With about 21% of AurionGold’s shares tendered to its cash-sweetened bid late on Aug. 6, unrequited suitor
Placer’s offer, which stands at 17.5 of its own shares for every 100 AurionGold shares, was recently bolstered by a A35-per-share cash sweetener and is now set to expire at 6 p.m. (EST) on Aug. 16. The offer, now on its third extension, is final and unconditional.
The Vancouver-based company says that with its 21% stake (enough to make it Aurion’s largest shareholder), it has extended its offer to provide Aurion shareholders and their board the opportunity to consider what course of action they should take.
The extension came on the same day Placer agreed to lower its broker inducement fee to 0.75% from 1.5% of the value of the consideration payable to accepting shareholders, up to a maximum of $750. Acceptances tendered by 1:30 p.m. (EST) on Aug. 6 will be paid the original 1.5% fee. Aurion had expressed concerns to the Australian Takeovers Panel that the fee was too high; the panel agreed.
Says Aurion’s chief executive officer, Terry Burgess: “We are pleased that the Takeovers Panel recognized our concerns that the size of the fee offered by Placer Dome had the possibility of inducing brokers to place undue, and possibly coercive, pressure on their clients to accept the Placer Dome offer.”
Aurion’s board has steadfastly rejected Placer Dome’s advances since lat May, when the company originally launched its hostile bid. The board maintains that the offer is too low; still, no competing bid has surfaced.
Nearly half of the shares tendered to Placer’s bid so far come from South African-based
In early-afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Aug. 7, Placer’s shares were US21 richer at US$8.60, bringing the value of Placer’s offer to A$3.15 per share. Aurion shares ended the Aug. 7 trading session on the Australian Stock Exchange up A6 at A$3.11.
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