Kazakhmys takes over Eurasia Gold

Kazakhmys (KAZ-L, KZMYF-O) has taken up 96% of the outstanding shares of Eurasia Gold (EGX-T, EGXDF-O) and will move to a compulsory acquisition of the company.

Kazakhmys is paying 85 a share for Eurasia Gold, which values the company at $288 million. Eurasia’s chairman Kumar Mukashev, who controlled about 79% of the company’s shares, had previously locked up those shares to the takeover bid. The Eurasia board opposed the takeover, but Kazakhmys refused to increase the price.

Eurasia holds three producing gold mines in Kazakhstan and has development projects elsewhere in Central Asia. Kazakhmys has 19 mines and two smelter-refinery complexes in Kazakhstan, and a downstream copper-products plant in Germany. It earned US$1.4 billion on revenue of US$5 billion in 2006.