Barrick jumps last regulatory hoop

South Africa’s Competition Tribunal has granted its approval for Barrick Gold‘s (ABX-T, ABX-N) friendly, US$10.4-billion bid for rival Placer Dome (PDG-T, PDG-N).

The unconditional approval follows similar approvals in Canada, the United States, Australia, Germany and Switzerland.

The final hurdle in Barrick’s path acceptance by holders of at least two-thirds of Placer’s shares; the offer expires on Jan. 19. On Jan. 5, Barrick said that only 2.7 million Placer shares had been tendered to its offer, good for less than 1% of Placer’s outstanding shares.

Under Barrick’s bid, which was sweetened on Dec. 22, Placer shareholders are offered US$22.50 in cash or 0.8269 of a Barrick share plus a nickel for each share tendered. The cash portion of the bid is capped at US$1.34 billion, while the scrip is limited to 333 million shares.

The new offer includes a larger cash contribution from Goldcorp (G-T, GG-N), which will chip in US$1.485 billion, up from the previous US$1.35 billion. In return, Goldcorp will pick up Placer’s major Canadian assets, including the Campbell mine, adjacent to its flagship Red Lake gold mine in northwestern Ontario. Placer recently announced a downdip extension of Red Lake’s High Grade zone onto Campbell.

If it succeeds, the transaction would see Barrick leapfrog Denver-based Newmont Mining (NMC-T, NME-N) to become the world’s largest gold producer, with output of roughly 8.3 million oz. annually and reserves of 150 million oz.