Platinum group metals miner Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) remains “highly concerned” about ongoing delays in relation to the closing of the acquisition offer made by Impala Platinum (Implats) in January last year, the company said on April 26.

The delays have resulted in the company effectively being under offer for nearly a year and a half, which RBPlat said had been a significant drain on management time and had had detrimental implications for the company’s ability to implement strategic initiatives.

The acquisition was held up by platinum miner Northam Platinum, which complained that certain circumstances surrounding the mandatory offer made it noncompliant with competition laws. Northam also made its own acquisition offer, which was subsequently withdrawn on April 5.

Since Northam elected not to proceed with its proposed offer, the Implats offer remains the only one on the table.

RBPlat said it believes it is in the best interest of its shareholders for the company to take all steps necessary to resolve all outstanding matters in the most expeditious way possible to facilitate the issue of the Compliance Certificate by the Takeover Regulation Panel (TRP).

This will allow for the closing and implementation of the mandatory offer by Implats.

Implats requested the TRP to issue it with a compliance certificate in November last year. However, the TRP indicated that outstanding complaints made by Northam in relation to alleged noncompliance by RBPlat with the Companies Act and the Companies Regulations needed to be resolved first.

Implats appealed the TRP's ruling to the Takeover Special Committee (TSC) on March 21, which was dismissed 10 days later.

The consequence of this is that the TRP’s original ruling stands and the TRP will only issue Implats with a compliance certificate once the complaints are resolved.

As a result, Implats has advised that the longstop date set for fulfilment or waiver of the conditions precedent, as well as the closing date of the offer, will be extended to May 31.