| |
BHP Billiton lauded for WMC swoop
David McKay
Posted: Wed, 10 Aug 2005
[miningmx.com] -- BHP Billiton has won the “Dealer of the Year” award at the Diggers and Dealers Forum in Kalgoorlie for its successful takeover bid on WMC Resources.
BHP Billiton acquired 91% of WMC by June 17 after which it compulsorily acquired the balance of the group’s outstanding shares and completed that exercise on August 2.
Diggers chairman Brian Hurley said: “We are going to claim this one as an Australian corporate deal. BHP Billiton is truly a global corporation but it is based in Melbourne and it is significant that the takeover that delivered some of the Australian resource industry’s most strategic assets can be seen to remain largely Australian.”
As a result of that bid, BHP Billiton has become the third largest nickel producer in the world and it now also controls the Corridor Sands titanium project in Mozambique which was owned by WMC.
“The
intrigue of this deal is remarkable. WMC was a largely unloved company by the investment market with shares languishing around the high A$4 mark.
“Xstrata swooped in a raid that had to put WMC in play but the major players just sat quietly and refused to participate in a bidding war that would only increase the premium payable to the company.
“BHP Billiton sat quietly while WMC tested the market to see if there were any other real bidders. It was recognised that the Xstrata deal was optimistically underpriced but no-one was competing with them.
“BHP waited until Xstrata played their hand under the ‘honesty in takeovers regime’ that we have where they stated they were not prepared to increased their offer. Then they swooped.
Hurley said: “They followed this through with one of the more effectively executed integrations seen in recent times. There was no settling-in period. BHP immediately installed key executives at all divisions and cleary told
WMC staff what the strategies are and what peoples’ futures hold.”
| |
0% 
