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Aurum Resources (ASX:AUE) has put forward a fairly blunt proposition to shareholders of takeover target Mako Gold (ASX:MKG): We already own 86.77% and have installed directors – accept our offer or “risk… being minority shareholders.”
While both companies are microcaps (or smallcaps at best), it’s hard to misinterpret the statement from Aurum on Thursday. It feels a bit like a checkmate.
Aurum is clearly keen to notch a 90% ownership of Mako Gold, which would legally require it to acquire the latter. The board want this and has offered Mako holders a final deal.
“Should Aurum acquire 90% of Mako, it intends to proceed to compulsory acquisition of the remaining Mako shares and have Mako removed from the ASX,” Aurum stated on Thursday.
“In the event that you do not accept the offer and your Mako shares are compulsorily acquired by Aurum, your receipt of bid consideration will be delayed relative to accepting the offer.”
The offer is one Aurum share (33c) for every 25.1 Mako shares (1.4c) – a slight premium to be sure. At one point, the premium was 112% when Aurum chased after Mako last year, then worth an eighth of a cent.
Aurum wants Mako’s assets in West Africa where it is also based – a jurisdiction I once covered in a feature report last year, suggesting the place was becoming safer for miners, and which then proceeded to prove the opposite.
The Sahel region is not, it turns out, okay. But that’s beside the point.
Mako’s project on the Ivory Coast is near Aurum’s existing project and the latter would like to expand the overall size of its acreage.
The company has previously noted its project straddles the same greenstone belt underpinning Resolute Mining (ASX:RSG) assets, which hopefully doesn’t prove to be a bad omen for the liberty of either executive team.
AUE last traded at 33cps.
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