Vault Minerals Ltd (ASX: VAU) shares are charging higher today following an unsolicited binding takeover proposal from fellow S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) gold stock Genesis Minerals Ltd (ASX: GMD).
Vault Minerals shares closed on Friday trading for $4.56. In early morning trade on Monday, shares are changing hands for $5.05 apiece, up 10.8%.
For some context, the ASX 200 is down 0.2% at this same time, while Genesis Minerals shares are down 6.7% on the news, trading for $5.87 each.
Here's what's happening.
Image source: Getty Images
Vault Minerals shares leap on superior $5.6 billion takeover offer
As you may recall, it was only back on 5 May that Vault Minerals announced its intentions to merge with Regis Resources Ltd (ASX: RRL).
(If you're wondering, Regis Resources shares are up 0.5% today, trading for $6.66 each.)
Under what was labelled a "merger-of-equals", Regis was planning to acquire 100% of Vault Minerals shares. Vault stockholders would then receive 0.6947 new Regis Resources shares in exchange for their Vault shares.
Commenting on the proposed Regis Resources merger on the day, Vault Minerals CEO Luke Tonkin said:
Vault's portfolio, anchored by the King of the Hills operation currently undergoing a significant mill expansion, brings long-life, high-quality assets and a strong financial position to the merger.
By combining these strengths with Regis' proven operational and exploration capability, the merged company is better positioned to deliver sustained production, enhanced reserve replacement and long-term value creation across gold price cycles.
But Genesis Minerals may have thrown a spanner into those plans with a superior takeover offer that was announced this morning.
Under the proposed scheme of arrangement, Vault Minerals shareholders will receive 0.7629 new ordinary shares in Genesis plus 47.5 cents in cash for every Vault share they hold.
The improved takeover offer values Vault at $5.274 per share, or $5.6 billion, based on the Genesis share price at market close on Friday.
That's 15.7% above Friday's closing price for Vault Minerals shares. And it represents a 14.5% improvement on the implied offer price from Regis Resources' takeover offer.
Commenting on the improved takeover offer, the Vault board noted:
In accordance with the Regis SID, Vault has notified Regis that it considers the Genesis Proposal to be a Vault Superior Proposal for the purposes of the Regis SID and that the five business day matching right period has commenced.
During this matching right period, Regis has the right (but not the obligation) to announce or provide a matching or superior proposal to the Genesis Proposal.
Stay tuned!
