Cabinet will be holding a special session today, Tuesday to deliberate on the merger proposal between Ashanti Goldfields and AngloGold presented to it by the Ashanti Board. AngloGold has given a deadline of 31st October for Ashanti to take a decision or risk paying a penalty fee of $15 million as break fee.

The Ashanti Board met on Monday to reaffirm its support for the $1.4bn merger offer from AngloGold, despite Randgold’s revised all-share bid last week, which values the Ghanaian company about $300 billion more than the other offer.

South Africa’s Randgold on Friday, increased its offer for Ashanti, valuing the offer at about $1.7 bn, but Ashanti responded by saying the Board had “resolved unanimously to continue to recommend the merger proposal from AngloGold”.