Barrick Gold Corporation – Page 43

Peter Munk says he’s leaving Barrick Gold in good hands – by Lisa Wright (Toronto Star – May 1, 2014)

May 1, 2014

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Outgoing founder and chairman praises management team and new board chair amid tough times in the gold industry in emotional farewell at annual meeting.

Gone, but definitely not forgotten. That was the tone of Barrick Gold Corp.’s annual meeting in Toronto Wednesday, which marked the emotional farewell of outgoing chairman and founder Peter Munk, and the release of dismal first quarter financial results amid the lacklustre gold price.

The auditorium was filled with the requisite Bay St. suits and shareholders while the annual group of environmental protesters outside hoisted a 15-foot Munk puppet and waved signs like “Gold is a toxic asset” to mark the 86-year-old’s departure.

But it was really Munk’s show, in which he made a farewell speech that drew laughs, hugs, kisses and a standing ovation for his 30 years at the helm of the firm that began as a penny stock with one mine in Northern Ontario to the world’s largest gold miner.

“As much as we’d like to believe we are eternal, the reality hits home,” he said. “The time has come to hand it over.”

Gold giants’ merger falls apart as Barrick-Newmont spat goes public – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – April 29, 2014)

April 30, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

A spat between Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp. erupted into a public war of words, with the companies accusing each other of ruining their $13-billion (U.S.) merger.

Barrick said its American rival reneged on their deal and tried to change key provisions, including the location of the head office in Toronto. Newmont disagreed with Barrick’s version and faulted the Canadian company’s incoming chairman John Thornton for not being constructive.

Over the years, the world’s two largest gold producers have made several attempts to unite and cut expenses in Nevada, where they both own multiple mines. The slump in the gold industry fuelled their latest merger ambitions, with the companies identifying about $1-billion in cost savings.

But they ultimately could not overcome two decades of personality clashes and cultural differences, which exploded into the public domain on Monday and likely killed any future merger discussions.

Peter Munk’s career comes to end as Newmont firestorm envelops Barrick – Peter Koven (National Post – April 29, 2014)

April 30, 2014

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

It wouldn’t be in Peter Munk’s nature to go out quietly. But no one expected this.

As Mr. Munk, 86, officially retires at Barrick Gold Corp.’s annual meeting on Wednesday, he does so in the midst of an appalling public feud between Barrick and Newmont Mining Corp., which went from eager merger partners to mortal enemies in a matter of days. It will take years to rebuild the bridges between these companies, if indeed that ever happens.

Mr. Munk was not closely involved in the Newmont negotiations — he left that to his hand-picked successor John Thornton. But he still found a way to stick himself in the middle of the dispute. In a detailed interview with the Financial Post last week, just as talks were collapsing, he ripped Newmont’s corporate culture and said the company is “not shareholder friendly.” Newmont was not amused.

Remarkably, that was one of the less incendiary things Mr. Munk said about his U.S. rival over a lengthy conversation that touched on many aspects of his career. He has always spoken his mind and never worried too much about what people think of it. But as his time in Canadian business comes to a close, he was even more candid, thought-provoking and entertaining than usual.

For example, if Newmont didn’t like the “not shareholder friendly” line, it certainly won’t appreciate his description of how Barrick found its flagship gold mine and became the dominant player in Nevada:

Barrick needs a deal maker, not a deal breaker – by Boyd Erman (Globe and Mail – April 29, 2014)

April 30, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Barrick Gold Corp. co-chairman John Thornton has laid out a vision for creating a diversified miner – a vision that is going to be more difficult to realize after a nasty end to talks in his first major transaction.

Mr. Thornton has stated he wants Barrick to be a leader “in a range of minerals.” To do that, he is going to have to be a buyer, adding companies that produce other metals to complement Barrick’s output of gold and copper. So it’s all the more problematic that would-be merger partner Newmont Mining Corp. singled out Mr. Thornton as a particular obstacle to getting a deal done. Even if it’s not true (and it’s hard to know what is fact in any such situation), the statement is out there now and will be attached to Mr. Thornton’s name.

Negotiations break down all the time, between all types of companies. But rarely do supposedly secret talks spill into the public sphere quite so comprehensively as they have in the past week, as seemingly every detail of the talks between Barrick and Newmont landed in the press. Since the first reports that merger talks between the two had hit a snag, the premium, the timing, the consideration, the executive structure and other key terms all made their way to the press even though neither side ever publicly confirmed the negotiations.

Barrick-Newmont merger collapses into toxic war of words – by Peter Koven (National Post – April 29, 2014)

April 29, 2014

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

TORONTO — A much-anticipated merger between Barrick Gold Corp. and Newmont Mining Corp. has collapsed into a toxic public feud between leaders of the two firms that simply could not get along.

Talks between the two companies are finished, and sources said there is no chance they will start again anytime soon. That is bad news for shareholders, who stood to benefit if the miners combined their highly complementary Nevada operations.

It would have been the biggest deal in the history of the gold mining sector. Its failure demonstrates that clashing personalities can destroy a transaction that seemingly makes sense in every other way.

The two firms have tried to merge numerous times over the years, but personality clashes got in the way each time. This time was no different, though this was as close as they ever got to a deal. Newmont initiated the latest round of negotiations.

“They’re like two kids in the sandbox,” said John Ing, president and gold analyst at Maison Placements Canada. “The logic of the merger is there, but when you get down to board seats and personalities, it’s a different kettle of fish.”

COMMENT: Newmont, Barrick talks dead -by Marilyn Scales (Canadian Mining Journal – April 28, 2014)

April 29, 2014

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

Even when a merger is no longer on the horizon, the two sides still disagree. Such is the case as Toronto’s Barrick Gold issued a terse press release this morning to say that talks of a merger with Newmont Mining of Denver have been terminated at Newmont’s request.

That might have been the end of it, but Newmont released the text of an April 25, 2014, letter from chairman Vincent A. Calarco to Barrick co-chair John L. Thornton. Newmont said it had been hopeful that the two companies could merge and realize their combined strengths. However, over recent weeks the talks had become adversarial rather than oriented toward a mutually beneficial partnership.

“Our board,” wrote Calarco, “has met a number of times since we were twice told definitively last Thursday by your co-chairman that the process in which we had been engaged to find a basis to merge our two companies was ‘dead’. As you would expect, that unilateral declaration made us question whether we actually shared the vision and values that are necessary to forge a successful new company.”

Unsaid, but understood, is that Newmont is pointing the finger at Thornton.

The meaning of Peter Munk – by Peter C. Newman (MACLEAN’S Magazine – April 28, 2014)

April 29, 2014

http://www.macleans.ca/

As the notorious magnate leaves Barrick Gold, Peter C. Newman contemplates his rise, fall, and what’s next

With Peter Munk about to abandon his chairmanship of the Barrick mining empire at next week’s annual meeting in Toronto, it seems only appropriate to dwell on his fall from grace. From being the invincible king of international gold mining, the pride of Canada’s business tycoonery, the talented Mr. Munk finds himself accused of having moved too far, too fast, at too high a cost—¬leaving his company stuck with a tricky salvage operation.

But that is not the guts of the story, not the sum total of this remarkable mega-entrepreneur’s long journey from his aristocratic Hungarian background to at least three excursions into commercial glory. That sequence of initiatives climaxed in his successful run as the world’s champion gold magnate, who until the past three years could do no wrong. The dramatic reversal of his standing on Bay Street brought into play British explorer George Leigh Mallory’s 1924 comment about Mount Everest. When asked why he risked his life climbing the mountain, he famously replied: “Because it’s there.” Sixty-four years later, on Sept. 29, 1988, when Stacy Allison became the first American woman to conquer the great peak, was asked the same question, she smiled and shot back: “Cause I’m here!”

That’s the essence of Peter Munk, explained in three words: ¬the optimistic, fast-action guy, convinced that everything he touched would turn to gold. For most of the past five decades that was pretty well what happened. His company was flying high and he dominated its annual shareholders’ meetings, rhetorically armed to meet any challenge. It was at these public performances that he shifted into high gear, using messianic hand gestures and commanding body language. Inevitably, he won over his audiences.

Barrick Gold says Newmont Mining ends merger talks – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – April 28, 2014)

April 28, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Barrick Gold Corp. said on Monday that Newmont Mining Corp. has decided to end their merger talks, a development that could lead Barrick to launch a hostile bid for its American rival.

The Toronto-based Barrick had been trying to renew talks with Colorado-headquartered Newmont last week, a source had said. But Newmont’s board of directors decided to “terminate” their discussions, Barrick said.

“Although Barrick believes the interests of shareholders are best served through the completion of this business combination, Newmont’s board has determined that the interests of Newmont’s shareholders are best served by remaining independent,” Barrick said in a statement. Newmont had no immediate comment.

The companies, the world’s two largest gold producers, have discussed merging at least two other times over the last two decades.

The rout in the gold industry led to their recent discussions, with the miners identifying about $1-billion in cost savings.

Behind Barrick’s meltdown in the Atacama desert – by Stepanie Nolen (Globe and Mail – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

In the violet light of a February Sunday afternoon, Padre Nelson Barrientos led his flock along the road that winds up Chile’s Huasco River Valley. The congregation of Our Lady of Lourdes of Conay was conveying a new statue of the Blessed Virgin to its home in the parish church, nestled in the shadow of the Andes. A half-dozen young people in traditional indigenous costumes—feathers, beads—drummed and danced, and their parents and neighbours followed in the procession. The mayor, Carmen Bou, was there, walking arm-in-arm at the front with Alicia Páez Campillay, the wife of the man whom everyone calls the valley’s richest businessman.

Many of the other marchers wore jeans and work shirts that hinted at a life spent in vineyards and orchards. Making their way to the village, the mayor, the dancers, their parents and the priest scrabbled up the loose gravel of the hillside, past a road sign almost swallowed by shrubbery, pointing up the mountain. On it, faintly visible despite someone’s best efforts with a can of spray paint, were the words “Pascua Lama.”

The Virgin was installed in the tiny blue chapel. There was dancing, poems, and an offering of the valley’s fat green grapes. As dusk fell, the white-haired priest tugged off a sweaty cassock; he, too, wore a plaid shirt and jeans.

Barrick chair Peter Munk blasts Newmont’s company culture as miners struggle to reach deal – by Peter Koven (National Post – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

TORONTO – Barrick Gold Corp. chairman Peter Munk levelled a pointed criticism of Newmont Mining Corp. on Thursday, saying he has struggled to strike a merger with his U.S. rival because the company is extremely bureaucratic and not shareholder-friendly.

Mr. Munk, 86, hoped to reach a deal to buy Newmont before he officially retires at Barrick’s annual meeting next month. But Toronto-based Barrick has been frustrated over years of negotiations by what he calls “cultural differences.”

He said that Newmont is an extremely conservative and risk-averse company, which makes negotiations very difficult. As one example, he pointed out that Newmont shut reporters out of its annual meeting this week after news of the talks leaked. He said Barrick would never consider doing that.

“That’s the cultural difference. That’s the kind of people they are, and that’s why it’s so difficult to make a deal,” he said in an interview. “They are not shareholder-friendly.” Even though they operate next to each other in Nevada, Barrick and Newmont are like oil and water.

Barrick Gold Corp shareholders file class action suit over Pascua-Lama mine – by Drew Hasselback (National Post – April 25, 2014)

April 25, 2014

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Barrick Gold Corp. has been named in a proposed shareholders class action lawsuit that seeks $6-billion in damages because the company allegedly failed to make timely disclosure of problems at its Pascua-Lama mine in South America.

“Barrick misrepresented the progress and feasibility for development and production at the Pascua-Lama mine, repeatedly through the class period,” the plaintiffs allege in a notice of action filed Thursday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto.

Lawsuits in Ontario usually begin with the filing of a legal document called a statement of claim. Filing a notice of action officially launches the case, but also gives plaintiffs more time to follow up with more detailed allegations in the statement of claim.

The document filed Thursday contains allegations that have not been proven in court. “The company is aware that a notice of action has been filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Barrick disputes the allegations, and will defend itself against any lawsuit vigorously,” the company said in an emailed statement late Thursday.

Plaintiffs have filed similar securities class actions against Barrick over Pascua-Lama in the U.S. federal courts. The company has denied the allegations in the U.S. claims.

Peter Munk to leave Barrick Gold having seen its highs and lows – by James Wilson (Financial Times – April 24, 2014)

April 24, 2014

http://www.ft.com/home/us

Peter Munk started Barrick Gold with $40m of his own money in 1982, knowing not much about mining.

Now 86, and after more than 30 years in the gold business, Mr Munk still talks about Barrick having been the entrepreneurial “young upstart” for much of its life – but it became a company worth $50bn, a Canadian national champion built by a Hungarian-born refugee and the largest producer of gold in history.

Yet the past two years have been tough on Mr Munk, Barrick and the rest of the gold industry, particularly 2013, when Barrick posted $11.5bn of writedowns, cut its dividend and had to raise $3bn in equity to try to cut its debt.

“I would not have chosen this particular year as my final one as chairman, but I don’t get to write the script,” a chastened Mr Munk wrote in the company’s annual report. Barrick is now worth about $21bn.

Mr Munk also acknowledged the damage wrought by Barrick’s acquisition of Equinox Minerals in 2011. The unexpected diversification into copper came at an inflated price, for cash, and sparked doubts last year over Barrick’s debt levels and liquidity.

Barrick invites Newmont to restart merger talks – by Rachelle Younglai (Globe and Mail – April 24, 2014)

April 24, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Barrick Gold Corp. has formally asked Newmont Mining Corp. to resume merger talks after their negotiations hit an impasse late last week, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The North American-based gold miners had come close to agreeing on an all-stock deal, but their discussions broke down over which assets to spin out from the combined company, other sources have said.

The companies had aimed to make an announcement before their annual shareholder meetings this month. Colorado-based Newmont held its meeting in Delaware Wednesday morning, and Toronto-headquartered Barrick’s meeting is scheduled for April 30.

Barrick e-mailed the request to restart talks to Newmont, outlining the terms of their friendly proposal as well as issues that still must be resolved, according to the source familiar with what transpired.

Barrick’s Munk: Newmont Deal ’Always Made Sense’ (Bloomberg TV – April 23, 2014)

April 24, 2014

http://www.bloomberg.com/tv/ April 23 (Bloomberg) — Peter Munk, founder and chairman of Barrick Gold Corp., talks about a possible merger with Newmont Mining Corp., gold prices, and Barrick’s acquisition of Equinox Minerals Ltd. Munk speaks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers.” (Source: Bloomberg)