Vestgron shares not tendered to either two takeover bids

Trading in shares of Vestgron Mines resumed on Friday Oct 24 on the Toronto Stock Exchange after a week-long halt for disclosure that the major shareholder Cominco Ltd. has not tendered its Vestgron shares to either of two competing bids.

Toronto-based Zenmac Zinc made a bid of 50 cents per share in late September for the Vestgron shares. This bid expired Oct 17.

That day a competing takeover bid was made for the Vestgron shares by a wholly-owned subsidiary of CanEast Capital, a private investment holding company based in Halifax. This bid expires on Nov 10.

Vestgron says it has been advised by Montreal Trust that Zenmac increased its bid on Oct 17 to 65 cents per share to match the CanEast bid and ext ended its offer until Oct 20. Montreal Trust acted as depositary for the Zenmac bid.

Vestgron also says that it was advised by Montreal Trust, that to the best of its knowledge, notice of the Zenmac price increase and extension have not been sent to Vestgron shareholders.

There are 4,227,968 common shares outstanding of Vestgron. Cominco holds 62.5% or 2,642,618 shares.

Earlier this summer, Vestgron sold its 100% interest in Greenex A/S to Boliden AB. Greenex was operator of the Black Angel zinc- lead mine in Greenland which stopped operations on June 1 due to weak metal prices.

The company’s working capital position stood at $2.3 million at the end of 1985. It also received about $825,000 at the time of closing the sale of Greenex and will receive future payment if enough proceeds are realized on the sale of Greenex’s June 1 inventory of zinc concentrate.

At presstime, Vestgron shares were trading at the 72 cents level.