Ashanti reaffirms support for AngloGold's bid

The board of Ashanti Goldfields, the Ghanaian company, on Monday reaffirmed its support for the $1.4bn merger offer from AngloGold, despite Randgold's revised all-share bid last last week.

South Africa's Randgold on Friday increased its offer for Ashanti to 0.56 of its shares for every one of Ashanti's, valuing the offer at about $1.7bn, in a last minute attempt to sway shareholders away from a bid by AngloGold approved by the Ghanaian company's board.

Ashanti on Monday said the board had "resolved unanimously to continue to recommend the revised merger proposal from AngloGold".

"In reaffirming its decision, the board of Ashanti has considered carefully the revised Randgold proposal as well as, amongst other things, the results of the technical, legal and financial due diligence exercise undertaken on both AngloGold and Randgold," the company said.

It said it had concluded that AngloGold's proposal remained "in the best interests of Ashanti's stakeholders, including shareholders, employees and the people of Ghana".

The deal is still subject to regulatory approval from the government of Ghana, which owns about 17 per cent of Ashanti, including a "golden share" giving it veto power over major business decisions.

But, Ashanti's major shareholder Lonmin, which owns a 27.6 per cent stake in the company, backs AngloGold's bid.