Australian gold miner Red 5 will takeover rival Silver Lake Resources to build a mid tier gold company valued at $1.5-billion, the two companies said in a joint statement on Monday.
The merged entity will eventually lead to creating a diversified mid-tier gold company, with a combined gold production profile of about 445 000 oz/y for fiscal year 2024.
Shares of Silver Lake dropped as much as 14.0% as at 00:10 GMT to top losses on the benchmark S&P/ASX 200, which was down 1.1%. The Red 5 stock slipped about 3.7%.
Under the agreement, each Silver Lake shareholder will receive 3.434 Red 5 shares for every Silver Lake share held.
Upon implementation of the transaction, Red 5 shareholders would hold around 51.7% of the merged entity, while Silver Lake stakeholders will own the remaining 48.3%.
The miners said the combined company would be led by Russell Clark as chairman and Luke Tonkin as managing director and CEO. They added that Struan Richards would be appointed as chief financial officer of the firm.
"The increased scale, diversification and financial strength of the new company that will be formed via this transaction will be primed for continued strong cash flow generation and further growth," said Tonkin, current MD of Silver Lake Resources.