Gold miner Centamin (CEY) has announced that Endeavour Mining (CAN:EDV) has pulled its takeover offer on the day of the deadline for a final bid.
The two companies have already put out competing narratives around the end of talks, however. Endeavour said Centamin had not been forthcoming enough with its operational data and so it could not make a formal offer. Centamin said the “possible offer” was not good enough.
The first offer, announced in December, was an all-share tie-up that would have given Endeavour 53 per cent of the combined company. At the time, the Sukari owner said this was a bad deal and has stuck to that line after due diligence. A further extension would not have helped get a deal over the line, Centamin said. Endeavour chief executive Sebastien de Montessus said Centamin was to blame for the collapse of talks.
“The quality of information received during the accelerated due diligence process has been insufficient to allow us to be confident that proceeding with a firm offer would have been in the best interests of Endeavour shareholders,” he said.
Centamin also announced on Tuesday a final dividend for 2019 of 6c (4.6p) a share, bringing the total dividend to 10c. It said last week that its production was much improved in the three months to 31 December, taking 2019’s total production to 480,529 ounces (oz).
