TORONTO - On May 15, Swiss miner XSTRATA raised its bid for Canadas LIONORE MINING INTERNATIONAL to $25.00/share. This move came in response to last weeks announcement that the Russian nickel producer, NORILSK NICKEL, had offered $21.50/share, three-dollars over Xstratas original offer made at the end of March 2007.
The LionOre-Xstrata deal has been promoted as a friendly takeover, and the LionOre board continues to publicly favour it. The increased Xstrata offer values LionOre at $6.2 billion. (see also www.LionOre.com)
Norilsk, predictably, finds fault with the latest Xstrata offer. Norilsk points out that a break fee of over $300 million represents 4.9% of the deals value and is unreasonably high. The company will continue to seek the necessary regulatory approvals until its offer expires on July 18, 2007. (see also www.Norilsk.ru/en/)
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