Quebec gold producer Aurizon Mines seeks better offer than $780-million bid by Alamos Gold[t][/t]
BY ROBERT GIBBENS, SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE JANUARY 23, 2013
MONTREAL — Quebec gold producer
Aurizon Mines Ltd. said Wednesday a $780-million cash-and-stock bid from Toronto-based Alamos Gold Inc. is “opportunistic” and too low and it is seeking a better offer elsewhere.
It has adopted a standard shareholder rights plan to gain time to find a white knight to improve on Alamos’s $4.65-a-share offer, which is open for 35 days. Alamos already owns 16 per cent of Aurizon.
Aurizon said the Alamos bid fails to compensate shareholders for the true value of their assets and contains geopolitical and development risks. “The board is exploring the full range of value- maximizing alternatives.”
Alamos’s only producing mine is in Mexico and it has development properties in Turkey and elsewhere.
Putting its assets with the debt-free Aurizon and its Casa Berardi mine (140,000 ounces annually) in northwestern Quebec would create an intermediate gold producer with annual output of more than 300,000 ounces, it argues.
Aurizon is developing more reserves at Casa Berardi and also has a future gold mine to the southwest and several development properties in the same area near Rouyn-Noranda.
Several analysts rated the possibility of a counterbid as slender.
Brian Quast, analyst with BMO Capital Markets, expects the Alamos bid to succeed in its current form.
Aurizon shareholders meet March 7 to vote on the shareholder rights plan. Aurizon shares traded at $4.74, down 0.2 per cent, early Wednesday.
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