OreCorp jumps 12.7% as board backs Silvercorp takeover offer

The news: OreCorp's board has thrown its weight behind a takeover offer from major shareholder Silvercorp, at the same price as an earlier scheme offer. The board's support has sent the gold-focused developer and explorer's price surging more than 12%.

The numbers: Silvercorp is offering 19 cents and 0.0967 Silvercorp shares per OreCorp share for the takeover, an implied value of $0.589 per share. OreCorp was trading around 51 cents on Friday, and today spiked 12.7% to $5.75 in early trading, where it has held steady since.

The context: A shareholder meeting to vote on the original scheme was postponed from early December to 18 January, but under the off-market takeover offer, Silvercorp needs only 50.1% acceptance for implementation. Perseus, which increased its OreCorp stake to 19.9% in early December, had intended to vote against the scheme. Silvercorp owned roughly 15.4% of OreCorp when it started positioning for the acquisition.