Vancouver — On the heels of Albert Friedberg’s apparent victory at wresting control of
Bema, which already owns 5% of Arizona Star’s common shares, is offering to exchange 1.85 of its shares for each share of Arizona Star.
Based on a Dec. 20 share price in Toronto, the offer values Arizona Star at $7.01 per share, which represents a 33% premium over its recent value.
Says Bema President Clive Johnson: “We regard this as an opportunity to increase Bema’s interest in the Cerro Casale deposit, which we believe is on the verge of moving into the development stage.”
In mid-December, Albert Friedberg appeared victorious: his efforts at taking control of Arizona Star from Bema Gold resulted in an independent board being negotiated for the junior.
The compromise deal saw four of Friedberg’s nominees approved ahead of the meeting, while two of the company’s existing directors, Roger Richer and Paul Kostuik, would remain on the board. New on board were Rudi Fronk and James Anthony. Friedberg’s remaining nominees were Paul Parisotto and Thomas Dawson. Although Bema Gold was to continue to manage Arizona Star, it would have much less infludence on the board
Friedberg used the share position of his family-owned Pan Atlantic Bank & Trust, which owns 12.1 million of Arizona Star’s 40.4 million shares.
His first attempt to vote in new board members failed when the company was caught off guard at its annual general meeting in early November, and disallowed the proxy. There followed a nasty proxy battle, which was to have been decided at a reconvened annual meeting on Dec. 16.
Friedberg believed independence from Bema would better serve the shareholders of Arizona Star. Clive Johnson, Bema’s president, who is also a director of Arizona Star, has strongly defended the direction Arizona Star has taken with regard to Bema.
The dispute mainly centred around the financing and development of the Cerro Casale copper and gold project in northern Chile, in which Arizona Star has a 25% stake, Bema Gold, 24%, and
Placer is responsible for financing $1.3 billion of the estimated $1.6-billion cost of Cerro Casale’s development.
Discovered by Bema in 1995, Cerro Casale is one of the world’s largest undeveloped porphyry copper projects. It occupies a portion of the Aldebaran property, 30 km south of Bema’s Refugio mine.
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