Vancouver – Barrick Gold (ABX-T, ABX-N) has increased and extended its takeover bid for NovaGold Resources (NG-T, NG-X), now offering US$16.00 per share until November 7th.
Tabled as its “best and final offer”, the all-cash bid represents a more than 10% boost from its July 24th offer of US$14.50 per share. The increase comes despite Barrick chairman Peter Munk previously stating to the media it would “absolutely not” have to raise its offer for NovaGold. No other conditions were changed including the minimum tender condition of 50.1% with Barrick disclosing that just 167,679 shares (0.18% of the total outstanding) have been tendered. The new bid values NovaGold at about US$1.7 billion
“This revised offer represents our best and final offer price for NovaGold,” commented Barrick president and CEO Greg Wilkins in a prepared statement. “We are confident that we have arrived at a price which strikes a balance between NovaGold shareholder expectations of value and a price that is acceptable to Barrick. We look forward to concluding this offer, advancing our pipeline of projects and pursuing other business opportunities.”
NovaGold advised its shareholders to take no action on the revised bid until it has reviewed the amended offer. Shares of the company got a boost on the revised hostile bid, closing up 64 at $17.67 apiece in TSX trading and up US58 at US$15.65 on AMEX.
On a related front, Barrick also recently extended its $1.00 per share bid for Pioneer Metals (PSM-T, PNMTF-O) until November 9th. The major has acquired about 58.6 million shares of Pioneer, representing about 90.6% of shares outstanding.
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