takeover target, page-3

I agree. Here's the article from the SMH.

Ben Sharples
June 17, 2008

TALK at Zinifex and Oxiana immediately turned to diversification after shareholders yesterday approved their $4.2 billion merger.

The new group said it was keen to expand into the market for bulk commodities and energy and would cast the slide rule over any divestments that might follow a successful BHP Billiton takeover of Rio Tinto.

The extraordinary meeting of Zinifex shareholders in Melbourne also heard about a new name for the combined group, Oz Minerals.

A spokesman for Zinifex, Matthew Foran, said shareholders representing 99.27 per cent of the company's stock had voted to approve the offer. A court hearing to approve the takeover has been set down for Friday.

The deal is the largest completed takeover in Australia this year amid a record $66 billion in announced acquisitions involving energy and mining companies.

The group will be the world's second largest zinc producer, with exposure to copper, lead, gold, silver and nickel. It will have four operations in Australia and Asia and three near-term projects under development.

Seven years of commodity price gains, underpinned by demand from China and India, have driven a flurry of takeovers in the mining industry over recent years.

The head of Zinifex, Andrew Michelmore, will become chief executive of the group.

He said it had "a lot of companies" on the acquisition radar and wanted to diversify into "bulks and energy".

"We would like to have some longer-term contract prices where you don't get that volatility and fluctuation and possible manipulation that you get on the LME [London Metal Exchange]," he told reporters after the shareholders' meeting.

"That is why we'd like to get into bulks and energy."

Mr Michelmore said the group would have about $1.2 billion for potential acquisitions. He listed uranium, coal, gas and hydro-electricity as opportunities.

Energy consumption accounted for about 25 per cent of the company's operating costs, he said, and the group would look at potential energy opportunities near its operations to feed those power needs.

Mr Michelmore said that if BHP Billiton was successful with its proposed takeover of Rio Tinto, the combined Oxiana and Zinifex would be eager to review any divestments that resulted from that merger.

Oxiana offered 3.1931 shares for every Zinifex share through a scheme of arrangement, valuing the zinc and lead miner at $4.2 billion under a so-called "merger of equals".

Oxiana's managing director, Owen Hegarty, will become a director of Oz Minerals and chairman of the integration committee.

Shares in Oxiana shed 10c to close at $2.71, while Zinifex lost 22c to close at $8.67.

AAP, Bloomberg