Spartan Resources shares soar on Ramelius merger
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More news: Spartan Resources shares rocketed in morning trade after the gold miner's board unanimously recommended that its shareholders vote in favour of a buyout by ASX rival Ramelius Resources.
Spartan shares were up 8.6% to $1.74 at 10:45am AEDT, extending gains of more than 20% over the last 12 months. Ramelius shares lowered 1.1% to $2.18, having advanced over 35% during the past year.
Ramelius Resources to merge with Spartan Resources
The news: Gold miners Ramelius Resources and Spartan Resources have entered into a binding transaction implementation deed, which would see Ramelius acquire all the shares in its smaller rival that it does not already own.
The numbers: Ramelius will pay 25 cents in cash and 0.6957 Ramelius shares for each Spartan share, with an implied value of $1.78 per Spartan share.
The agreement values Spartan at around $2.4 billion and represents a premium of 11.3% to Spartan's last closing price of $1.60 on Friday.
Spartan shareholders — excluding Ramelius which holds an existing 19.9% interest in the miner — would own 39.5% of the combined group.
The context: Spartan's board has unanimously recommended that its shareholders vote in favour of the deal.
Under the proposed agreement, Spartan's executive chairman Simon Lawson would join the Ramelius board as non-executive deputy char.
The source: ASX
