Marketset to unearth some golden mergers

From today's Australian.

All speculation but RMS mentioned.



Market set to unearth some golden mergers
A gold deal is believed to be in train, sources say.

It is understood that the corporate M&A activity relates to at least one of the small cap stocks in the sector.

Observers say there are a number of companies that need to expand, and an acquisition would make sense.

Some have been pointing to Ramelius Resources, which has $1.25bn market value, as potential buyer.

Gascoyne Resources, which has an $85m market value, would be a possible target.

Observers believe further consolidation is needed in the gold space, but corporate politics has stood in the way of a number of logical deals.

Yet investors have been lobbying for such moves, and with consolidation unfolding in the oil and gas sector, the gold mining space may be next.

This is after the sector came in for a shake-up last year when Saracen embarked on a $16bn gold mining merger with Northern Star.

Last month, Evolution Mining purchased a $400m suite of assets in east Kalgoorlie from Northern Star, which has opted to tidy up its portfolio following the Saracen merger.

Capricorn purchased the Mt Gibson gold project for $39.6m.

When the gold price was soaring last year, some were pointing to Bellevue Gold as a potential takeover target.

Bellevue is understood to have been shopped around the market to mining companies such as Evolution Mining about two years ago by Canaccord Genuity.

However, the company was not sold because there were no offers at a high enough price.

Most in the market believe that the management are sellers at the right price because they are not considered asset developers.

Gold miner Silver Lake Resources has also been mentioned as having potential involvement in corporate activity.

Silver Lake, which has seen its market value halve since last year to $1.2bn. It has a portfolio of older assets and the Bellevue projects, developing new gold discoveries, may make sense for the company.

However, market experts say that Silver Lake’s chief executive Luke Tonkin is conservative when it comes to corporate activity and unlikely to make such a major bet.

Others say that Silver Lake could find cheaper targets.


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