IT MAY not be as high profile as the Consolidated Minerals deal but Crescent Gold has sealed what is believed to be the first partial private equity takeover of a mining company.
On Friday Crescent's shareholders overwhelmingly approved a proposal for Deutsche Bank's London branch to take a 55 per cent stake in the goldminer in return for providing a $122 million cash injection.
"For us, it's kind of a marriage between very, very big brother and very small brother," Crescent managing director Andrew Haythorpe said. "Very big brother has a large balance sheet and we have the operational skills."
Just before the deal was announced in March, Crescent poured its first gold from its low-grade, 90,000 ounce a year Laverton project in Western Australia.
Mr Haythorpe said his company had not been searching for a partner with deep pockets. But after Deutsche's originally strategy of taking a majority stake in a one million ounce-plus gold producer did not work out, the bank turned to Crescent, since it had an old relationship with a board member.
"The private equity chaps were very keen to get a hold of gold," Mr Haythorpe said. "I think it's fair to say … they're very optimistic on the gold price."
