Dodds, not quite the same article as mrpog, but here is similar...

Dodds, not quite the same article as mrpog, but here is similar article from SMH

http://business.smh.com.au/business/oz-sticks-with-chinese-deal-20090607-bzsa.html



THE board of OZ Minerals last night rejected a last-minute recapitalisation proposal put up by a group of institutions led by RFC Group and Royal Bank of Canada.

The group of about 20 institutional investors had hoped its $US1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) proposal for the troubled miner would have been enough to blow away the rival offer by the Chinese Government-owned Minmetals.

But the Herald understands the board rejected the offer last night on the grounds that it undervalued OZ Minerals.

"We can confirm that OZ Minerals has come back and said they don't wish to pursue the proposal," a spokesman for RFC said.

The original $US1.2 billion Minmetals proposal is to be put to a shareholder vote as planned on Thursday.

Today's public holiday will mean that no statement will be made to the market until tomorrow, by which time the proxy forms for the Minmetals transaction need to be submitted. The RBC-RFC offer included the issuance of $US780 million worth of bonds, a $US200 million capital facility and a share placement of $US200 million at 60c per share.

But the last-minute proposal was not met favourably by the OZ board. It was called an "unprecedented hostile equity raising" by some.

OZ has said the Minmetals offer, which has been approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board, is a "complete solution" for the mining company because it would pay off the company's $1.3 billion in debt.

Analysts have also expressed a preliminary view that OZ would be better off following through with the Minmetals deal, at least based on today's exchange rates and the current spot prices for the metals.

Under the Minmetals arrangement, OZ Minerals would keep its Prominent Hill copper-gold mine in South Australia but sell all its other assets to the Chinese group, except for the Martabe gold project in Indonesia, which has already been sold to another group from Hong Kong.

If OZ were to go with the alternative proposal it could scrap Thursday's ballot and approve it without having to put it to shareholders.

In that case, it would maintain control of the Century zinc mine in Queensland, the Sepon copper-gold operation in Laos, the Rosebery zinc mine in Tasmania, the closed Avebury nickel mine in Tasmania and the Golden Grove zinc-copper mine in Western Australia.

OZ shares last traded at 88.5c.