Anglo-Swiss mining company Xstrata has made a friendly cash bid worth 4,6-billion Canadian dollars for nickel producer LionOre Mining International, the groups said in a joint statement on Monday.
The offer for the Canadian group, worth $4-billion or €3-billion, comes as the price of nickel strikes record high points.
”Xstrata and LionOre Mining International Ltd announced today that they have entered into a support agreement for an all-cash offer to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of LionOre by way of a friendly takeover bid,” the statement said.
Xstrata chief executive Mick Davis would not be drawn on potential synergies, but said in a conference call following the announcement that the deal would be ”value accretive” for the combined group.
The offer is for C$18,50 per share, which represented a 5,8% premium over the closing price of C$17,49 per LionOre share on the Toronto Stock Exchange last Friday.
On Monday in London a tonne of nickel, for delivery in three months, was being traded at $41 950 dollars. Earlier in March it struck an all-time high of $48 500 a tonne.
Nickel is benefiting from strong demand for stainless steel, low inventories, as well as supply disruptions and delays.
At an international conference on nickel in Noumea, New Caledonia, Macquarie bank analyst Jim Lennon said on Monday that the price of nickel, having tripled in the last year, would settle down in 2010 to 2011 when new factories began production.
But Chinese demand would far exceed expectations. China now consumed 260 000 tonnes per year or about 20% of world output. The price per pound in London last week was $21,59.
Lennon said that a price of 5,5 to 6 dollars per pound seemed a reasonable supposition for the long term.
In London trade on Monday, the share price of Xstrata jumped 1,94% to 2 628 pence. At the half-way stage London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares, on which Xstrata is traded, was up 0,24% at 6 354,80 points.
In Paris, the price of shares in nickel miner Eramet, which has interests in New Caledonia, rose by 4,09% to €151,01 after the announcement by Xstrata and LionOre Mining International. – Sapa-AFP