Noront’s Hanson hot over Watson’s words

Noront Resources (NOT-V) president and CEO Wes Hanson says that before making an unsolicited bid for “Ring of Fire” neighbour Freewest Resources (FWR-V), Hanson and his team were prepared to spend last weekend in Montreal negotiating a “friendly” bid but were “rebuffed” by Freewest chairman and CEO Mackenzie Watson.

“We desperately tried to engage Freewest over the weekend,” Hanson says. “We wanted to negotiate. We were rebuffed.”

Hanson says Watson’s lack of interest in discussing a deal left Noront little choice but to launch a hostile takeover attempt.

Watson told Mining Markets earlier this week that Noront had only left a message at his office on Friday, Oct. 2, after he had gone home for the weekend.

Noront is offering one share for four shares of Freewest. The bid implies a price of $0.3975 per Freewest share, a 51% premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average price before Oct. 2. The offer valued Freewest at slightly less than $90 million.

Freewest shares closed at $0.415 per share in heavy volume on Wednesday, while Noront’s shares soared 16.15%, to close at $1.87.

“If you look at the market since the deal was announced, it is sort of justifying that a four-to-one share ratio is good,” Hanson says.

Hanson sends this missive to Watson: “You demonstrate to me why the value we’ve offered to your shareholders isn’t acceptable, and I will demonstrate to you why the value is (acceptable), instead of fighting it out through the press, which is probably the least effective way of doing things.”

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