PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Takeover target Finders Resources has again urged shareholders not to take any action regarding an offmarket takeover offer by a consortium of Indonesia-listed companies, known as Eastern Field Developments.

The consortium, which is jointly owned by Procap Partners, PT Saratoga Investama Sedaya and PT Merdeka Copper Gold, on Tuesday lodged a bidders’ statement, offering Finders shareholders 23c in cash for every Finders share held.

Eastern Field Developments, which controls about 19.8% of Finders, has urged shareholders to accept the offer, pointing out that it represented a 7.6% premium to Finders’ 60-day volume-weighted average share price, and a 10.8% premium to the 90-day volume-weighted average share price.

In the offer document, Provident Minerals, which is an associate entity of Provident and one of the consortium members, noted that it recently undertook an unsuccessful formal sales process of its shareholding in Finders, through a financial adviser. The sales process involved approaching a large number of potential acquirers.

However, Provident Minerals noted that consistent feedback from the potential acquirers was that the involvement of a reputable Indonesian group was a key factor for investors in Finders, and that Finders’ attributable interest in the Wetar copper project was small on a global basis, while the current mine life of the company’s flagship project was also too short based on the project’s current ore reserves and resources.

The sale process was discontinued after no offers were received.

Eastern Field Developments have again warned Finders shareholders that should the takeover offer not be successful, both Provident Minerals and Saratoga would review their investment in the company, and could take the decision to divest of all its shares in the company through a market sell-down process, or other means.