JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Diversified miner Exxaro on Friday said it would provide its majority black economic-empowerment shareholder consortium Mainstreet 333 (MS333) a R400-million loan to repay a portion of a refinanced preference share facility.
On the back of the commodity price slump and its impact on Exxaro’s share price, MS333 requested the interim loan to comply with a 2013 refinanced R3.8-billion preference share facility that was initially raised in 2006 to buy MS333’s 52.09% interest in Exxaro.
“Exxaro is of the view that it is in the best interests of the company and its shareholders to provide such loan to MS333 in order to ensure continued majority black ownership and control of Exxaro,” the company said in a statement.
The JSE-listed mining giant aimed to draw down on its own existing debt facilities, with MS333 expected to settle R200-million in the near term through a coordinated placement of a number of Exxaro shares in the open market.
MS333, related parties, Exxaro and the consortium of banks that financed the facility were currently in talks to develop a longer-term solution.