Goldcorp sweetens hostile Osisko bid to $3.6-billion – by Bertand Marotte and Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – April 10, 2014)

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MONTREAL/TORONO — Goldcorp Inc. is raising its hostile bid for Osisko Mining Corp. to $7.65 per share or $3.6-billion in an attempt to knock out a friendly deal between Osisko and Yamana Gold Inc.

Vancouver-based Goldcorp said on Thursday its offer now stands at 0.17 of a Goldcorp common share plus an increase in the cash portion of its offer to $2.92 for each Osisko share, from 0.146 and $2.26 respectively.

Goldcorp’s previous unsolicited bid was valued at about $6.30 per share. The agreement between Montreal-based Osisko, Yamana and two of Canada’s biggest pension funds is valued at $7.57 a share. The key asset Goldcorp is after is Osisko’s Canadian Malartic gold mine in northwestern Quebec.

Osisko chief executive officer Sean Roosen said Goldcorp’s offer is an improvement but does not sufficiently value Malartic’s potential. “It’s more respectful but it certainly doesn’t offer the same potency and the upside to Canadian Malartic that the Yamana-Osisko bid does,” he said in an interview.

“It’s basically at par without the upside of Canadian Malartic,” Mr. Roosen said before heading to Boston with Yamana’s chief executive to market their deal.

Goldcorp president and chief executive officer Chuck Jeannes said in a news release Thursday that his company’s sweetened offer “represents straightforward and superior value to Osisko shareholders, while ensuring accretion on key per-share metrics for Goldcorp shareholders.”

He will answer questions at an afternoon news conference in Toronto on Thursday.

Osisko will have to pay Yamana $70-million if Osisko ends up merging with Goldcorp or another rival.

When asked if Yamana and Osisko would try to top Goldcorp’s latest offer, Mr. Roosen said: “I don’t think either of us went into this to lose.”

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