Sad truth when comparing the Victoria & Hecla dealsIf, as I suspect, the Victoria deal were to be an all share swap with an exchange rate based upon the announcement date of Victoria's offer, the deal would be EXACTLY the same as the Hecla deal as it stands today:
We would've gotten 12 cents CAD of Victoria shares equivalent as of February. The Hecla deal, which has seen the exchange ratio decline by 25% is now equivalent to 10.5 cents CAD. Throw in the value of the spinoff, and you arrive back at the value you would've received with Victoria.
So, what IS the primary difference between the two deals? Management gets to keep their jobs with the Hecla spinoff but may have been out of luck with the Victoria deal.
I wish management would've cared more about maximizing shareholder value and holding out for a better deal (or at least locking in the exchange rate with Hecla) than they were about whether or not they'd have jobs after the merger, which by the way they were the ones that controlled whether there would even be a merger anyways!