Gold giant merger bid fails
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from May 1989.
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Michael Edwardes, Minorco's chief executive, said his company's bid -- the largest in British business history -- would lapse on Wednesday following the refusal of a New York court to lift its injunction forbidding his company from buying more Gold Fields shares.
The two companies are dominant in their industry: Minorco, based in Luxembourg, is the world's largest gold producer in the non-communist world and Gold Fields is No. 2. Edwardes said Minorco continued to be the largest single shareholder in Gold Fields, with a nearly 30 percent stake, and would "keep the position under close review."
He said: "We will now energetically implement our strategy of transforming Minorco into an operating company. Minorco is now a familiar name in the market, both in Britain and overseas, and has a very positive future." Rudolph Agnew, Gold Fields' chief executive, said he was "highly delighted" with the result of the battle, calling it "a tremendous victory."
Minorco's 3.5 billion pounds (5.9 billion dollars) offer for Gold Fields stock was to expire at midnight on Wednesday. Gold Fields' share price fell by 47 pence to 13.73 pounds (22.37 dollars) on the London Stock Exchange Tuesday, indicating the market expected the takeover bid to fail.
