Darren, this is from the PR Argentina Gold released regarding their reasons for rejecting Barricks "unfair" offer. I extracted just a small section which tells volumes about dealing with the Barrickuda.
- In July 1998, Barrick attempted to take operatorship of the
Veladero Project away from Argentina Gold by unjustly
claiming that Argentina Gold has forfeited its rights to
operatorship under the joint venture agreement relating to
the Project. The claim was successfully defeated by
Argentina Gold.
- During the months of August, September and October of 1998,
Barrick attempted to negotiate a takeover of Argentina Gold
while the trading price of the Shares was near its 52 week
low.
- While Barrick was not prepared to complete a private
placement with Argentina Gold when Argentina Gold required
funding to satisfy its share of the exploration budget for
the 1998/98 exploration season of the Veladero Project, the
day after Argentina Gold announced excellent results on the
Amable target at the Veladero Project, Barrick approached
Argentina Gold and stated that it was now prepared to
complete a private placement at the then market price of the
Shares.
- Newmont completed the private placement within 72 hours of
Barrick's offer at a 23 percent premium to the price that
Barrick was prepared to pay. Barrick's reaction to the
Newmont private placement was to immediately acquire,
through market purchases, 2,105,700 Shares representing 5.9
percent of the outstanding Shares. Barrick subsequently made
additional purchases to increase its Share position in
Argentina Gold to 9.9 percent of the outstanding Shares.
When Argentina Gold retained Newmont as a consultant to the
Veladero Project concurrently with the completion of the
private placement, Barrick's reaction was to issue a letter
to Argentina Gold containing unreasonable demands by Barrick
relating to the provision of information regarding the
Veladero Project which was required to be provided by
Argentina Gold to Newmont in order to allow Newmont to
discharge its duties as consultant.
- Barrick strategically made the Offer, at a price
substantially below the price that Barrick had previously
offered to pay during negotiations with Argentina Gold, over
the Christmas and New Year's holidays period during which
Barrick knows that Argentina Gold shareholders will have
limited time to properly consider the Offer and during which
it will be difficult for other potential bidders to react.
It looks like ARP has had about six months of getting down & dirty with this "world class" company. But, I'm sure they wouldn't jerk PFG around.
Regards, Dave |
