Randgold Resources: Barrick Gold to buy for $6 billion

Barrick Gold Executive Chairman John Thornton attends the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Toronto, Ontario.Reuters/Chris Helgren

• Barrick Gold has agreed to buy Randgold Resources for $6 billion in stock.
• Barrick Gold shareholders will own approximately two-thirds of the combined company while Randgold shareholders will own the rest.
• The combined entity will have a market capitalization of $18.3 billion and will operate under the branding of the Barrick Group.
• Watch Barrick Gold and Randgold Resources trade in real time.

Canada-based Barrick Gold will acquire Randgold Resources in an all-stock merger for $6 billion, in a deal that makes the combined entity the world’s largest gold company by production. The new company will have a market capitalization of $18.3 billion.

Under the terms of the merger, each Randgold shareholder will receive 6.1280 new Barrick shares for each share Rangold share they owned, the companies said in the statement. After completion of the deal, Barrick investors will own approximately two-thirds of the company while Randgold shareholders will own the rest.

Randgold’s Mark Bristow will continue to be the chief executive and president of the new entity while Barrick’s John Thornton will become the executive chairman.

“The Boards of Barrick and Randgold believe that the merger will create an industry-leading gold company with the greatest concentration of tier one gold assets in the industry, the lowest total cash cost position among senior gold peers,” the companies said in the joint press release.

Based on the 2017 financial results, the new company will have a combined revenue of $9.7 billion and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $4.7 billion.

Barrick Gold shares are up 2.7% following the news while Randgold shares are up 6.8%.

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