Chemicals and explosives company AECI said on Thursday that it would buy the 25.1% stake in its explosives business, AEL Mining, which an empowerment consortium owns.

The acquisition would result in the exchange of 4 678 667 new AECI shares to the consortium, which is led by Kagiso Tiso and the Tiso AEL Development Trust.

It is expected that the proposed transaction would be implemented before the end of December, subject to all conditions, regulatory consents and approvals being fulfilled.

Further, the company, which entered into a R1.2-billion broad-based black economic-empowerment (BBBEE) transaction in July, said it is considering amending the lock-in period of the AECI Employees Share Trust from seven years to ten years.

The transaction, comprising permanent employees and a community trust would fund educational and developmental initiatives, and would take AECI’s BBBEE equity ownership up to 27.4%.

AECI said it expected a general meeting to approve the revised terms of the proposed BBBEE transaction would take place in the first quarter of 2012.
 

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