By Samantha James
EVOLUTION Mining has completed its takeover of Phoenix Gold after months of negotiations.
The company made an initial bid for Phoenix in mid-August 2015 as a counter-offer to an unsolicited, conditional off-market offer made by Zijin Mining Group in late June.
By this time Evolution had purchased 19.8 per cent of Phoenix’s shares, making it the company’s largest shareholder.
Both Zijin and Evolution’s offers were rejected as inadequate, despite Evolution’s 20 per cent premium on Zijin’s offer price of $0.10 per Phoenix share.
Negotiations with Evolution continued and in November Phoenix announced a recommended transaction “acknowledging the likelihood that Evolution [would] imminently gain control of Phoenix”.
The revised offer comprised cash and shares, with total consideration increased to $0.16 per share.
The offer closed at the end of December 2015 and Phoenix was delisted from the ASX in early January 2016.
The transaction was a strategic move for Evolution, which completed the takeover of La Mancha International’s WA operations – including the Mungari processing plant, the Frog Leg’s underground mine and the White Foil open pit – in August 2015.
Phoenix’s gold tenement package adjoins the La Mancha projects and would add a further 3.8 million ounces of gold resources to Evolution’s portfolio.
