Tharisa to raise $300m bond for Karo Platinum

THARISA, the JSE-listed platinum and chrome miner, is preparing to issue an initial five-year $300m bond with the proceeds aimed at financing the balance of its $545m Karo Platinum project in Zimbabwe.Meetings with potential investors are scheduled to take place from today with lenders DNB Carnegie and HSBC unveiled as joint bookrunners. Absa is co-manager.Tharisa raises $300m bond for Karo Platinum””A new five-year senior secured bond with an initial issue amount of $300m issued by the company’s wholly owned subsidiary Arxo Finance plc may follow,” said Tharisa.Finance for Karo Platinum, which could be completed by the end of the week, will give momentum to Tharisa’s plans for third quarter production in 2027. At full throttle, the mine will almost double Tharisa’s platinum group metals production to just under 400,000 ounces a year.The announcement of a possible bond issue, terms of which will be settled in its investor meetings, comes after Tharisa received a 25-year special mining lease from the Zimbabwean government for Karo Platinum. Days later, Tharisa unveiled an initial five-year  offtake agreement for concentrate from Karo Platinum with Valterra Platinum.“In our view, the proposed $300m bond issue would effectively satisfy the project’s remaining capex requirements, substantially de-risking the development phase and positioning Tharisa to successfully transition into a multi-mine operator,” said Berenberg Bank in a note today.“At current valuation levels, we believe the market is attributing minimal or no value to Karo during its build-out phase, creating a compelling asymmetric opportunity for investors with a medium-term horizon,” said Keenan du Toit at Vunani Securities in a recent report.Analysts at Peel Hunt, a UK brokerage, agree, describing the project as “a step change” that could add $250m to Tharisa’s Ebitda – a step-up on its trailing five-year average of $180m.Investors have been uncertain how Tharisa planned to fund fund Karo Platinum, even though the company has a cash balance of $198.8m and holds net cash of $10.7m as of end-June. It has also pumped $241m of its own equity into the project.The post Tharisa to raise $300m bond for Karo Platinum appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com