By Adriano Marchese


Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. and Pan American Silver Corp. have made an offer to buy Yamana Gold Inc. in a cash and stock deal with a consideration value of $4.8 billion, outbidding an original offer by Gold Fields Ltd.

Pan American and Agnico said on Friday that under terms of the offer, each Yamana share would be exchanged for around $1.04 in cash, 0.1598 Pan American Shares and 0.0376 Agnico Eagle Shares for a total value of $5.02 per Yamana share.

The offer has a total premium to Yamana of 23% to its spot price of 5.58 Canadian dollars (US$4.06) as of market close on Thursday.

In total, this amounts to $1 billion in cash contributed by Agnico Eagle, 36.1 million of its common shares, and 153.5 million common shares of Pan American.

Yamana shares in Toronto rose on the news, climbing over 19%, to C$6.65, at 9:36 a.m. ET.

The transaction would see Pan American acquiring all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Yamana while Yamana would sell certain subsidiaries and partnerships which hold interests in its Canadian assets to Agnico Eagle, including the Canadian Malartic mine in Quebec which Agnico Eagle currently has a 50% joint-venture stake.

Agnico Eagle and Pan American said the Yamana board constitutes a superior proposal to Gold Fields' and that Yamana has notified the original bidder that it intends to accept the binding offer.

In June, Yamana received a proposal by South Africa-based gold miner Gold Fields that valued Yamana at $6.7 billion, offering a 33.8% premium to the volume-weighted price for Yamana at the time.

Gold Field does maintain the right to match the offer under its original agreement.


Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-04-22 1008ET