Etruscan shareholders approve Endeavour offer

Results from its special meeting are in and Etruscan Resources (EET-T)
shareholders gave a resounding yes to Endeavour Financial’s (EDV-T) offer to acquire the rest of the company.

Over 78% of Etruscan shareholders were represented with 98% voting in favour of the deal. Endeavour’s offer calls for Etruscan shareholders to get 26¢ per share in cash plus 0.0932 of an Endeavour.

At the time that the offer was first tabled it valued Etruscan shares at 48¢ per share — a 33% premium to the 20-day volume-weighted average prices of Endeavour and Etruscan ending on June 25.

Etruscan says it expects the deal to be closed by September 10 and when it does it will continue to build up Endeavour’s position in West Africa.

Endeavour – which already owned 55% of Etruscan before it tabled the offer for the final 45% — also has a 43% stake in Crew Gold (CRU-T).

Crew’s key asset is its producing Lefa mine in the West African country of Guinea.

Etruscan has three key gold properties: Youga in Burkina Faso, Agbaou in Côte d’Ivoire and Finkolo in Mali. Youga went into production in February 2008.

The deal gives Endeavour combined annual gold production from the Youga and Lefa mines of 350,000 oz. gold, with about 189,000 oz. gold attributable to Endeavour.

Endeavour will finance the $43 million in cash part of the acquisition through a US$100-million revolving facility it had in place for new acquisitions.

Legendary mining financier Frank Giustra joined Endeavour back in 2001 but left the company in an official capacity to set up the investment firm Fiore Financial. Giustra still serves as an exclusive advisor to the company. .

In Toronto on August 19, Etruscan shares were up a penny or 2.3% to 44.5¢ on 948,000 shares traded while Endeavour shares were up 3¢ or 1.4% to $2.12 on 243,000 shares traded.