Goldcorp sweetens bid for Osisko Mining to $3.3-bn

The battle for control for Canadian gold miner Osisko Mining Corp heated up yesterday after Goldcorp Inc raised its hostile bid to $3.3-billion, trumping a friendly offer agreed to by Yamana Gold Inc.

Vancouver-based Goldcorp raised its offer by around 38 per cent to C$7.65 a share or about C$3.6 billion ($3.3 billion).

Goldcorp's latest offer is $1-billion higher than its original bid of C$2.6 billion ($2.37 billion) made in January, which was rejected by Osisko saying that the stock-and-cash offer was "financially inadequate and not in the best interests of Osisko."

Early this month, Osisko struck a deal to sell a 50-per cent stake in its mining and exploration assets to Yamana Gold Inc for $1.37-billion, a deal that aimed to torpedo Goldcorp's hostile bid.

But the bidding war has pushed Osisko's shares to C$7.58 yesterday, near to Goldcorp's latest cash and stock offer as investors hope for a better deal.

To make matters worse for Goldcorp, it shares fell nearly 4 per cent following its new offer, reducing the value of its bid to around C$7.47 a share.

Investors are not happy with Yamana's offer either, whose complex deal is valued at t C$7.60 a share, but shareholders of Osisko feel it iinferior to Goldcorp's. (See: Osisko Mining outlines $1.37-bn deal with Yamana Gold)

Osisko's flagship asset is the Canadian Malartic in Quebec, one of the world's largest gold mines.

With over 10 million ounces of established proven and probable reserves, Canadian Malartic is a world-class gold mine, with superior scale and costs relative to many of the producing assets held within the five largest North American domiciled gold producers.