High River Gold Mines Ltd HRIVF

Nord to buy out HRG minorities

[Novaman67]

 

UPDATE 1-Nord Gold to buy out minorities in High River Gold

LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) - Russian miner Nord Gold , the country’s third-largest gold producer, plans to bid for the 25 percent of High River Gold Mines that it does not already own, in a deal valuing the Canadian-listed producer at $1.2 billion.

Nord Gold is offering 0.285 Nord Gold global depositary receipts for each High River share held, or C$1.40 in cash. The paper offer represents a 17.2 percent premium based on closing prices on July 17 and a premium of 30.6 percent based on the share price average over the three months before that.

At Tuesday’s closing price, the paper offer values High River, which has assets in Burkina Faso as well as Russia, at $1.2 billion, or almost 60 percent of the value of the fully consolidated Nord Gold.

Nord Gold, spun off from Russian steelmaker Severstal earlier this year, said in a statement on Wednesday that it had lock-up agreements with a number of "substantial" High River minority shareholders - including three of the largest and former executive management - under which the shareholders have accepted the paper offer.

In a trading update issued alongside the bid, Nord Gold said it had increased gold production 6 percent in the second quarter on the previous three months, to 165,300 ounces, but aso warned that several of its mines including Lefa in Guinea had been hit by production bottlenecks which would affect 2012 output.

It expects 2012 production at 720,000-770,00 ounces.