RE: Endeavour Mining...Looking To Buy? Just to clarify as I wouldn't want to be accused of 'pumping'...here is another article...my take is that coming out saying they are looking at producers means the opposite! Right? Nothing, apparently, 'till Avion deal closes...October...GLTA
ENDEAVOUR Mining's $C389 million ($A370 million) takeover of Avion Gold, announced today, is not the last according to the gold miner's chief.
Mark Connelly, chief operating officer and executive director of Endeavour, said today the company was actively looking at two other Canadian takeover targets based in the west African region.
The all scrip deal, unveiled earlier today, would help get the WA based miner to its goal of being a 450,000 ounce to 500,000 ounce producer by June next year, he said.
Endeavour has offered Avion 0.365 of its shares for each Avion share, valuing the takeover at $C389 million ($A370 million).
Also under the deal, Endeavour will provide a $US20 million short term loan to Avion in order to restart the latter’s Tabakoto processing facility, which is connected to the Agbaou gold mine, located in Mali.
The takeover will lift Endeavour’s gold production by 50 per cent to between 282,000 and 304,000 ounces for 2012, the company said today, with growth for more.
“The rationale is to get bigger,” Mr Connelly told reporters on the sidelines of the Diggers & Dealers mining conference in Kalgoorlie.
“Our primary targets have always been in West Africa – we have an operational base there, we’ve demonstrated we can build projects, permit them and operate them successfully,” he said.
The purchase, which was signed at 3am this morning, is the second consolidation of gold companies this week, with Integra Mining agreeing to a $426 million takeover by fellow gold miner Silver Lake Resources.
Mr Connelly said the prospective targets were Canadian based because it was much quicker to close the deals, with the Avion acquisition to be finalised in October.
“We want to move towards production ounces, we’re not interested in the early stage exploration, we’re not interested in companies on the ASX who are quoting resources who have a long capital expenditure (ahead of them),” he said.
The combined company would have a pro-forma market capitalisation of nearly $1 billion, Endeavour said