An end finally to the protracted takeover battle for control of CBH Resources?
The company’s largest shareholder, Toho Zinc of Japan and rival, Nyrstar of Belgium have been trading differently framed bids at CBH for the best part of five months.
Toho’s is in effect conditional (it wants a large minority stake and is already the biggest shareholder) and Nyrstar is bidding for all the company.
Yesterday CBH Resources Ltd told the ASX that it was now recommending a takeover bid from Toho Zinc.
Under the Toho offer CBH shareholders will receive 24c per CBH share and $1,000 cash per CBH convertible note.
The news saw the shares jump to 23c, up 2.5c or more than 12%.
"A committee of CBH directors independent of Toho … unanimously recommends the Toho offer, subject to no superior proposal emerging," CBH said in a statement.
The Toho offer is subject to a 90% minimum acceptance of shares and approvals from government agencies.
Toho already owns 24.1% of CBH.
Toho had earlier made a proportional takeover bid for CBH at 30c per share, to boost its stake to a maximum of 49.9%.
CBH CEO, Stephen Dennis, said in the statement: “This offer from CBH’s major shareholder, Toho, is very attractive for CBH shareholders, particularly when compared to previous proposals received recently by the Company. It is particularly noteworthy that the Toho Offer is above the Independent Expert’s valuation range of $0.187 to $0.232 per share."
Nyrstar sought to acquire almost $100 million worth of CBH’s convertible notes and all its ordinary shares for 19.5c a share, valuing the company at about $310 million.
The Toho bid valued CBH at about $361.5 million.
CBH said it was Toho’s present intention to serve its bidder’s statement as soon as practicable.
Shares in iron ore producer Atlas Iron went into a trading halt ahead of the announcement of a capital raising.
Aurox Resources, which Atlas recently agreed to takeover in a scrip bid, also entered a trading halt, in view of the likely merger.
"Atlas Iron Ltd requests that a trading halt be put on its securities immediately pending an announcement to the market regarding a capital raising," Atlas told the ASX in a statement yesterday.
Shares in Atlas last traded at $2.69, while Aurox shares last closed at 87c.
Under a takeover bid announced last month, Aurox shareholders will receive one Atlas share for every three Aurox shares held.
That valued the bid at about $143 million.
Brokers say Atlas has a number of projects in the pipeline that may require an injection of capital.
It is seeking to start mining its Wodgina iron ore project in the second quarter of calendar 2010, with shipments of ore starting later in the year.
Atlas is also aiming to ramp up production from its Pardoo mine from 1.2 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 2.4mtpa in the third quarter of 2010.
That was revealed in an operations update in early April.
Both the Pardoo and Wodgina projects are located near Port Hedland in Western Australia’s Pilbara.
And the Bank of Queensland has finally confirmed the details of its much mooted purchase of the Australian and New Zealand operations of New York-based CIT Group which went into bankruptcy late last year and emerged in late December.
BOQ said yesterday that it will acquire CIT Group (Australia) and CIT Group (New Zealand), together known as CIT ANZ, under a deal struck with CIT Group.
The purchase is to be completed in the current quarter.
CIT ANZ provides finance for vendor equipment in the IT, office, motorcycle and power equipment markets.
BOQ said the acquisition represented about 15% of its $3.4 billion equipment finance book.
CIT Group Australia had $525 million in assets and 125 employees at December 31.
"We see significant growth in the vendor finance market and this acquisition provides an ideal growth platform for BoQ," the bank’s CEO, David Liddy, said in the statement.
"The CIT ANZ business has a reputable track record in the domestic market and will complement BOQ’s current core competencies in the equipment finance market."
CIT ANZ will continue to operate as a stand-alone business under the ownership of BOQ, he said.
BOQ shares eased 3c to 412.72 yesterday.
