Barrick Gold Corporation

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The chief executives of Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp. are working to reach agreement on a critical joint-venture deal that could stave off a high-stakes takeover battle, but deep divisions remain between the world’s largest gold producers.

Barrick CEO Mark Bristow and Newmont CEO Gary Goldberg were scheduled to meet in New York on Tuesday evening to discuss terms of a possible joint venture (JV) at their adjacent Nevada mining operations, according to a source familiar with the talks who was not authorized to speak publicly. Major shareholders of both companies are urging executives to solve long-standing disagreements over the proposal.

Newmont on Monday rejected Barrick’s US$17.8-billion all-stock, zero premium takeover offer, and instead proposed a joint-venture agreement in Nevada between the two companies. Newmont proposed an ownership split of 55 per cent in favour of Barrick with both companies sharing management responsibilities.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/

After more than a week of tough talk firing back and forth, the leaders of the two biggest gold producers are finally coming to the table.

Newmont Mining Corp. Chief Executive Officer Gary Goldberg said he will be meeting with Barrick Gold Corp.’s Mark Bristow later Tuesday in New York to talk through their differences. However, he said in a Bloomberg TV interview that he won’t be discussing Barrick’s bid for his company, but rather Newmont’s proposal for a joint venture around the two companies’ assets in Nevada.

Goldberg said he heard from Bristow earlier and that “I’m looking forward to catching up with him later today here in New York. This will be the discussion on the joint venture with what we proposed yesterday.’’ Barrick spokeswoman Kathy du Plessis didn’t immediately have a comment.

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold’s lunge for Newmont Mining has officially gone hostile, extremely so, with Newmont formally rejecting the Canadian company’s US$17.8-billion offer and blasting its executive chairman, John Thornton, for shabby performance. But this is not the end of the story – don’t count Barrick out just yet.

On Monday, as expected, Newmont, America’s biggest gold company, told Barrick to hit the road. Its all-share, nil-premium offer, revealed on Feb. 25, was a non-starter, Newmont said in its presentation, arguing that Newmont’s proposed US$10-billion takeover of Vancouver’s Goldcorp was less risky and would create ample value for shareholders.

Newmont and its CEO, Gary Goldberg, lashed out at both Mr. Thornton and Barrick CEO Mark Bristow, though it was Mr. Thornton, the former Goldman Sachs boss who replaced the late Peter Munk as Barrick chairman in 2014, who took the most criticism.

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https://business.financialpost.com/

Newmont Mining Corp. officially rejected a US$17.8 billion hostile bid from Barrick Gold Corp. on Monday, and its chief executive Gary Goldberg went on the offensive.

In a call with investors and an interview with the Financial Post, Goldberg questioned why Barrick has not issued guidance beyond 2019, and suggested the company’s assets are in worse shape than has been publicly disclosed.

“Barrick has a problem and that’s why they need to push this,” he told the Financial Post. The bid by Barrick, which represents an eight per cent discount to the value of Newmont’s shares on the day it was proposed, has the potential to reshape the gold mining industry by creating an estimated US$42 billion company — which would be multiple times larger than its next nearest competitor.

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https://business.financialpost.com/

His company wants nothing to do with the merger mania suddenly sweeping the gold mining sector

Speaking to a packed house on Sunday at the Prospectors and Developers Association Conference in downtown Toronto, Sean Boyd, chief executive of Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd., delivered a simple message: His company wants nothing to do with the merger mania suddenly sweeping the gold mining sector.

“The recent M&A is just competitive positioning among the biggest players in this business — not wanting to be left behind,” Boyd told a room of several hundred people.

The comments came as tens of thousands of mining investors and executives flock to Toronto for a conference that runs through Wednesday and has historically provided an opportunity for dealmaking, and for reflection on industry trends.

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Many people have described Barrick Gold Corp.’s hostile takeover offer for Newmont Mining Corp. as audacious. A better word might be “unnecessary.”

Unnecessary, that is, from an investor’s perspective. A successful bid would no doubt do wonders for the compensation of Barrick executives, who would wind up running the biggest gold company in the world by far.

However, a tie-up between Barrick and Newmont would do relatively little for gold lovers, who can already target all the precious-metals exposure they want through other channels.

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold just traipsed into a potentially nasty battle short of ammunition.

On Monday morning, John Thornton, Barrick’s executive chairman, and CEO Mark Bristow unveiled a nil-premium, all-share offer for Colorado’s Newmont Mining. Hostile offers generally come with juicy premiums or else they don’t work, and this bid is already not working.

Were it to succeed, the audacious bid, which comes shortly after both companies announced transformative mergers of their own, would unite the two biggest names in gold mining, creating a colossus with gold operations on four continents, annual revenue of US$15.6-billion and trading liquidity that, to use Barrick’s politically incorrect term, would “dwarf” the competition.

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https://business.financialpost.com/

Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp. executives used to claim that unlike other companies in the precious metals industry, they would never make acquisitions to grow their footprint and size.

But on Monday after proposing a nearly $18-billion takeover of Colorado-based Newmont Mining Corp. — a deal that if consummated would create the world’s largest gold producer, with an estimated $42-billion market cap, by a distance — Barrick chief executive Mark Bristow acknowledged that being large is critical.

“The point is we really want to attract generalists back into the industry,” Bristow said on the conference call with investors. “We want to be relevant and we think that $40 billion is relevant.”

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. is offering to buy Newmont Mining Corp. in an unsolicited, all-share, no-premium transaction, claiming it is a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to create an ‘unrivalled leader” in the global gold sector.

In a statement before markets opened on Monday, Barrick said it is offering 2.5694 shares for each Newmont share in a deal worth approximately US$17.8-billion.

Toronto-based Barrick says its proposal is far superior to Newmont’s US$10-billion offer to buy Goldcorp Inc., which was announced last month but hasn’t yet closed.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/

Barrick Gold Corp. is going hostile in its bid to acquire Newmont Mining Corp. and create the world’s largest gold producer, offering $17.8 billion for the company in an all-share deal. Shares of both companies tumbled.

The proposed purchase, which is a discount to Newmont’s closing price on Friday, raises the potential for a three-way fight between some of the world’s largest gold miners. Newmont said its board would review the deal but made clear its previously announced plan to take over Goldcorp Inc. offers better benefits.

“Newmont has previously determined that Barrick’s risk and return profile is inferior on many fronts, including factoring Barrick’s comparatively ineffective operating model, poor track record on delivering shareholder returns and unfavorable jurisdictional risk,” the Colorado-based company said in a statement Monday.

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A hostile bid for Newmont Mining Corp. may force its shareholders into a tough decision: proceed with plans to acquire and turn around an industry laggard, or be swallowed by a long-standing rival.

Barrick Gold Corp. confirmed Friday that it has examined an all-stock takeover offer to acquire Colorado-based Newmont. Toronto-based Barrick said the bid it was contemplating would not contain a takeover premium, but the news sent Newmont shares 3 per cent higher, indicating some investors believe a formal offer will come.

The Globe and Mail reported Thursday that Barrick is mulling a US$19-billion takeover of Newmont that would involve the company flipping some Newmont assets to another company, possibly Australia’s Newcrest Mining. Bloomberg also reported Thursday night that Barrick had studied a bid.

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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The marriage of Toronto’s Barrick Gold and Denver’s Newmont Mining, the two big beasts of the gold world, should have happened a long time ago. The theoretical deal made perfect sense because combining their properties in Nevada could save fortunes, all the better to reward shareholders.

And since the top mining companies tend to be run by egomaniacs obsessed with size, the union would come with bragging rights. Barrick-Newmont would bury the competition.

Mark Bristow, the new chief executive of Barrick, has revived the idea of a blockbuster Barrick-Newmont merger. If there is any executive in the mining industry who could pull off such a stunt, it is him. He has the chutzpah and his track record of superb value creation at his old haunt – Randgold Resources, which Barrick bought last year – might ensure the support of investors.

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