Monday 28 July 1997
IMC Global to acquire Freeport
NORTHBROOK, Ill. - Fertilizer producer IMC Global Inc. has agreed to
acquire rival Freeport-McMoRan Inc., a U.S. mining company that dropped
out of Bre-X Ltd.'s failed Busang gold deposit in Indonesia earlier this year.
An IMC spokesman estimated the value of the cash and stock deal
announced Monday at about $800 million US.
Under the agreement, shareholders of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. will get 0.9
shares of IMC Global for each of their shares. Also, Freeport shareholders
will acquire rights to buy a third of an IMC Global share at $44.50 within
three years of the merger's closing.
Freeport, a major gold and copper miner in Indonesia, agreed to build and
operate a proposed Busang gold mine in Indonesia, but later killed the deal
before it closed after failing to find any gold on the site.
The Indonesian deposit was later proved to be the biggest gold fraud in
history and wiped out Calgary-based Bre-X and the investments of
thousands of shareholders in the former high-flying company.
In Monday's deal, Freeport-McMoRan Resources L.P., an affiliate of
Freeport-McMoRan Inc., will form a new company with an 83.3 per cent
stake in sulphur and oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Before the
deal, Freeport-McMoRan had owned a 58.3 per cent interest in the
operations, IMC Global 25 per cent.
The stake, along with sulphur operations in Culberson, Tex., will represent
total proved and probable reserves of 68 million long tons of sulphur and 6.2
million barrels of oil, the companies said.
IMC Global is based in Northbrook, Ill. Freeport McMoRan is based in
New Orleans. |
