Acquisition by the BBEE Trust of shares in ARM

AFRICAN RAINBOW MINERALS LIMITED (Formerly Anglovaal Mining Limited) (Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa) (Registration number 1933/004580/06) Share code: ARI LSE Share code:AGM ISIN: ZAE000054045 ('ARM') ACQUISITION BY THE ARM BROAD-BASED ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT TRUST OF SHARES IN ARM 1. Introduction ARM shareholders are advised that an agreement ('acquisition agreement') has been entered into between the ARM Broad-Based Economic Empowerment Trust ('BBEE Trust'), Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Harmony (collectively referred to as 'Harmony'), in terms of which the BBEE Trust has acquired approximately 14% of the issued share capital of ARM ('sale shares') from Harmony ('acquisition'). 2. Rationale for the acquisition ARM is committed to the spirit and the objectives of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 ('MPRDA') and the Broad-based Socio-economic Empowerment Charter for the South African Mining Industry, dated 11 October 2002 ('Mining Charter') and has been seeking ways to introduce additional broadbased black economic empowerment groupings into ARM. The BBEE Trust has been established for the benefit of Historically Disadvantaged South Africans ('HDSA's') as defined in the Mining Charter. The trustees of the BBEE Trust will hold the sale shares for the benefit of HDSA's, who are to be identified and selected by the trustees. 3. Background During 2004 African Rainbow Minerals & Exploration Investments (Proprietary) Limited ('ARMI'), Harmony and Anglovaal Mining Limited ('Avmin') (as ARM was then called) entered into a series of merger transactions with one another, to merge certain of their interests into Avmin ('merger transactions'). One of the main objects of the merger transactions was to establish Avmin as a black controlled mineral resources company under the control of ARMI, which was, and still is itself an HDSA. After the merger transactions were duly implemented, Avmin's name was changed to African Rainbow Minerals Limited ('ARM') with ARMI holding approximately 43% and Harmony holding approximately 19% of ARM's issued shares. As part of the merger transactions Harmony and ARMI entered into a voting agreement on 16 February 2004 ('voting agreement'). The main feature of the voting agreement was that Harmony transferred all of the voting rights of the ARM shares held by it to ARMI for a limited period, to give ARMI the degree of `control' required by the parties for the purposes of the Mining Charter. Harmony retained the right to vote on any special resolution, any ordinary resolution in terms of section 228 of the Companies Act, 1973 ('Companies Act'), any resolution to approve a scheme of arrangement in terms of section 311 of the Companies Act or any other resolution which, if approved, would result in a disposal of Harmony's ARM shares. The period of the voting agreement was limited to a maximum of 3 years from when the merger transactions were implemented in 2004, to allow ARM and Harmony enough time to convert their `old order' mining rights into `new order' mining rights under the MPRDA. The result of the voting agreement was that ARMI owned and voted 43% of ARM's issued shares and had the voting rights, save as qualified above, of Harmony's 19% holding in ARM, giving ARMI the right to vote, approximately 62% of ARM's total voting securities. All the necessary regulatory approvals for the merger transactions, including the approval of the Securities Regulation Panel ('SRP'), were obtained at the time. Since the voting agreement was entered into, Harmony has, with ARMI's consent, disposed of part of its holding of ARM shares, free of any further restrictions, to transferees who are entirely unconnected with ARMI. However, the sale shares were sold to the BBEE Trust subject to the voting restrictions contained in the voting agreement. Accordingly, following the acquisition, ARMI will still have voting rights over approximately 57% of the issued share capital of ARM. 4. Terms of the acquisition In terms of the acquisition agreement, the BBEE Trust acquired from Harmony 28 614 740 ARM shares, representing approximately 14% of the issued share capital of ARM, at a price of R29 per ARM share, for an aggregate purchase consideration of R829 827 460. The acquisition is unconditional and the sale shares have been transferred to the BBEE Trust. It is intended that HDSA's will be introduced as beneficiaries of the BBEE Trust as soon as practically possible. 5. SRP ruling The SRP has ruled that the acquisition does not constitute an affected transaction in terms of the SRP Code on Takeovers and Mergers and has waived any requirement for a mandatory offer as a result of the acquisition. In terms of the SRP ruling, the parties must report back to the SRP on or before 18 October 2005 on the progress with the allocation of the sale shares to the selected beneficiaries. Johannesburg 20 April 2005 Investment Bank and Corporate Advisor to the Transaction NEDBANK CAPITAL Attorneys to the Transaction Deneys Reitz Inc. 1984/003385/21 Lead Arranger and Underwriter NEDBANK CAPTIAL Attorneys to ARM and ARMI Bowman Gilfillan Attorneys Sponsor to ARM Deutsche Securities Member of the Deutsche Bank Group
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