Empire mine, Michigan
Photo by: Cliffs Natural Resources
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – US coal and iron-ore producer Cliffs Natural Resources on Wednesday announced that it had successfully negotiated an amendment to its revolving credit facility with its banking group, partly to allow the company to proceed at its discretion with a $200-million share buy-back programme.
Among his first acts of business as Cliffs' newly elected president and CEO, Lourenco Goncalves said this move was necessary to “invest in our own business and return capital to our shareholders”.
The company would be able to buy back outstanding common shares in the open market, or in private negotiated transactions, of up to $200-million by December 31, 2015.
Among other changes, the amended terms with Cliffs' banking partner reduced the size of the company's existing unsecured revolving credit facility to $1.25-billion. The amended facility retained substantial financial flexibility for management to execute Cliffs' strategy and would provide a consistent source of liquidity, the company noted.