Calibre Mining shares jumped to their highest price in 13 years after Equinox Gold sweetened its takeover offer for the Canadian gold producer hours before investors were to vote on the deal.
Shares of the Vancouver-based firm rose as much as 7.4% to C$3.36 in Toronto on Thursday, edging past the value of Equinox Gold’s revised all-stock offer that was announced in a Wednesday evening statement. Equinox Gold rose as much as 2.8%.
Equinox Gold is now offering 0.35 of its stock for each Calibre share, giving the transaction an equity value of about C$2.82 billion, according to calculations by Bloomberg.
The amended offer came less than 24 hours before Equinox and Calibre shareholders were scheduled to vote on the initial offer from February. That deal received pushback from top Calibre shareholder Van Eck Associates, which said in March that the proposal “dilutes the quality and potential” of the metals producer. Both companies have postponed their shareholder meetings to vote on the offer to May 1.
Equinox Gold first agreed to buy Calibre two months ago in a bid to boost production of the precious metal and consolidate assets across the Americas. The Vancouver-based company operates gold mines in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and the US, while Calibre runs mines in the US and Nicaragua.