The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Randgold Resources, Dr. Mark Bristow has taken a swipe at Lonmin and AngloGold for forcing the Ashanti Board to recommend AngloGold to their shareholders although AngloGold's bid is still below that of Randgold.
Speaking to The Chronicle, he said that Lonmin has colluded with AngloGold to make it impossible for Randgold to participate in the bidding process and finally to win as it has been publicly claimed. The CEO said this at a press meeting when Ghanaian journalists interacted with members of the South African Mining delegation to Ghana yesterday in Accra.
Dr. Bristow stated that if they really believe in the future of Ashanti, and in their own decision, why should they get better and twisted about dealing with only one party.
"Why can't they allow the process to create an open debate, to create a transparent process, and listen to the other 73% of the shareholders who wants to participate in this asset instead of creating a situation where the board is forced to take a one horse race to a decision".
He said that in effect, Lonmin and AngloGold have prevented the other stakeholders in Ashanti from exercising their democratic right to choose the people that they want to partner to move the company forward.
"Although we can't offer Lonmin a preferential structure, we are looking at that with our lawyers at the moment and we understand that the market prefers to be independent of Ashanti. We are very cautious about the fact that we are corporate citizens in this country and we are dealing with national asset, so the first hand experience of some of our stake holders in this country is part of the process of deciding whether it is good and proper for us to continue to participate in this process or decide whether we are actually not welcomed here and therefore to step back to let the process happen", he added.
He said that once they are happy with these processes, they would definitely come back into this process very soon. "It's not a done deal yet".
He told The Chronicle that he has not given up yet because one of the greatest mistake one can make is to decide not pursue an opportunity because once you do not pursue it, it is gone forever. He stressed that no one invited them to come in to bid for Ashanti. He said that as a consequence of their involvement although AngloGold said they are nonentity and irrelevant to the process, they have been able to transpire it into 10% increase in the bid. " we have proved our case and we have proved to even AngloGold that Ashanti is more valuable than we think. It is still more valuable than that value we have quoted". On the basis of this, he said they would announce a new bid offer, which is more than they have now very soon.
Would you like 70% of Ashanti or 14.5% of Ashanti, he asked. "Our offer created the 70% participation".
He disclosed that this is about strategy, tactics, belief, commitment, and risk taking and that Randgold was very much amused by the fact that AngloGold having said they really lack competition, and they would to invite competition and its healthy for Africa.
According to Dr. Bristow, at AngloGold's last conference last week they said this is their final offer, which means there would be no further adjustment but to Randgold, that is not the final.
In an illustration, he said that if you are negotiating something against somebody and he says this is my final offer and its ten dollars. What do you say? He asked. "I would offer you ten dollars and a fifty," he answered. "That is a done deal," he added. "We think it valuable than AngloGold's final offer".
He accused Lonmin for creating the situation in the first place at Ashanti as the CEO of Ashanti admitted that he is finding it extremely difficult running the company because they have a shareholder who does not want to participate.
"So this shareholder has decided to leave and to put this company up for sale it is saying it would deal with only one person."
He said with Randgold, the share value of an Ashanti shareholder of a share would be valued 70% of the new company's share whiles AngloGold would give only 14.5% of the value of the share after merging with Ashanti.
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