20/08/07: Meridian Gold rejects new Yamana offer
Yamana Gold has today been rocked by news that the board of directors at Meridian Gold has advised shareholders to reject an amended offer.
The revised offer by Yamana "still falls short", according to the chairman of Merdian Gold's board of directors.
"Given the lack of any meaningful improvement in the offer, the board continues to believe that holding Meridian shares is preferable to accepting the inadequate Yamana offer," he added.
Yamana had increased the cash portion of the consideration by C$0.85 per share, but Meridian has today insisted that this represents "only a 2.9 per cent increase in the total consideration".
Ed Dowling, Meridian Gold's president and chief executive officer, added: "Meridian Gold continues to build on its highly successful track record of discovering, developing and operating gold mines. I am extremely proud of the way our people have maintained their focus on execution of our core strategy of organic growth.
"Yamana's amended offer simply fails to adequately compensate Meridian Gold shareholders for our exploration, development and operating success, our world-class asset quality and our future growth potential."
With world-renowned mining operations in both Chile and Nevada and several development and exploration projects across the Americas, Meridian aims to be a one million ounce per year gold producer.