Takeover battle for IAMGOLD, Wheaton takes new turn

摘要

The takeover bid for Canadian miner Wheaton River Minerals by Coeur d'Alene Mines of the US, and the related battle for Toronto-based IAMGOLD Corp initiated by Denver-based Golden Star Resources, took new turns last week; the American companies boosted their respective offers that were again rejected by the Canadian companies, which are determined to pursue their own business combination. IAMGOLD and Wheaton River announced in late March a merger plan aimed at combining their businesses to become one of the world's top ten gold producers, with a gold production capacity of 1-mil oz/year, rising to 1.3-mil oz/year by 2006. Wheaton said Jun 30 that its board of directors had rejected the sweetened bid from Coeur and reaffirmed its commitment to proceed with the IAMGOLD merger. "Following a review of the amended proposal from Coeur d'Alene, announced on Jun 29, the special committee of the board of directors of Wheaton concluded that the transaction with IAMGOLD continues to be more advantageous to the shareholders of Wheaton than the amended proposal from Coeur...and reaffirms its recommendation to its shareholders that they vote FOR the resolution to approve the business combination with IAMGOLD," at the Jul 6 shareholder meeting, Wheaton said.