Neal Froneman’s Sibanye-Stillwater boosts dollar-denominated facility to $1 billion
Sibanye-Stillwater, the multinational precious metal mining group led by South African businessman Neal Froneman, has successfully increased its dollar-denominated revolving credit facility from $600 million to $1 billion, boosting liquidity for the diversified miner.
The new facility agreement, which includes an option to increase the facility size to $1.2 billion, was concluded by a syndicate of ten international banks, including Citi and Royal Bank of Canada, with a margin range of 1.6 to 2 percent dependent on leverage.
The loan structure includes borrowers and guarantors as under the previous RCF, including Sibanye, Sibanye Gold, Stillwater Mining Company, Sibanye Rustenburg Platinum Mines, Kroondal Operations, and Western Platinum, along with Eastern Platinum and Sibanye Stillwater Sandouville Refinery.
The new credit facility has a maturity of three years, with the possibility of extending the facility tenor through two additional one-year extensions at Sibanye’s request.
The credit facility will be critical to the group’s operations as it continues to diversify its operations.
Sibanye-Stillwater, a multinational precious metal mining company with operations in South Africa and the Americas, is led by Froneman, who played a pivotal role in transforming it into a leading primary producer of platinum, palladium, and gold. Froneman holds a 0.074-percent stake in the company.
However, the recently published financial results of the Froneman-led group show a 49.6-percent decline in headline earnings, the primary profit measure in South Africa.
The figures fell from R36.9 billion ($2.5 billion) in 2021 to R18.42 billion ($1.12 billion).
This decline in earnings can be attributed to various factors, including industrial action in South Africa, flooding events in the United States, and a substantial increase in unit costs, leading to reduced production from the group’s gold operations in South Africa and the United States throughout 2022.
Due to the decline in earnings, the board of directors of the group announced a final dividend of R3.5 billion ($191 million), which is less than the R7.37 billion ($421 million) full-year dividend paid out to shareholders in 2021.