Hecla To Acquire Aurizon For Approx. C$796 Mln Hecla To Acquire Aurizon For Approx. C$796 Mln
U.S.-based silver producer Hecla Mining Co. (HL: Quote) --- has agreed to buy Canada-based gold miner Aurizon Mines Ltd. (AZK:Quote,ARZ.TO: Quote) for about C$796 million, or $774.13 million. Following the announcement, shares of Aurizon are up more than 7 percent in pre-market trades.
Under the terms of the deal, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho-based Hecla will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Canada-based Aurizon for C$4.75 per share.
The offer price represents a 39 percent premium to Aurizon's unaffected share price on January 11, 2013, the last trading day prior to the announcement of the hostile takeover bid for the company by Alamos Gold Inc. (AGI.TO: Quote). It also represents a 9 percent premium to Aurizon's closing stock price of C$4.35 on Friday, March 1.
Alamos said in mid-January that it commenced an offer to acquire Aurizon Mines for C$4.65 per share, in a deal valued at about C$780 million. However, Aurizon later urged its shareholders to reject that offer.
Measured and indicated mineral resources as at December 31, 2012 totaled 1,467,000 ounces of gold and inferred mineral resources totaled 589,600 ounces of gold. -----------.
| Total Measured & Indicated Resources | 11,039,000 | 4.1 | 1,467,000 | 10,867,000 | 4.3 | 1,494,500 | (27,500) |
| Inferred Mineral Resources | 4,811,000 | 3.8 | 589,600 | 4,947,000 | 3.9 | 615,700 | (26,100) |
----------. Under the proposed deal with Hecla, Aurizon shareholders may opt to receive either C$4.75 in cash or 0.9953 of a Hecla share or a combination of both. This is subject in each case to pro-ration based on a maximum cash consideration of C$513.63 million and a maximum of about 57 million Hecla shares.
Assuming that all Aurizon shareholders elect to receive either cash or Hecla shares, each shareholder would be entitled to receive C$3.11 in cash and 0.34462 of a Hecla share for each Aurizon share.
Aurizon said its board of directors has recommended that its shareholders vote in favor of approving the transaction. In addition, all the directors and senior officers of Aurizon have agreed to vote their shares in favor of the deal.-----.