The board of Vancouver-based Hathor Exploration Ltd. (TSX:HAT) has joined company executives in exhorting shareholders to reject a $520 hostile takeover bid by Saskatoon uranium giant Cameco (TSX:CCO), Hathor announced this morning.
“Hathor’s board of directors is firmly committed to ensuring that Hathor shareholdes receive full value for their investment in this company, something this offer does not provide,” said James Malone, chairman of a special committee tasked with reviewing the offer, in a statement.
Cameco launched its hostile bid for the company in late August after discussions with Hathor broke down. (See “Cameco launches hostile takeover bid for Hathor” – BIV Business Today, August 26).
The Cameco offer values shares at $3.75 each; at press time, company stock was trading at $4.11.
“The fact that our shares have been consistently trading well above the offer price indicates that the market, in general, views the bid as inadequate,” said Michael Cunning, president, CEO and a director, in a statement.
The board is calling the offer “predatory” and “opportunistic.”
Among its reasons for recommending rejection of the offer, the board said:
-the offer was put forward just before Hathor’s planned release of a preliminary economic assessment pf the company’s Roughrider uranium deposit;
-the timing of the offer takes advantage of post-Fukushima depressed uranium prices;
-the offer fails to recognize the “best of breed” quality of the Roughrider uranium deposit compared to other undeveloped uranium deposits; and
-the offer is at a significant discount to the current trading price of Hathor shares.
None of Hathors’s director or officers intends to tender their Hathor shares to the offer.
Jenny Wagler
Twitter: JennyWagler_BIV