Bidding war for Norwest?
As the battle for Warrego was raging on, Mineral Resources on December 19 announced it had made an off-market takeover bid for Norwest. Mineral Resources has offered one fully paid ordinary share for every 1,367 Norwest shares. This implies an offer price of A$0.06/Norwest share. Norwest is Mineral Resources’ minority joint venture partner in the Lockyer Deep gas project in the Perth basin.
“Mineral Resources already holds a majority stake in this project, and it is hardly a surprise that the company wants to extend its position to complete ownership,” Birda said.
“Given that there is an extensive drilling programme planned for Lockyer Deep to define and firm up the resource base, it would be hard to comment on the comparative value of Mineral Resources’ bid – or that of other bidders for Norwest – until the resource base is defined. In any case, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Norwest attract another bidding war, given the allure of Perth basin gas,” he added.
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