PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The directors of takeover target Orbis Gold on Friday rejected the takeover offer by Canada’s Semafo, saying the 65c-a-share cash offer undervalued the company.
The Orbis directors also believed that the takeover offer did not factor in the significant near-term growth prospects available to the company, particularly in the wake of an updated scoping study on the flagship Natougou gold project, in Burkina Faso.
“The board believes the offer is opportunistic and that Semafo is attempting to transfer the upside value in Orbis Gold to its own shareholders at the expense of Orbis Gold shareholders,” the company said in a statement.
The Natougou project was expected to deliver revenues of about $1.9-billion and was estimated to have a net present value of $533-million. Natougou was expected to deliver gold sales of some 1.5-million ounces over a mine life of 6.7 years.
Orbis told shareholders that the company had received no approaches from Semafo since the release of the updated scoping study, despite the Canadian miner’s public statements that it would engage with Orbis.
However, Orbis had taken the decision to defer a planned extraordinary general meeting at the end of this month, where shareholders would have considered a $20-million capital injection from Greenstone Resources, to allow shareholders time to consider the new developments.
In the meantime, Orbis said that it would remain in close discussions with Greenstone, and was also in active discussions with several other third parties regarding value enhancing alternatives to the Semafo offer.