M E D I A
R E L E A S E
Gold Fields Limited
Reg. 1968/004880/06
24 St Andrews Road
Parktown, 2193
Postnet Suite 252
Private Bag X30500
Houghton, 2041
South Africa
Dir +27 11 644-2460
Fa +27 11 484-0639
www.goldfields.co.za
Enquires
South Africa
Willie Jacobsz
Tel +27 11 644-2460
Fa +27 11 484-0639
North America
Cheryl A Martin
Tel +1 303 796-8683
Fa +1 303 796-8293
HARMONY LOSES EIGHT LEGAL ACTIONS
RELATING TO IAMGOLD VOTE ON 7 DECEMBER
2004 - ONE PENDING
Tel +27 11 644-2400
Johannesburg, 1 December 2004: The dismissal today, with costs, of Harmony Gold Mining Company's application to the Constitutional Court of South Africa brings to eight the number of legal actions lost by Harmony over the past week. All of these relate to the vote by Gold Fields shareholders on the IAMGold transaction on 7 December 2004.
1) The Competition Appeal Court ("CAC") on Friday, 26 November, ruled that, while Harmony may proceed to acquire the shares tendered to it in the Early Settlement Offer, it may not exercise any rights associated with those shares until such time as it has sought and obtained approval for its offers from the competition authorities. This includes the voting of those shares at the Gold Fields EGM on 7 December where shareholders will be required to vote on the IAMGold transaction.
The CAC effectively found that the first stage of Harmony's two-stage offer (the Early Settlement Offer) is in fact a "notifiable merger". A "notifiable merger" may not be implemented pending approval of the competition authorities.
2) On Monday, 29 November, the Securities Regulation Panel ("SRP") reinforced the ruling of the CAC, referred to above, by finding that the Harmony offer is a single transaction and accordingly an "affected transaction" and that the SRP has jurisdiction over the Early Settlement Offer.
3) Harmony on Monday, 29 November, approached the Supreme Court Of Appeal ("SCA"), requesting urgent enrolment of an appeal against the order of the CAC handed down on Friday the 26th. The
Judge President heard their request for urgent enrolment in Chambers and, after hearing submissions from Gold Fields' representatives, refused to enroll the appeal on an urgent basis.
Harmony further applied directly to the CAC with an urgent application for 4) leave to appeal the CAC order of the 26th and 5) an order
suspending operation of the interdict, pending finalization of its appeal. As the SCA had refused to enroll the intended appeal on the urgent basis sought, the CAC similarly refused to enroll the application for an urgent hearing.
Directors: C M T Thompson* (Chairman), A J Wright (Deputy Chairman), I D Cockerill
(Chief Executive Officer),K Ansah
#
, G J Gerwel, N J Holland
(Chief
Financial Officer), J M McMahon
, G R Parker
, R L Pennant-Rea
, P J Ryan, T M G Sexwale, B R van Rooyen, C I von Christierson
*Canadian,
British,
American,
#
Ghanaian.
Corporate Secretary: C Farrel