TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Shareholders in European Goldfields and Eldorado Gold on Tuesday gave the nod to the $2.5-billion merger, first unveiled in December.

Earlier this month, proxy voting firms Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis & Co. recommended investors vote in favour of the deal.

At a meeting, owners representing 97.85% of European Goldfields’ shares gave the friendly takeover by Eldorado Gold the thumbs up, while 96.04% of the acquirer’s shareholders were in favour.

The companies said they expect the deal to close by the end of the week.

European Goldfields, which owns projects in Greece, Romania and Turkey, in early December confirmed it had received “preliminary and indicative approaches” from other companies, after reports that Eldorado Gold had made advances on the TSX-listed company.

Eldorado owns mines in Brazil, China, Greece and Turkey.

Announcing the cash and scrip deal in December, the companies said the combination would grow yearly gold production by 30% each year though 2015, reaching over 1.5-million ounces of gold production by that time.

“The overwhelmingly positive approval of the merger with Eldorado resoundingly affirms the merits of the transaction, and underscores the potential of the combined group as the leading growth-oriented intermediate gold producer," European Goldfields chairperson and CEO Martyn Konig said in a statement.

Shares in Eldorado rose 5.7% on the TSX by early afternoon to trade at C$14.27, while European Goldfields pushed 6% higher to trade at C$12.08 in Toronto.
 

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