Northam Platinum: 56% of shareholders decline offer

Holders of more than half of Northam Platinum’s shares opted not to take up stock offered to them by the company as a strike over pay at its sole operating asset entered a sixth week. Shareholders owning 44 percent of the company’s stock took up their rights as Northam raised R600 million at R40 a share, it said yesterday. Coronation Asset Management agreed in September to subscribe for shares not taken up by other holders. Talks to end the strike at Zondereinde mine had not resumed since a meeting last Thursday failed to reach an agreement, Ecliff Tantsi, the chief negotiator for the National Union of Mineworkers at Northam, said yesterday. Northam shares advanced 1.36 percent to close at R40.23 yesterday. – Bloomberg