AngloGold Ashanti Aborts Spin Off Plan

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE:AU) announced that it has decided not to move forward with the restructuring and capital raising it announced last week. That said, the company plans to keep looking at ways to “address debt levels and unlock value.”

Explaining its change of heart, the company said:

Following the announcement of the proposed corporate restructuring and capital raising on 10 September 2014, AngloGold Ashanti has, as planned, engaged extensively with shareholders holding almost two-thirds of its issued share capital, to solicit feedback on these proposals. The proposed restructuring would create a London-listed entity to house the company’s international assets with the South African assets remaining at AngloGold Ashanti, thus creating two simpler and more focused entities.

There has been broad support for the strategic logic of the restructuring, but a number of shareholders have expressed concerns about certain aspects of the proposed transactions, in particular the quantum of the equity capital raising needed to enable the restructuring to be implemented in accordance with regulatory and other requirements.

Click here to read the full AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE:AU) press release.