BHP will not match Wyloo’s takeover offer for Canadian nickel miner Noront

Bengaluru — BHP Group said on Tuesday it will not match a takeover offer by billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals for Noront Resources, essentially bowing out from a months-long tussle for the Canadian nickel miner.

The world’s largest listed miner said it did not see “adequate long-term value” in raising its C$0.75 a share bid to match Wyloo’s C$1.10 cash offer that Noront agreed to hours earlier.

The latest offer by Wyloo, made last week, values Noront at C$616.9m (R7.6bn).

Wyloo, Noront’s largest shareholder, has been locked in a takeover battle with BHP since the middle of 2021 as both miners vie to secure supply of the key battery metal used in electric vehicles.

The two even began talks with each other in November to make an arrangement, but those discussions ended in December with no agreement.

Both the companies are eying Noront’s Eagle Nest nickel asset in Canada’s Ring of Fire, a high-grade deposit of the metal, as well as copper and palladium.

“While the Eagle’s Nest deposit is a promising resource, we do not see adequate long-term value for BHP shareholders to support an increase in BHP’s offer,” BHP chief development officer Johan van Jaarsveld said in a statement.

Wyloo will provide Noront with a loan of C$29.4m to help cover the C$17.8m termination fee it owes BHP, the Canadian company said in a separate statement.

Reuters