Mvela's Stock Soars on Talk of Imminent Implats Deal

Shares in South Africa's Mvelaphanda Resources (Mvela) closed 8% up on Wednesday on speculation of an imminent announcement on a tie-up with No. 2 producer Impala Platinum Ltd. (Implats).

Mvela closed 8.27% up at 44.42 rand, against a 2.11% fall on the All Share index, on market talk that Implats would unveil a deal on Wednesday for a takeover of Mvela and Mvela's unit Northam Platinum.

Analysts have said the deal was expected to be complicated, and may involve payment in cash plus shares.

Implats said last month it was in discussions to "create a South African-controlled platinum champion" that analysts said could rival the world's top producer, Anglo Platinum, a unit of global miner Anglo American Plc.

Mvela said last month it had been approached with an offer to acquire it and Northam's entire issued share capital.

Shares in Implats ended 0.15% lower, while Northam gained 0.56%.

"The market has been waiting for information on how Impala will go about the deal; it is a complex deal, but people were expecting further information on the deal to come out today, or in the next couple of days," Andrew Todd, a trader at BoE Private Clients said.

Implats' move for Mvela and its unit Northam is seen as a play for Northam's Booysendal project, a shallow-mine asset that may come onstream faster than Implats' current expansion projects, which are seen as difficult to mine and costly.

Booysendal could help whoever owns it to lift production of platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold to a combined total of more than 700,000 ounces a year by 2015.

Some analysts speculated that a decision by Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata Plc to drop immediate plans for a $10bn bid for No. 3 platinum producer Lonmin Plc could put pressure on Implats to move faster on its Mvela deal.

Both Lonmin and Xstrata are now potential bidders for Mvela, and there has also been talk that Gold Fields, could also be in the race to clinch Mvela. Gold Fields has said it does not comment on market speculation.

by James Macharia, Reuters.