Canada’s Inmet Mining Corp (TSX:IMN) said Wednesday it will offer $112 million cash and equity to acquire copper and gold miner Petaquilla Minerals Ltd. (TSX:PTQ), which operates a gold mine adjacent to its property in Panama.
The Toronto-based company said the bid of 48 cents per share in cash — or 0.0109 Inmet share for each Petaquilla share — represents a 37% premium at the close of Petaquilla’s trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
It’s also a 30% premium to the 20-day volume weighted average price.
The move supported by Petaquilla’s board would allow the acquired company to “spin-out” its assets in Spain to shareholders.
Inmet would issue about 2.5 million shares if all Petaquilla shareholders choose to receive shares.
The company said the transaction is “extremely attractive” to Petaquilla shareholders because it represents a substantial premium, offers the flexibility of cash or shares and allows them to retain potential upside from its Lomero-Poyatos assets.
Last month Inmet received a whopping $1 billion from fellow Canadian Franco-Nevada (TSX & NYSE: FNV) to support the development costs of Inmet’s massive Cobre Panama copper project in exchange for a future precious metals stream.
Cobre Panama, the first large-scale mine in Panama’s history, contains more than 32 billion pounds of copper, according to Inmet’s estimations, almost nine million ounces of gold and 168 million ounces of silver in measured and indicated resources.
The mine is expected to ship its first consignment of concentrate during the first quarter of 2016, and the life-of-mine is expected to exceed 31 years.
