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(Alliance News) - Endeavour Mining PLC began trading in London on Monday, with the gold miner praising its assets in west Africa and touting its "attractive" shareholder returns.
The stock was trading at 1,762.20 pence each in London in early trade on Monday, valuing the company at GBP4.41 billion. Endeavour is also listed in Toronto, and has assets in Senegal, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. It did not raise any cash as part of its float.
"Our listing marks the start of the next phase of our evolution and will see us become the largest pure gold producer on the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange with access to a deeper pool of capital. Over the past few years, we have built a resilient business, with a high-quality asset base made up of low cost, long-mine life assets, attractive development projects and additional exploration potential," Chief Executive Officer Sebastien de Montessus said.
"This underpins our attractive shareholder returns policy that we believe will create value for investors across the cycle."
The company also hailed its "strong track record", noting that it has outperformed production and cost guidance for eight years in-a-row.
As long as the price of gold remains above USD1,500 an ounce, Endeavour plans to return USD500 million to its investors through to 2023. An ounce of gold fetched USD1,858.55 an ounce on Monday morning London time.
It plans minimum payouts totalling USD125 million in 2021, USD150 million in 2022 and USD175 million in 2023, Endeavour explained at its capital markets day last week Monday.
On Wednesday, Endeavour named Barclays Bank PLC as its sponsor for its London listing, and has joint corporate broker alongside Morgan Stanley & Co International PLC. Joh Berenberg, Gossler & Co KG and Stifel Nicolaus Europe Ltd were named as UK & European broking advisers.
Back in November, Endeavour said it was eyeing a London-listing after sealing a tie-up with peer Teranga and creating a new "top 10 senior gold producer". The Teranga merger came just under a year after Endeavour attempted the hostile takeover of London-listed Centamin PLC, before calling off merger talks with the Egyptian gold miner back in January 2020.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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