Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australian gold major Newcrest Mining has extended its exclusivity period with US gold major Newmont Corporation until 18 May to give the suitor further time to complete its due diligence and submit a binding offer.
The two companies in April entered into an exclusivity deed after Newmont revised its non-binding indicative offer to 0.4 of its own shares for each Newcrest share held. This was an increase on the 0.38 Newmont shares for every Newcrest share offer made in February this year.
In addition, the revised proposal permits Newcrest to pay a franked special dividend of up to $1.10 a share on or around the implementation of the scheme arrangement.
The offer valued Newcrest shares at A$32.87 a share, a 46.4% premium to the company’s last closing price of A$22.45 a share on February 3 and valued the company at A$32-billion.
The revised proposal is subject to a number of conditions, including the completion of the due diligence studies, entry into a binding scheme implementation agreement, and the unanimous recommendation from the Newcrest board that shareholders vote in favour of the revised proposal, in the absence of a superior offer.