Expect more mergers and acquisitions among the listed gold miners, says broker Liberum, with attention now likely turn towards mid-sized producers such as Caledonia and Shanta Gold.
A rash of takeovers has broken out among the giants such as Newmont/Newcrest, Yamana/ Agnico but the spotlight is now likely to move down the chain reckons the broker.
Caledonia and Shanta look to be potential targets says Liberum, Centamin could look to merge with a Tier II/III peer though the broker does not see FTSE 100 Endeavour as a buyer currently.
Endeavour (2,186p) walked away from an approach to Centamin in 2020 and Liberum does not believe another offer will be forthcoming, even though it says it is asked the question a lot.
Centamin (112.1p) generally is not in favour with Liberum (sell) and it sees the Eqypt-focused gold miner moving on something in Africa, Arabian Gulf or Scandinavia to keep its momentum moving forward.
Shanta (12.4p) recently received three approaches including two from China and Liberum sees the Chinese as possibly reigniting their interest.
Caledonia (1,350p), meanwhile, has exploration potential in Zimbabwe at Bilboes and Motapa, which is not reflected in a current rating of 64% of the average for Africa-cased gold miners.