"De Beers to make cash offer to acquire Winspear
c$259 million transaction
TORONTO, June 26 /CNW/ - De Beers announced today that it intends to make
an offer to acquire all outstanding common shares of Winspear Diamonds Inc. in
a cash transaction valued at approximately C$259 million.
The all cash offer of C$4.25 per common share represents a premium of 77
per cent over Winspear's closing price on the Toronto Stock Exchange of C$2.40
on June 23 and a premium of 90 per cent over Winspear's average closing price
for the past 20 full trading days.
The offer will be made through a wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary of De
Beers Centenary AG. The complete offer document will be mailed to shareholders
of Winspear upon receipt from Winspear of its shareholders' list and the offer
will be open for approximately 21 days following the mailing.
"We believe that our offer provides full and fair value to Winspear
shareholders, particularly given the pre-feasibility stage of the project, the
technical and permitting risks involved and the significant expenditure that
will be required to bring this project into production," said Richard
Molyneux, president and chief executive officer, De Beers Canada Corporation.
"The envisaged mine at Snap Lake in the Northwest Territories is
potentially the first underground diamond mine for Canada. De Beers has
unrivalled expertise and experience in underground diamond mining which has
contributed to our confidence in making this offer,'' continued Mr Molyneux.
"Subject to a positive feasibility study and further sampling, we intend to
apply the full weight of our technical and financial resources to bring Snap
Lake into production as quickly as possible."
The offer is conditional on, among other things, withdrawal of Winspear's
shareholder rights plan, Winspear not entering into any material contracts or
agreements, Winspear not issuing any additional equity and cancelling its
recently proposed equity issue, and acceptance of the offer by holders of at
least 50.1% of Winspear shares determined on a fully diluted basis.
N M Rothschild & Sons, RBC Dominion Securities Inc. and Fasken Martineau
DuMoulin LLP have been engaged by De Beers as advisors.
De Beers is an international diamond mining group which has several
Canadian projects in advanced stages of exploration."
Well somehow I think they will be able to sweeten this offer. I can't see shareholders with larger blocks being willing to part with the potential for this offer. Any ideas from the rest out there?
don |
