PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The share price of ASX-listed Robust Resources spiked more than 52% on Friday after the company became the target of a joint takeover between Stanhill Capital Partners and Droxford International.

The bidders on Friday announced that they had entered into discussions with Robust regarding a potential joint off-market takeover offer. If the offer proceeded, the bidders would offer Robust shareholders 49c a share in cash for their shareholding in the precious and base metals developer.

The offer represented a 66% premium to Robust’s most recent closing price of 29.5c a share, and a premium of 111% over the three-month volume-weighted average price of the company’s shares. On Friday, the company’s stock traded at a high of 45.5c a share.

Stanhill has previously launched a solo takeover offer for Robust, offering shareholders in the ASX-listed company 31.5c a share in cash, up from the initial offer of 28c a share. The Stanhill offer valued Robust at A$61.5-million.

The company said on Friday that the combined offer from Stanhill and Droxford represented a 56% improvement over the current solo proposal from Stanhill, and was a premium of 123% on Robust’s share price prior to the original offer.

“In the absence of a higher offer, and conditional upon an independent expert recommending that the offer is fair and reasonable, Robust intends to recommend that shareholders accept this new offer, once it is capable of acceptance,” the company told its shareholders.

The joint offer was subject to the bidders obtaining leave from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission to make the offer, and if it proceeded, would likely be subject to a minimum acceptance condition of 50.1%.

Stanhill and Droxford currently hold a combined 46.6% shareholding in Robust.

Besides the Romang Island manganese project, Robust also has a majority shareholding in the Andash copper/gold project, in the Kyrgyz Republic.

The Kyrgyz assets were the subject of a memorandum of understanding with Aim-listed Mentum, under which the Asia-focused mining development company would acquire Robust’s Kyrgyz assets be renamed Tengri Resources.