It was written in the Stars....It was only a matter of time before this happened. The signs were all there for a few years now, so no really BIG surprise to those knowledeable in the industry. I personally would have expected this to happen a few years ago already and did indicate on this board of that prospect. Unfortunately though, it seems all the posts from the last several years have been all removed/deleted from the SH YRI board. Not exacly sure when, but i did say Yamana was setting itself up to be sold as early as around 2018.
This was an old Fav from way back in the day, decades ago. Sad to see it go but it was time and time was running out for the company. Not many "good" mid tiers left in the sector, so some folks will have a hard time reinvesting elsewhere. For those looking for guidance of where to reinvest their YRI proceeds or where to put their money towards next, i have a few suggestions. For those willing to listen of course. Right off the bat, those willing to wait till the very end & exchange their YRI paper for GFI, though i have no problems with folks waiting at the very last minute to sell i would absolutely AVOID taking the GFI paper. So i strongly advise against exchanging your YRI shares for Goldfields.
There are many reasons why, aside from the huge political risk of being invested in a South African company such as Goldfields. Goldfields is also a very inefficeint, heavily indebted company with an extremely large amount of share capital or wallppaer if you prefer. As ALL South African based miners are. In addition, because of forced & very strict diversity mandates with all South African based companies need to adhere to, the competency of mgmt is very questionable and the quality a lot lower when compared to the top tier.
So if you truly want a decent replacement for Yamana, i'd go with SSR mining, PaN American or even B2gold if their are able to fix their issues. B2G even with all it's problems is still way better than GFI. For those looking for something bigger, comparable to Goldfileds, i'd avoid GFI (absolutely avoid!!!) and go with something like Wheaton Minerals or Agnico. My top pick of all of them would be SSR mining here, hands down.
GLTA