Barrick Gold Corporation

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. favors taking back control of its separately listed Tanzanian assets after completing its takeover of Africa-focused rival Randgold Resources Ltd., according to people familiar with the situation.

Barrick spun off those assets in 2010 into a company now called Acacia Mining Plc. That unit — listed in London but majority owned by Barrick — has been dogged by operational setbacks and is locked in a dispute with Tanzania’s government. The dispute would need to be resolved before any decision is made.

Acacia shares soared as much as 11 per cent in London before falling back to close up 7.7 per cent. The stock has declined 70 per cent in the past two years. Barrick, which was up 1.6 per cent as of 12:29 p.m. in Toronto, has gained 29 per cent since the merger was announced.

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

JOHANNESBURG – Tanzanian authorities have arrested a senior executive and filed dozens of criminal charges at the beleaguered African subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corp., intensifying a corruption investigation that has cast a shadow over Barrick’s planned merger with African-focused Randgold Resources Ltd.

The latest arrest is part of an investigation in which 39 charges have been filed against company subsidiaries, employees and former employees for tax evasion, corruption, forgery, conspiracy and money-laundering, according to a statement on Wednesday by Barrick subsidiary Acacia Mining PLC.

The charges date back as far as 2008 and “appear to relate to the historical structuring and financing” of the mines that eventually formed part of Acacia, the company said.

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. considered merely selling assets to African gold major Randgold Resources Ltd. but as talks progressed, the prospect of a takeover took centre stage.

A regulatory filing released by Barrick on Friday sheds more light on how the two gold majors got together, a process that took about four years, and is the biggest deal in the gold sector in seven years. The management information circular also shows that Barrick director Nancy Lockhart resigned on the eve of the US$6-billion takeover announcement and did not attend the final board meeting.

After becoming executive chair of Toronto-based Barrick in April, 2014, John Thornton held “periodic meetings” with Mark Bristow, Randgold’s founder and chief executive, to discuss “potential strategic opportunities,” according to the circular.

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Peter Munk, the late founder and chairman of Toronto’s Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s biggest gold producer, was born in Hungary and evolved into a passionate Canadian patriot.

At one point during the Great Hollowing Out of Corporate Canada – in the middle part of the last decade, when Inco, Falconbridge, Dofasco, Stelco and dozens of other resources and industrial companies were picked off like candy by foreign buyers – he charged into The Globe and Mail’s offices in Toronto to tell the editorial board that the greed-driven sell-off had gone too far.

He was right. Companies that had taken decades, or even a century, to build were vanishing at alarming rates, their offices downgraded to branch-plant status or closed. After the Great Hollowing Out, Canada was left with one truly Canadian and global resources company – his very own Barrick.

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The biggest gold-mining takeover in seven years got its start with an arranged meeting. A mutual friend introduced John Thornton, Barrick Gold Corp.’s executive chairman, to Randgold Resources Ltd.’s founder and chief executive officer Mark Bristow, and in late 2015 they sat down together.

Mr. Thornton hosted Mr. Bristow at his villa in Palm Beach, Fla., a limestone mansion on the oceanfront. Barrick, the world’s biggest gold producer, was in rough shape at the time. The Canadian company was mired in debt after a disastrous foray into copper in Africa and a painful decision to abandon construction of a South American mountaintop mine after spending US$8.5-billion.

Barrick had lost the confidence of investors. Barrick’s stock hit a 26-year low, trading for less than $9 a share. Mr. Thornton was working to stabilize the company by selling assets and paring debt.

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https://business.financialpost.com/

In an example of the new political risks Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp. would face under its proposed merger with Africa-focused Randgold Resources Ltd., on Friday, a state-owned miner in the Democratic Republic of Congo took issue with the combination.

The proposed US$6 billion merger, announced Monday, would convert London-listed Randgold shares into Barrick stock and create the world’s largest gold miner. Randgold’s chief executive Mark Bristow would retain his role and title at the new company, which would continue to be called Barrick Gold.

In a statement translated from French, the DRC-state owned miner, Sokimo SA, which shares ownership of Randgold’s Kibali mine, said the deal would introduce a new partner to the mine, and yet it only learned about the deal from press reports.

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https://www.thestar.com/

So we’re all clear then on the proposed merger between Barrick Gold and Randgold Resources. Should the no-premium deal be approved as planned in the first quarter of next year, we will see a Barrick-branded entity run by Randgold’s Mark Bristow as CEO and his number two, Graham Shuttleworth, in the CFO’s chair.

Two-thirds of the board will be “initially” appointed by Barrick and one-third “initially” by Randgold. Randgold’s listing on the London Stock Exchange (the company is included in the FTSE 100 index) will be dumped in favour of Barrick’s share trading jurisdictions of New York and Toronto.

And Barrick shareholders, who have come through slaughter these past years, will be left to wonder: who are these new guys so suddenly in charge?

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https://business.financialpost.com/

Both men are known for outsized personalities and are used to being in charge

This summer, Barrick Gold Corp.’s executive chairman John Thornton visited the Democratic Republic of Congo, spending a week in the destitute but resource-rich country, visiting mines and meeting with Mark Bristow, chief executive of Randgold Resources Ltd.

Now, the company is pointing to the trip as evidence that Thornton and Bristow — who would hold respective roles as executive chairman and CEO under a proposed merger — have thoroughly tested their working relationship.

Still, analysts and others in the sector have flagged the two executives’ dynamic together as one of the key risks of the merger, given that their stated plan is to work as equals and split leadership responsibilities: Bristow would manage mines, and Thornton would handle strategy.

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The already difficult relationship between Barrick Gold Corp. and its African arm, Acacia Mining, has taken another blow over claims and counterclaims about Acacia’s tax payments – or lack thereof – to the Tanzanian government.

The spat comes at a tense time for Acacia, whose fate is uncertain as Barrick and African gold producer Randgold Resources merge under a deal announced this week. A new executive team will review the portfolio of the enlarged company and possibly sell, close or restructure mining projects, a process that was already well under way at Barrick.

In an interview earlier this month with The Globe and Mail, Barrick executive chairman John Thornton said Barrick’s Tanzanian mines, which have been housed in 64-per-cent-owned Acacia since 2010, “had not paid corporate income taxes” in Tanzania, although it had made other payments such as royalties and payroll taxes.

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