Teck Cominco sweetens offer for rival Inco

TORONTO: Teck Cominco sweetened its offer for rival base metals producer Inco on Monday, just days after Inco failed in its bid to acquire Falconbridge. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based miner said it would pay Inco shareholders C$82.50 in cash ($72.90), or 1.1293 Teck Cominco class B subordinate voting shares plus C$0.05, for each Inco share.

The revised offer represents C$40.00 in cash and 0.5821 of a Teck Cominco class B subordinate voting share per Inco share at full proration. Teck will pay up to a maximum of C$9.1bn in cash and will issue up to 132.3m Teck Cominco class B subordinate voting shares.

This represents an increase in the cash component of the offer of C$2.7bn, or 43%, and a decrease of 10.7m shares, or 7.5%, in comparison with its original offer.

The company plans to fund the cash portion of the offer out of its C$3.6bn of cash on hand and a committed term loan facility. Teck Cominco’s revised offer will expire August 16.