By Ambar Warrick
Investing.com -- Shares of Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM), Australia’s largest gold miner, rallied sharply on Monday after the firm received a $16.9 billion takeover offer from global peer Newmont Corp (NYSE:NEM), its second such approach in recent months.
Newcrest’s shares jumped 10.4% to A$24.790, their highest level in eight months. The firm said in a statement that Newmont offered 0.380 of its shares for each Newcrest share, amounting to about A$27.16 (A$1 = $0.6942) per share, or a 21% premium to Newcrest’s last close.
The offer follows an earlier approach by Newmont for the Australian gold miner, where it had offered 0.363 Newmont shares per Newcrest stock. The offer was rejected on the grounds that it "would not deliver sufficiently compelling value to Newcrest shareholders.”
The Newcrest board said it is now considering Newmont’s new offer. The bid comes at a time when the Australian gold miner is embarking on big changes, including the search for a new chief executive, as well as the expansion of its flagship Cadia project in New South Wales.
Newcrest also recently approved expansions at its projects in Western Australia and Papua New Guinea.
The Newmont offer helped Newcrest shares duck recent weakness in gold markets. Spot gold logged its worst week in seven months after stronger-than-expected U.S. labor data pushed up fears of more interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
But the gold miner is expected to have benefited from a three-month run-up in gold prices, as the yellow metal bounced back sharply from 2022 lows.
A recovery in copper prices, on hopes of resurgent Chinese demand, is also expected to have boosted Newcrest’s bottom line.
The firm is set to release its earnings for the six months to December 31 next week. It recently reiterated its 2023 production guidance of 2.1 million to 2.4 million ounces.