Northam had outbid Impala's initial offer to acquire RBPlat,
but on Wednesday said that PGM prices had fallen to levels
amounting to a "material adverse change" that proved fatal to
its offer.
"Northam Holdings hereby notifies RBPlat shareholders that
the offer is terminated with immediate effect," it said.
The miner said that the rhodium closing price has remained
below $9,000 an ounce for 12 consecutive trading days, while the
basket price for four PGMs had fallen below 33,000 rand
($1,830.91) per ounce for 10 consecutive trading days.
Northam's decision to end its pursuit of RBPlat clears the
path for Impala, the world's second-biggest PGM producer, to
strengthen its hold on a miner with high-grade assets that made
it an attractive takeover target.
Impala and Northam have built holdings in RBPlat of 40.71%
and 34.52% respectively during the takeover battle.
Northam did not say whether it would retain its stake or
sell to Impala, but Northam Chief Executive Paul Dunne told
analysts on March 24 that his company could consider jointly
running RBPlat with Impala.
($1 = 18.0238 rand)
(Reporting by Anait Miridzhanian and Nelson Banya
Editing by Jan Harvey and David Goodman)
(Adds detail)
JOHANNESBURG, April 5 (Reuters) - South Africa's Northam
Platinum has terminated its offer to buy Royal Bafokeng
Platinum , citing low prices of platinum group metals
(PGM) as it ended a year-long takeover battle with bigger rival
Impala Platinum .
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