Ann: Response to media speculation - Western Areas, page-2

A fairly detailed story in the AFR ‘street talk’ column yesterday on a pending bid by IGO  (before Christmas?) for WSA seems to have warmed up the price at WSA (currently up around 5% ) and thrown a few ice cubes at IGO (back under $10).

Peter Bradford’s announcement above says ‘no comment’ on the media speculation and that the company is still officially in due diligence.

Here’s the story - which was also picked up by Business News -  for those who may have missed it.
Apart from refreshing the rumour,  the main points seem to be the $1b price tag which the AFR team thinks IGO wants to pay in scrip is consistent, and more comment re IGO’s especial focus on the Odysseus mine. (WSA raised $100m to progress this mine at $2.15 per share back in March of this year [ref] and [ref].

cheers

https://www.afr. com/street-talk/signs-of-life-in-igo-s-bid-for-western-areas-20211206-p59f2j

Signs of life in IGO’s bid for Western Areas
Anthony Macdonald, Yolanda Redrup and Kanika Sood
Dec 6, 2021 – 9.34pm

There are signs of life in IGO’s $1 billion odd bid for nickel miner Western Areas.

IGO managing director and chief executive Peter Bradford.  Peter de Kruijff
To recap, IGO lobbed a scrip-based deal in mid-August, won due diligence a month later and as at mid-November both companies’ chairs did not have much to report on the offer’s progress at their annual general meetings (AGMs).
In all, shareholders in both companies have now waited for nearly four months for IGO to make a binding offer.
Street Talk hears both camps have renewed their efforts in recent weeks, as they push to get it done before the holidays.

IGO is still understood to be keen on Western Areas, even though the two companies are taking their sweet time in reaching an agreement. IGO mines lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper, while Western Areas is focused on nickel.
Some watchers expected IGO and Western Areas to break the silence in a week or so.

But then again, if the share prices are anything to go by, that’s what the market has been expecting for a few weeks now. (Western Areas shares have climbed over 19 per cent from $2.48 before the bid to $2.96 at Monday’s close).

The big question now is what will IGO’s binding offer look like. Western Areas is understood to have needed some warming up to the idea of an all/mostly scrip and low/no cash offer.

IGO’s was expected to take a closer look at Western Areas’ new Odysseus mine during the due diligence.
Odysseus is slated to produce its first nickel concentrate next year, and fits the production profile of IGO’s maturing Nova asset.