Kirkland Lake Gold has rebuffed the latest bid
South Africa’s Gold Fields Ltd and Silver Standard Resources Inc have made three joint, unsolicited bids for Canada’s Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. (TSE:KLG) and recently sweetened their offer to about C$1.4 billion, three sources familiar with the process said. The latest bid has also been rebuffed, said the sources, who requested anonymity as the issue is confidential. The names of the bidders have not been previously disclosed.
Kirkland Lake has declined to discuss the offers, the sources said. A spokeswoman for Kirkland Lake said she could not immediately comment.
The latest offer for Kirkland Lake represented a premium of more than 50 percent of its value on Thursday. Its shares, which were trading at C$7.42 just ahead of the news, jumped as much as 8 percent to hit C$8.17 before being halted on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
If Gold Fields and Silver Standard succeed in their bid, it would scupper Kirkland Lake’s planned acquisition of miner Newmarket Gold for about C$1 billion in stock.
Newmarket could not immediately be reached for comment. Gold Fields and Silver Standard both said they did not comment on market speculation.
In an Oct. 28 shareholders circular filing to discuss that merger, Kirkland Lake said it received two bids without naming the bidders.
Shareholders have a Nov. 23 deadline to vote on Kirkland Lake’s bid to buy Newmarket.
With its high-grade production and reserves located in a safe, mining-friendly jurisdiction, Kirkland Lake’s appeal is bolstered by a scarcity of growth opportunities in the gold sector. It also has more than C$200 million of cash and equivalents on hand.
Gold Fields and Vancouver-based Silver Standard’s second bid for Kirkland, submitted in late October, valued the company at roughly C$1.3 billion, two of the sources said. Kirkland’s market capitalization as of Thursday was about C$922 million.
Read the full article at: ca.reuters.com
