Centamin offers £7.5m for Sheba

11th Jul 2011 07:59

Egypt-focused gold miner Centamin Egypt has made a £7.48m offer for PLUS-quoted miner Sheba Exploration.The 6.15p-a-share offer represents a premium of 124% to its closing price on Friday (2.75p), and has been unanimously recommended to Sheba shareholders by the company's board, Centamin said.Sheba's licences are located within the Arabian Nubian Shield, which hosts Centamin's 14.5m ounce flagship Sukari project, as well as other gold and copper deposits. "The proposed acquisition of Sheba by Centamin represents the Company's initial strategic move in diversifying into regions that provide good opportunity for value growth through exploration and development success," Centamin said."The strategic acquisition of Sheba marks the broadening of our asset portfolio beyond Sukari, as well as heralding our entry into Ethiopia, a highly prospective gold district where we believe the Sheba licences represent some of the most prospective in the country," said Centamin's chairman Josef El-Raghy.BC