By Melanie Burton and Scott Murdoch
SYDNEY, April 13 (Reuters) – Miner BHP Group has won the go-ahead from Oz Minerals shareholders to go ahead with its A$9.6 billion ($6.4 billion) acquisition of the Australian copper producer.
Some 98.33% of the votes cast by Oz Minerals were in favor of an offer of A$26.50 in cash and an extraordinary dividend of A$1.75 paid to Oz Minerals investors for each share they held, after a shareholders’ meeting held on Thursday in Adelaide.
The deal is the third largest in global mining in recent months, after Glencore offered $22.5bn for Canada’s Teck Resources and gold miner Newmont this week submitted a $19.5bn offer for the Australian Newcrest.
After years of austerity that have led to cutbacks in exploration, miners are scrambling to clean up their balance sheets and appease investors irritated by overspending in the latest commodity boom.
The transaction will increase BHP’s exposure to copper and improve its prospects in the nickel sector. It will contribute Oz Minerals’ Carapateena copper mine, close to the Olympic Dam copper mine and BHP’s smelting operations in South Australia.
Strategically, it will also boost nickel supply to BHP through Oz Minerals’ West Musgrave nickel project in Western Australia, where BHP already produces nickel sulphate at its Nickel West operations. His clients include Tesla.
The final regulatory hurdle is the Federal Court of Australia, which is expected to approve the deal on Monday, April 17. Oz Minerals shares will be suspended the following day.
The board of Oz Minerals had unanimously supported the offer.
($1 = AU$1.4930)
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch and Melanie Burton; Editing by Alasdair Pal, Jacqueline Wong, Sonali Paul and Tom Hogue, Editing in Spanish by José Muñoz)
