South Africa’s Harmony raises $82 mln via share sale

Kusasalethu gold mine is one of the world’s deepest. (Image courtesy of Harmony Gold.)

South African gold miner Harmony Gold raised just over 1.05 billion rand ($82 million) via the issue of new shares, it said on Wednesday, raking in cash to pay down debt used for an acquisition.

Harmony took out loans to partly fund the $300 million acquisition of the Moab Khotsong mine earlier this year in a deal that the company said would significantly boost its operational cash flow.

The company, which competes with AngloGold , Gold Fields and Sibanye-Stillwater at home, sold 55 million new shares, or 15 percent stake, at 19.12 rand each, an 11.7 percent discount to the closing price on Tuesday.

UBS, JP Morgan, Absa and Nedbank arranged the so-called accelerated bookbuild, a share sale done with little to no marketing.

($1 = 12.7129 rand) (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; editing by Jason Neely)