Royal Bafokeng Platinum warns of risks from drawn-out takeover battle

Royal Bafokeng Platinum said the protracted battle of rival miners to gain control over it, which has spilled into a second year, poses a risk to the future of its operations.

The prolonged wrangle for control between Impala Platinum and Northam Platinum, which started in November 2021, has resulted in a “difficult operating environment,” RBPlat said in its annual results report on Wednesday. While Impala is now its biggest shareholder with a 40.71% stake, the pathway to a takeover has been frustrated by rival Northam, which owns almost 35%.

RBPlat said it’s struggling to come up with a long-term strategy to grow the business and if the takeover battle continues the business is potentially “at risk of not being able to execute its strategy as effectively and efficiently as possible.” The company is also battling to retain key skills at its operations and keep staff morale high.

“Our ability to create further sustainable enterprise value for our stakeholders is impacted,” RBPlat said. “Uncertainty prevails in the minds of our stakeholders, especially in those of our employees and suppliers, potentially causing instability in the business.”

Impala wants RBPlat’s mechanised assets, which it says could ensure the future profitability of its deep-level shafts to protect more than 40 000 jobs. Some of the deep-level shafts at its sprawling Rustenburg operation are running out of commercially viable ore. Impala wouldn’t invest further in extending the lifespan of those shafts if it doesn’t get control of RBPlat, its Chief Executive Officer Nico Muller said last week.

In late 2022, Northam announced it intends to make a competing bid for RBPlat, offering R172.70 per share in cash and stock to investors. That’s 15% above Impala’s bid, but Northam’s offer is yet to be detailed in a circular. RBPlat CEO Steve Phiri and Chief Operating Officer Neil Carr delayed their retirement until April because of the takeover battle.

RBPlat said operational challenges at the key Styldrift mine weighed on output for platinum-group metals and revenue last year. So-called headline earnings slumped 46% from 2021 to R3.5 billion, while revenue fell by 3%.

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