Top global miner BHP Group has won support from Oz Minerals’ shareholders, as expected, to go ahead with a A$9.6 billion ($6.4 billion) takeover of the Australian copper producer.
Some 78.9% of proxy votes on behalf of Oz Minerals’ investors were in favour of the takeover offer of A$26.50 cash from BHP and a A$1.75 special dividend paid to Oz Minerals investors, at a shareholder meeting in Adelaide on Thursday.
The deal is the third largest in global mining in recent months after gold miner Newmont landed a $19.5 billion offer for Australia’s Newcrest this week and Glencore offered $22.5 billion for Canada’s Teck Resources.
Read More: Newmont, Glencore bids crack into metal industry’s top takeovers
Miners are scrambling for new supplies of copper, key to the energy transition, after years of austerity led to cuts in exploration and a focus on fixing balance sheets and appeasing investors irked by overspending in the last commodity boom.
The deal will add to BHP’s copper exposure and raise its nickel prospects. It will bring in Oz Minerals’ Carapateena copper mine, close to BHP’s own Olympic Dam copper mine and smelting operations in South Australia.
Strategically it will also boost BHP’s nickel supply through Oz Minerals’ West Musgrave nickel project in Western Australia, where BHP is already producing nickel sulphate at its Nickel West operations. Its customers include Tesla.
The final regulatory hurdle is approval from the Federal Court of Australia, which is slated to rule on Monday, April 17. If the deal is approved as expected, Oz Minerals shares will be suspended on April 18.
Oz Minerals’ board had unanimously supported the bid.
($1 = 1.4930 Australian dollars)
(By Scott Murdoch and Melanie Burton; Editing by Alasdair Pal, Jacqueline Wong and Sonali Paul)
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