BHP terminates support agreement with Noront after withdrawing offer
BHP Group Limited NPV (DI)
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16:55 19/04/24
BHP’s wholly-owned subsidiary BHP Lonsdale Investments announced the termination of the support agreement itself, its subsidiary BHP Western Mining Resources (WMR) and Noront Resources on Thursday.
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The FTSE 100 mining giant said the agreement related to Noront's support of BHP Lonsdale's 75 Canadian cents per share offer to acquire Noront.
It came two days after BHP Lonsdale said it would not increase or extend its offer for Noront Resources to match a proposal from Wyloo Metals.
The Noront board had determined that the proposal from Wyloo for CAD 1.10 in cash per share was a “superior proposal” under the support agreement between Noront, BHP Lonsdale and BHP WMR, and as a result BHP Lonsdale had the right to match Wyloo's proposal.
BHP Lonsdale said on Tuesday that it had decided not to match that proposal.
In accordance with the terms of the support agreement, Noront had made a CAD 17.78m termination payment.
“BHP is committed to its strict capital discipline framework,” said BHP chief development officer Johan van Jaarsveld at the time BHP chose not to match Wyloo’s offer.
“While the Eagle's Nest deposit is a promising resource, we do not see adequate long-term value for BHP shareholders to support an increase in BHP's offer in order to match the CAD 1.10 per share proposal from Wyloo Metals Pty.”
At 0942 GMT, shares in BHP Group were down 0.09% in London at 2,182.5p.