Nordgold completes High River Gold purchase
MOSCOW. March 13 (Interfax) - Nordgold has closed the purchase of High River Gold Mines from the minority shareholders of the Canadian company High River Gold Mines it controls, Nordgold said in a statement.
The terms of Nordgold's offer, which lasted until December 8, expected the company to offer minority shareholders in High River Gold to swap their shares at 0.285 of its GDR (global depositary receipts) or 1.4 Canadian dollars. Nordgold will pay around 174 million Canadian dollars to those shareholders who prefer to receive cash instead of Nordgold GDRs.
As compensation to High River shareholders that preferred GDR, Nordgold issued 68,996 new shares. Afterwards, its share capital consisted of 378,121,955 ordinary shares.
High River has also filed to have its stock delisted on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Nordgold is the former gold-mining subdivision of OJSC Severstal's resource division, which was spun off in January of last year. Its GDR trade on the London Stock Exchange. Nordgold's main beneficiary, with an 85.4% stake, is Alexei Mordashov. Free float is some 15% of shares.
Nordgold has nine active assets in four countries - Russia, Kazakhstan, Guinea, and Burkino-Faso, and a number of others in the development and prospecting stages.
