Silver Lake may have come in with a higher offer, but St Barbara is still determined to sell its Leonora assets to Genesis Minerals.
After Genesis increased the scrip component of its bid for the Western Australian mine to $604 million on May 16, Silver Lake came back with a counter offer of $722 million.
However, in an announcement to the ASX, St Barbara said that the sale of Leonora to Genesis remains on track for June 30.
“The binding Genesis transaction is fully and definitively documented, fully funded by a committed $400 million capital raising, not subject to due diligence, supported by a $25 million deposit and has received indications of support from 49 per cent of Genesis’ register,” St Barbara chair Kerry Gleeson said.
“Silver Lake’s latest proposal would still require termination of the binding Genesis transaction before the satisfaction of conditions attached to the Silver Lake proposal, including a Silver Lake shareholder vote.
“Silver Lake was given the opportunity to make a non-binding indicative offer in September last year and it did not do so.
“Instead Silver Lake has waited until the eleventh hour to demand that St Barbara entertain a disruptive and unrealistic two week due diligence exercise without any indication that Silver Lake shareholders would ever approve the proposal themselves.”
The Genesis bid is estimated to be $650 million, including approximately 10 per cent of the net after-tax value of the consideration and approximately 5 per cent above the net after-tax value.
If St Barbara chooses to take the Silver Lake offer over Genesis’, it stands to lose the $400 million Genesis capital raising.