PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Suitor Westgold Resources has increased its takeover offer for ASX-listed gold miner Gascoyne Resources, after the Takeovers Panel last week declined to conduct proceedings.
Westgold had previously applied to the Takeovers Panel in a bid to halt a merger agreement between Gascoyne and fellow listed Firefly Resources, which was announced in June this year, which would see Firely shareholders receive 0.34 Gascoyne shares for each Firefly share held.
The Panel said last week that it had considered a determination by the Gascoyne board that Westgold’s one-for-four share offer for Gascoyne was “not a superior proposal as contemplated by the scheme implementation deed” with Firefly, and that there was no reasonable prospect of declaring unacceptable circumstances.
Westgold on Monday announced that it would now improve its offer consideration to three of its own shares for every 11 Gascoyne shares held, subject to the company obtaining at least a 50.1% interest in Gascoyne by the close of the offer.
Once Westgold achieves a relevant interest of at least 50.1%, and subject to the Firefly scheme not proceeding, the Westgold offer will be declared unconditional.
Gascoyne on Monday told shareholders not to take any action with regards to the increased offer from Westgold, with the company saying it was reviewing the increased offer and would provide a recommendation shortly.