Gold Fields Ltd has agreed to acquire Osisko Mining for C$2.16 billion ($1.57 billion), it said on Monday, barely two years after a rival offer scuppered an attempt to buy another Canadian miner.
The Johannesburg-based gold producer will pay C$4.90 per share, a 55% premium to Osisko’s Aug. 9 trading price, it said in a statement.
The deal will help the South African producer expand its presence in the Americas, where it already has mines in Chile and Peru.
Osisko shares soared 63% as trading opened in Toronto on Monday, while Gold Fields shares extended losses to trade 5.6% down at 1431 GMT, at their lowest since early July.
CEO Mike Fraser told Reuters that making a cash offer had helped Gold Fields move quickly and avoided a share dilution.
“We understand some of the competitors were attempting to…compete on a share-based transaction. They would have probably had to compete at a higher price.”
Gold Fields’ $6.7 billion all-share offer to buy Yamana Gold in 2022 failed after the Canadian miner backed a $4.8 billion cash and share bid from Agnico Eagle and Pan American Silver Corp.
Founded by Cecil John Rhodes in 1887, Gold Fields has shifted its focus to lucrative deposits in Ghana, Australia and the Americas given the geological challenges of digging in some of the world’s deepest mines in its home country.
It said Osisko’s projects in Quebec would help Gold Fields “firmly solidify” its footprint in one of the largest gold deposits in Canada.
Fraser said in an earlier statement that the deal would help Gold Fields take full control of the Windfall Project that it is already developing with Osisko in the province, with production is expected to start in 2026.
Osisko, which has recommended the deal to its shareholders, said Gold Fields was well suited to take the Windfall project into production.
The premium offered by the South African miner represents an early payout for Osisko investors and also reflects the potential of the Windfall project, Chairman and CEO John Burzynski said.
Still, advancing the Windfall project to production could add further execution and funding risk for Gold Fields, as it has been struggling to ramp up output at its new Salares Norte in Chile, said Arnold Van Graan, an analyst at Nedbank Group.
“We question whether a deal done when the gold price is pushing all-time highs would be value accretive in the long run,” Van Graan said in a note. “Windfall has all the hallmarks of a quality long-life asset, but the mine still needs to be funded and built.”
The deal will be funded from Gold Fields’ cash and un-drawn bank facilities with additional financing from a group of lenders.
Fraser said Gold Fields may consider selling assets such as Damang in Ghana and Cerro Corona in Peru, that are running out of commercially viable ore, though no final decision has been made yet.