Severstal asked to improve High River offer

Finance

Publishing Date: 30 Jun 2009 12:03pm GMT
Author: Mining Journal

Four minority shareholders of Toronto-based High River Gold Mines Ltd said OAO Severstal should improve an offer for the shares it doesn’t already own, Vedomosti reported, citing Ryan Dodd, a partner of Specialized Asset Management.

Specialized, Sprott Asset Management, Firebird Asset Management and UFG Asset Management said they won’t sell their shares for C$0.22 (US$0.19) apiece offered by Severstal, Vedomosti reported. A "fair" price for High River would be C$1 a share, or US$560 million for the whole company, Vedomosti said, citing Dodd.

The four investors claim to own more than 10% of High River and by not selling their shares they may block Severstal’s buyout, the newspaper reported.

Sergei Loktionov, a Severstal spokesman, wasn’t immediately available for comment.

(Bloomberg, June 30)