good opportunity in this regard. And as I said earlier, this acquisition leverages our proven exploration expertise and operating credentials, including in Africa.

At the same time, I'd like to recognize the operating improvements made by the Sukari team in recent years, the strong partnership with the government of Egypt, and an impressive operating capability in Egypt that we will look to nurture and maintain. Moving now to slide six and the transaction overview of the recommended acquisition of Centamin. The deal has been structured as mainly stock with some cash, which preserves the strength of our balance sheet, while the addition of Sukari's production and cash flows further enhance our ability to return cash to shareholders under our existing capital allocation framework. The acquisition has been unanimously recommended by both AngloGold Ashanti and Centamin's boards. Our initial discussions with the Egyptian government ahead of this announcement have been positive, and we have emphasized our commitment to Egypt and to maintaining Centamin's good working relationship with the Egyptian government.

Based on yesterday's closing share prices and exchange rates, the offer values Centamin at GBP 1.9 billion, $2.5 billion, implying a premium of 36.7% versus the share price as of yesterday. On completion of the deal, Centamin shareholders will own around 16.4% of the combined group. We expect to maintain our current dividend policy and existing delisting structure after completion of the deal. Turning now to slide seven and Centamin more in detail. As I said, Centamin's primary asset is Sukari, while it has an exploration and development foothold in Côte d'Ivoire. Since starting commercial production in 2010, Sukari has been the beneficiary of Egypt's stable legal framework.

This mine is expected to produce 470,000-500,000 ounces this year, and currently has 4 million ounces of measured and indicated mineral resource, and 5.8 million ounces of proven and probable mineral reserve. This combines with the EDX blocks, where the second phase of new growth drilling is taking place with fieldworks on all blocks. Together, Sukari therefore provides a large-scale, low-cost producing asset with significant cash flow generation.

Its mining and processing, as well as its geology, complement our own capabilities with the opportunity to deploy our world-class exploration expertise to unlock the next phase of Sukari's growth. Moving now to Côte d'Ivoire, where the Doropo project presents an interesting opportunity with one point two million ounces of measured and indicated mineral resource, a further point three million ounces inferred resource, and a total of one point nine million ounces of proven and probable mineral reserve. The DFS has been published, and mining license application is underway. The second asset in the country is ABC, where drilling has been completed and an evaluation is underway. Current estimates are for two point two million ounces of inferred resource.

Taking together these exciting assets across Egypt and Côte d'Ivoire, Centamin represents an opportunity to acquire 5.7 million ounces of measured and indicated mineral resource and 7.7 million ounces of reserves, proven and probable mineral reserves. Looking now at slide eight, and how Sukari is a natural fit with AngloGold's portfolio of world-class assets and projects. Looking at 2023, combined numbers, the addition of Sukari will increase the proportion of production from Tier 1 assets to 67% on a combined basis, up from 62% currently. The addition of Sukari increases our combined mineral reserve to 32.3 million ounces. This is an excellent fit with our current portfolio in Africa and consistent with our strategy of increasing the share of production from Tier 1 assets.

It complements the exciting opportunity that we are moving up the value in Nevada and the longer-dated option we have in Colombia. Slide eight. Sukari is Egypt's first and largest modern gold mine. It is a clear Tier 1 gold operation with 5.9 million ounces of production already under its belt. Production last year was around 450,000 ounces, and as I said earlier, it is expected to increase to closer to 500. Importantly, Centamin has invested heavily in the past two years to improve mining infrastructure, including renewable energy and extensive pre-stripping of waste, which positions the asset well in coming years. Additional investments are underway, including grid connection and gravity circuit installation. The transaction provides us exposure to the highly prospective Nubian Shield, where several large established gold producers are now active. On slide ten.

As I mentioned at the outset, we've been on a long journey to rebuild competitiveness and lighten capital allocation. This transaction is consistent with our focus on capital discipline, and as you can imagine, we have spent significant time assessing this opportunity ahead of today. The deal, and I want to stress this because that is how we measure any potential M&A deal, it has to be, and it is NAV accretive on a share basis, and it will also be accretive on a free cash flow share from its full years of production. We cannot disclose our own numbers, but I would point you to several independent institutions like CIBC that publishes. I think last year, Centamin was about 0.83 P/NAV, and AngloGold was 1.3.

You could clearly see why it would be NAV accretive on independent sort of evaluation. On a combined 2023 basis, annual production increases to more than 3 million ounces while lowering all-in sustaining costs and cash costs. On a combined basis, our adjusted net debt to adjusted EBITDA will decrease from 0.9 to 0.7 due to Centamin's net cash position. As I mentioned, the transaction also provides an opportunity to leverage our Full Asset Potential program, which already has delivered an incremental EBITDA benefit of $464 million from all existing assets in the last two years. Let me stop here, because this is a crucial point. This deal is not accretive on its own, but that's not where our ambitions stop. We are very excited by the opportunity to deploy our well-proven Full Asset Potential methodology in Sukari's assets.

We can't say about the numbers in Sukari, but what I can tell you is that on average, in all of our assets and Tier 1 assets, that would be similar to Sukari. For every one million ounces of production, we have been able to increase EBITDA by $200 million in the last two years. So we are looking with a lot of excitement of this initiative that we will be deployed immediately after we acquire Centamin. We see the potential to drive operational efficiencies and improvements through streamlining duplicated corporate footprint costs through integration with our corporate infrastructure. We also expect to benefit from an enhanced global scale with clear benefits from both a procurement and supply chain perspective. We see significant production upside in high-grade zones, where deposits are not constrained at depth and remain open in several directions.

As I mentioned, there's a further strong potential for reserve and resource growth in the neighborhood, neighboring EDX blocks, applying our strong exploration track record. Let me talk about EDX. In 2021, Centamin was awarded approximately 3,000 sq km of exploration tenements in the area, representing highly prospective but underexplored geological terrain. Since then, Centamin has been systematically exploring these areas, now 2,644 sq km, with a number of attractive prospects identified and further potential for significant additions. The most promising discovery is Little Sukari, identified from limited drill testing in Nugrus, with reported downhole results as shown here. Little Sukari is geologically analogous to Sukari, and given its proximity, can leverage the adjacent Sukari lease and plant operation.

Before wrapping up, I want to spend some time talking about how we operate to deliver shared value through partnership across our operations. In the areas in which we operate our assets, we undertake local procurement and employment, which are key strategic drivers of creating shared benefits. We're aligned to world-class standards and have a strong record as stewards of the environment, with a focus on reducing our environmental footprint, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this respect, Centamin's climate goals and decarbonization initiatives are well aligned with ours. Partnership is important to us. We have long had government and state shareholders in our operations in Guinea and Argentina, and have demonstrated a good track record of responsiveness to social and economic needs during times of crisis. We have strong focus on robust shareholder engagement across the board from local sites, which are regional and national levels.

Now, finally, to summarize the key highlights of this deal, Centamin, we should be acquiring an established gold producer and a long life Tier 1 gold operation in Sukari. Additional close to 500,000 ounces of production, cost lower than our average, only sustaining $1,200, so about $300 lower than ours, and large mineral reserves and resource and an attractive exploration package. It's a transaction that provides a reduction in cost and step change in annual production. The combination also allows us to leverage our expertise in the safe, responsible operation of a large open-pit and underground gold mines in Africa, as well as our world-class, industry-leading exploration capability. There is upside in leveraging our corporate infrastructure, bringing our global scale to bearing procurement and implementing our proven asset optimization process.

The deal is immediately accretive on a NAV per share basis and also accretive on a free cash flow share from the first full year of production. In conclusion, this acquisition is a compelling strategic fit for us and a significant value creation opportunity for shareholders. Thank you.

Stewart Bailey
Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, AngloGold Ashanti

Thanks, Danae. We can take questions, please.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, for those on the conference call, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and then one now. If you decide to withdraw your question, please press star and then two. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and then one now. The first question we have comes from Adrian Hammond of SBG. Please go ahead.

Adrian Hammond
Equity Research Analyst, SBG Securities

Alberto, hi. I have two questions for you, please. Let's start with the first one. This announcement, I would say, comes as a bit of a surprise. You can judge that by the share price move today. But does this represent a change in the strategy by management or the board? Because my understanding is that you were going one direction, you know, you sold the ASA assets, you shifted the primary listing to the U.S. You were very committed to organic growth with Nevada in the Tier 1 jurisdiction. You now seem to be going the opposite direction. So just want to clarify, is there going to be further M&A, on its way?

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Yeah. Thanks, Adrian. Look, this is no change of strategy. I'm pretty sure in our conversations, I've always said, in the first years, we're going to put the house in order. We want to close the gap. And then at some point, we will start looking after we made the move for deals that would enhance our focus on Tier 1 assets, which is probably in the long run, where we are going. This will open us a way for a lot of interesting strategic possibilities in AngloGold, but I would say in the long run, it's this focus on having more and more production and reserves from Tier 1. Moving to America was the right thing because that was the... That's where the largest part of gold. But we can't limit ourselves.

When I started talking about M&A and said, "Look, it has to lower our costs, not increase our risk, and it has to be Tier 1." That is difficult to find. We looked at some things in Canada, for example, but the problem there is a 70% premium or something like that, as we know. And so that's not NAV accretive. I did say, and I've been adamant internally with our team, we will not do anything that is not NAV accretive, because that's in the end, what matters in the long run. So this is according to what we were looking, something that lowered our costs, increased our emphasis on Tier 1 assets, jurisdictions that we understand and we can manage well. And yes, it just fits our strategy.

Very important for us to find something where we could deploy both our corporate structure and our sort of the way that we have in the past we have achieved a very significant improvement in our assets, and that is, as you may have heard from my voice, that is like forefront in our mind, deploying the Full Asset Potential. It is not a change of strategy. It is the same focus on Tier 1, focus on value, and yeah, that's where we are.

Adrian Hammond
Equity Research Analyst, SBG Securities

... That's clear. I appreciate that. Thanks, Alberto. Secondly, just to talk about the asset itself. I mean, there's no disputing these metrics you've given us, and I'm aligned with that. Certainly, when you report costs and production, reporting 100%, but you're actually only entitled, to my understanding, 50% of the profits. So your shareholders aren't benefiting from the full leverage to the gold price. So, you know, it's in the price, obviously, but so where's the premium? What's the premium for, and where's the value here? Is it that EMRA royalty and profit share, I mean, is that gonna be carried through for the underground mine at Sukari? And what about those exploration projects, or are you quite serious about Ivory Coast? Thanks.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Thanks, Adrian, for the question. I think it's a very interesting question and allows me to expand on this. When you look at all of our operations, and for that matter, all of the gold operations, I would say, you're talking about a close to 50% state take. It doesn't matter how they recover that state take. If you take our assets in Australia, for example, it's 49 or 50. Well, that's when they let you operate. But anyway, so that's it's 50%. So that's the average across. We looked at the agreement, and we were comfortable that it allows us again to, yeah, to be profitable and to have all of the results in NAV accretion. So that, it's just a different way of calculating the state take, but in the end, for me, it is transparent.

What I ask the team and what I know in detail is, "What is the state take?" And I can tell you, it's very competitive with all of our other operations. It's in that vicinity. So, it will be hopefully the same way when we go underground and all of that, and it's fine, as I said. That's sort of, on average, internationally, where we are when you're talking about gold.

Adrian Hammond
Equity Research Analyst, SBG Securities

Thanks. Thanks, Alberto.

Operator

Thank you, sir.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Thanks.

Operator

The next question we have comes from Chris Nicholson of RMB Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Chris Nicholson
Head of Research and Equity Analyst, RMB Morgan Stanley

Hi, Alberto, and thanks for the call today. I have three questions. To follow up on that question from Adrian. So could I just clarify that 50% amount of operating profits that's payable to the Egyptian government, is would that be applicable over the entire 5.8 million ounces of declared reserve? Just a different way of asking it, and is there any basis to expect that this deal should change that? I do note that there's a condition you've put in there, called the Egyptian condition, that maybe if there is any variation, you could withdraw. The other two questions are quick, so I'll ask them in one go. I know you don't wanna give a synergy number.

Could you maybe just talk to the areas which you see where the synergies could come from? So kind of the major buckets. And then the final one, when you talk to NAV accretion, would that be after considering the fifty percent stake in Centamin? Thank you.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Chris, could I ask you just... We lost you in the middle of your second question.

Chris Nicholson
Head of Research and Equity Analyst, RMB Morgan Stanley

Thanks.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Could you just repeat that for us?

Chris Nicholson
Head of Research and Equity Analyst, RMB Morgan Stanley

Yeah, sure. So I'm moving on to the second question. Could you quantify? I know you're not gonna quantify the synergies, but could you just verbally talk to the major buckets of synergies which you expect post this transaction? And then the third question is, you talked to free cash flow and NAV accretion. I understand free cash flow would be after that 50% stake payable to the Egyptian government. The NAV accretion, would that account for that 50% stake? Thank you.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Thank you, Chris, for the questions. And look, again, the 50%, it is, that's how it is on all the 5.8 million ounces. But I do want to say, take again Australia, in the end, they have a 50% stake, the government, when you put all the miners. So it's really no different than that. And then you go to Tanzania, and you would look at all of them are conversion around 50%. So, I would say that's just standard. And yes, the NAV acquisition is after that because that's... Again, on anything it is, what is our profits in the end? What matters is what the shareholders will get after all the costs, including our profit sharing. And yes, the NAV accretion is including all of that.

Look, the synergies, it's very interesting again, that the takeover panel has very strict rules on what we can talk about. I would hope in the future, we have to do all sorts of audits and things. I can't tell you concrete numbers about this. I can tell you that we believe that our well-proven sort of methodology can have a very interesting impact there, and that's why I quoted this. When it's all of our assets, when we've gone to all of our assets, on average, for every 1 million ounces, we've been able to increase our EBITDA by $200 million, which is a very large number, but that's what we would expect.

Because it's something that focuses on efficiency, on effectiveness, on, yeah, mine optimization, on procurement benefits, on supply benefits. And we're very, let's say, confident and ambitious that it's gonna be a very interesting opportunity. Now, also, as you know, you've seen, if you go to the two point seven, I think their corporate costs are $35 million. We have some concerns regarding that. What we said is, in Egypt, we think this is well run. All the Egyptian team and all of that, that's it's a well-run operation. We don't see anything there. But there's a corporate one, and we have, outside of Egypt, we have a corporate structure, and we would anticipate that most of the corporate structure is run from here, from Denver.

So that's the opportunity between the Full Asset Potential in terms of operating efficiency, the supply chain leveraging on our scale, and the corporate. It's a very interesting opportunity. Yeah, I probably would hope in some months we can talk more about this, but we're very excited by the opportunity. Let me just finish. It's not accretive even without this, which is. It's just an issue, and that's why I pointed to the CIBC and the multiples. It's very clear going from a what I would call a one-trick pony to a large company. Well, that's. It's in the matter of risk, how it's deployed. I don't know if that's answered the question.

Chris Nicholson
Head of Research and Equity Analyst, RMB Morgan Stanley

Yes. No, that's great. Thank you very much, Alberto.

Operator

Thank you, Sam. Ladies and gentlemen, just a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and then one now. The next question we have comes from Leroy Mnguni of HSBC. Please go ahead.

Leroy Mnguni
Mining Equity Analyst, HSBC

Hi, good afternoon, Alberto. I've got three questions. The first question is that, the Doropo asset in Côte d'Ivoire, at sort of 200,000 ounces a year, it does fall into that category where, it may not always justify adequate management attention. What are your plans for this asset after the acquisition? Would you be open to selling it? And then if you could please break down sort of your valuation of this company, between the Sukari mine and, all the projects in the portfolio, just roughly speaking or in percentage terms. And then my third question is: Are you concerned that someone else could come in above you with a higher competing bid? And is there any break fee that is payable to you in the event that that happens?

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Thank you, Leroy, for the questions. Man, oh, man, all very good questions, so I'm very grateful. Look, I think you're absolutely right. The Doropo is a very interesting opportunity. It has value. We ascribe value to it, but. And I would combine it with the second question. The overwhelming value is on Sukari. Now, to your point, the question, we need to understand it better, but it's the Jack Welch question, which is: Is it worth more outside of AngloGold than inside? At this stage, we don't know, but we would be very open to that. If, as I said that before in my comments, that we want to focus on Tier 1s, well, maybe that would indicate where we would be leaning. But at this stage, we. It's just early days.

We know it's valuable, but yeah, it's something that we would be asking that question, as with all of our other assets, where we believe that they may be worth more outside.

And then, and the last one. Look, I, we can't comment on really particular valuations, but I will repeat it is overwhelmingly [audio distortion]. What, what was the second?

Stewart Bailey
Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, AngloGold Ashanti

Interlop, interlop.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Oh, the interloper risk. I can't read my pen writing anymore. The interloper risk, I can't comment on that. We can comment that it has been a pleasure to work with Centamin's team, Management Team, CEO, Chairman. It's a constructive, friendly deal. We understand the asset very well, and it's been a long process. So yeah, that's what I can tell you. Whatever others do, that's with them. But I just wanted to highlight that what a good process this has been.

Stewart Bailey
Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, AngloGold Ashanti

Leroy, no break fee.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

No break fee. Yes.

Leroy Mnguni
Mining Equity Analyst, HSBC

All right. Understood.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

You can print.

Leroy Mnguni
Mining Equity Analyst, HSBC

Thanks. Thanks, guys.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Thanks, Leroy.

Operator

Thank you, sir. The next question we have comes from Herbert Kharabe of Absa. Please go ahead.

Herbert Kharivhe
Equity Research Analyst, Absa

Hello, Alberto and team. Thank you for the call. I've got four questions, and the first one is around Sukari. Can you unpack the mechanics of the production-sharing agreement? And embedded in that is, is the Egyptian government an equity holder in the block, or they are only participating in the profits, as in you bear 100% of the cost, and they only come in after you've recovered the cost and take 50% of the profits, which effectively would make it a 50% tax? And I guess, same question asked differently: Is this a carried interest in the block, and how many years left in the first tax arrangement? I think some of the papers say it's fifteen years after commercial production.

I think that would make it one year to go into 2025 than the second arrangement?

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Thank you, Herbert. So thank you for your question, Robert. Gillian, our CFO, will talk on the mechanics. It's a very normal standard profit sharing, but Gillian?

Gillian Doran
CFO, AngloGold Ashanti

Yeah. So thanks, Herbert. The business combination is aligned with the IFRS 10, so it's a subsidiary for AngloGold Ashanti. It consolidates production, cash flows, and the income statement at 100%. The NCI portion is then obviously in the statement of comprehensive income and in equity on the balance sheet. So very much a standard subsidiary for AngloGold Ashanti. The profit-sharing mechanism, all I can do is quote what's already available on Centamin's website, which is straight profit share, its revenue less all operating costs, less royalty, less 1/3 of exploration and 1/3 of capital spend, and the remainder is split 50/50. So it's a cash flow mechanism whereby 100% of capital investment is clawed back over a three-year period, so relatively straightforward, and as I said, contained within Centamin's annual report 2023 on their website.

On the question of the agreement, I'll hand over to Lizelle.

Lizelle Marwick
Chief Legal Officer, AngloGold Ashanti

Thanks, Gillian. I mean, the current arrangement has been, you know, granted and put in place for a 30-year period with further extension for another 30 years, you know, which will be under discussion with the government, and the current tax concession application for extension has gone, and we're not aware of any reason why that will not be extended.

Herbert Kharivhe
Equity Research Analyst, Absa

All right, just to play it back to you. So the government is not an equity partner. They are only participating at profit level after you guys would have recovered all your costs. Is that the correct interpretation?

Gillian Doran
CFO, AngloGold Ashanti

No, they're an equity partner, 50% equity share, but the control criteria of IFRS 10 is met, so we consolidate on a 100% basis as you would any other subsidiary.

Herbert Kharivhe
Equity Research Analyst, Absa

So if there is a cash investment of $100 required, are you guys contributing $100, or you are contributing $50 with a balance of $50 coming from the government?

Gillian Doran
CFO, AngloGold Ashanti

So it's 100% on day one, and the capital investment is spread over three years. So we claim in the profit share, 1/3 of the capital investment per year. And so when you have sort of a stable capital investment profile, you don't see kind of increases or decreases in that profit allocation.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

I think and we will move on. But just to... It's-- they cover all the costs.

Gillian Doran
CFO, AngloGold Ashanti

Yeah.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

So they're a partner. They cover them. If you exclude time value of money, they cover all the costs, and in the end, we split the cash flows 50/50. Thank you, ma'am.

Herbert Kharivhe
Equity Research Analyst, Absa

So, and question, maybe-

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

We just need to move on to other questions, sir. Sorry?

Operator

Not a problem, sir. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, a final reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and then one now. The next question we have comes from David Abraham of BTIG. Please go ahead.

David Abraham
Managing Director of Tactical Hedge Fund, BTIG

Hi, good afternoon. Thank you very much indeed for taking my question. In respect to the Egyptian concession, I was wondering if the discussions with the Egyptian government and the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources is subject to some sort of statutory timetable?

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Thanks, David. No, no, no statutory timetable. No, nothing. They don't need to approve it. The only approval that is in the two point seven is from the competition authorities, Egyptians. I would want to highlight that I did meet, personally, the Minister of Petroleum, and the welcoming we got, to Egypt is just, I couldn't have hoped that. He's a career Schlumberger. He understands the resource sector very well, understands what it needs to progress, and we're just very excited by the welcome we've received and by the opportunity to be in Egypt.

David Abraham
Managing Director of Tactical Hedge Fund, BTIG

Excellent. Thank you very much.

Stewart Bailey
Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, AngloGold Ashanti

Then now, can we go to directly to some webcast questions, please? I'm gonna read those out. I know that Catherine Cunningham from JPM organ asked a question on the tax and fiscal arrangements, which I think have, you know, been covered by Gillian prior. The Arnold Van G raan from Nedbank said: What is the implication of this deal on your Tier 2 assets? Would this deal, coupled with a higher gold price, see you change tack on those assets?

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Thank you, Arnold. Another very good question. It's, look, in mining, and this is important, you cannot shrink into greatness. So you can't just sell and sell and sell. But you can, if you do deals like this one, it is clearly it allows you to be, yeah, what I said, focused on Tier 1 assets and to have a look, another look at some of your Tier 2 assets. So definitely this opens the road for that. And if I could, I think, again, nothing in the short run, but in the longer term, our strategy is to be mainly focused on Tier 1 assets and Tier 1 production.

David Abraham
Managing Director of Tactical Hedge Fund, BTIG

Perfect. Thanks, Alberto. And then, Jandre Pieterse from Visio, in South Africa. As part of the profit share, is the SIB CapEx deductible, on virtually?

Gillian Doran
CFO, AngloGold Ashanti

It's consistent... Thank you for the question. Consistent with the previous answer, all deductible CapEx over three years.

Stewart Bailey
Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, AngloGold Ashanti

All right. Danae, I think there are no more questions in the queue and no more questions on the webcast, so I'm gonna just-

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Perfect.

Stewart Bailey
Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, AngloGold Ashanti

Thanks. And maybe just Herbert, if you still had an outstanding question, if you wanna start one, we can still take that, and then we'll call it a day. Not Herbert, but Leroy.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Oh, Leroy has a question.

Stewart Bailey
Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, AngloGold Ashanti

All right. Leroy, go for it.

Leroy Mnguni
Mining Equity Analyst, HSBC

Thanks. So, just on the 50% profit share. So if after revenue, all costs, royalties, a third of the CapEx and a third of exploration, there are no profits, is there, like, almost like you have a tax principle where accumulated losses carry over and those must be depleted first before you share profits? Or do you start the following year from scratch?

Gillian Doran
CFO, AngloGold Ashanti

Yeah. So look, we would never anticipate that scenario, but you're correct. That is how it would work in principle.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Remember, the all-in sustaining cost is $200. So yeah, yeah, hopefully we don't get to a situation where gold goes to $3,000.

Stewart Bailey
Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, AngloGold Ashanti

We'll have bigger problems then.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

And then we'll be crying much more, but for other reasons.

Leroy Mnguni
Mining Equity Analyst, HSBC

It's just maybe for clarity. For me, it just seems like the 50% profit share looks like 50% tax, really, if you look at the fact that, you know, you can deduct your CapEx spend over a three-year period. Should we, and you're not paying any other income taxes, so should we just kind of look at it as a tax instead?

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

That's exactly. That's the right way to look at it, Leroy. In the end, everywhere, it's the state take. Combine everything, do it however you want to. In the end, how much they take? You want to look at that, at the all profits and tax 50%, that's the right way of looking at it. Thanks, Leroy.

Leroy Mnguni
Mining Equity Analyst, HSBC

All right. All clear. Thank you.

Stewart Bailey
Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer, AngloGold Ashanti

Thanks. Thanks for that, Herbert. We'll reach out to you separately and, maybe just hand over to Alberto to make a final remark and thank you all.

Alberto Calderon
CEO, AngloGold Ashanti

Oh, look, thank you. I think your questions were great in allowing us to clarify. I do want to finish. We are very excited by this. We don't take it lightly. We know the track record of the industry in acquisitions. I can say that we have been working very hard. The due diligence process was really amazing. The other side gave us now thirty-something terabytes of information, so massive amounts of information, and we were very satisfied. And it is truly a Tier 1 asset. It would be sort of similar to our Geita assets, of open pit and underground. And so it just fits in very well for the portfolio.

Just the situation of how NAV and PNAV have traded, it's a very good opportunity for us, but the greatest opportunity is this, deploying our team of experts in this methodology that we have really has created so much value for AngloGold in the past two years, that $460 million of the EBITDA benefits in two years, up to $100 million dollars per million ounces. And so we're very excited by this, very excited, very grateful to be so welcome in Egypt. And yeah, so thank you all for this, and we'll continue to be sharing what we believe is just a magnificent opportunity for AngloGold. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, that then concludes today's conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.

Powered by