Goldcorp board spurns Glamis bid

Management of Goldcorp (G-T) has recommended that shareholders approve the company’s bid for Wheaton River Minerals (WRM-T) and not tender their shares to the takeover bid floated by Glamis Gold (GLG-T), but has postponed a shareholder vote by 10 days.

Goldcorp announced its board had unanimously recommended the bid of one Goldcorp share for four Wheaton River shares, mainly on the grounds that the transaction would increase earnings for Goldcorp shareholders. With two abstentions, the board recommended shareholders reject the Glamis bid of 0.89 Glamis shares for one Goldcorp.

Since the Glamis bid is predicated on Goldcorp’s abandonment of the Wheaton bid, it is not obvious why two directors would have abstained from a recommendation that followed logically from the recommendation to approve the Wheaton bid.

In a conference call on Jan. 21, Goldcorp’s chairman, Robert McEwen, did not name the two directors that abstained, other than to say that one was a member of the independent directors’ committee that was assigned to examine deals for Goldcorp. The original management recommendation went out with the approval of five of the eight Goldcorp directors, with three — Robert Goldsack and James Hutch, both members of the independent committee, and Stuart Horne, who was not — abstaining.

The new shareholders’ meeting is scheduled for Feb. 10, one day after Glamis shareholders are scheduled to vote on whether to authorize Glamis’s offer to Goldcorp.