The top leaders involved in this year’s biggest gold mining deal are defending their transaction after a top investor called into question the takeover.
Gold Fields is seeking investor approval for its all-stock deal to buy Canadian miner Yamana Gold, a deal currently valued at C$6.8 billion ($5 billion). Some shareholders, however, have balked at the premium and structure of the transaction.
“It was not unexpected that this would take time for the market to understand,” Gold Fields Chief Executive Officer Chris Griffith said Friday in a TV interview with BNN Bloomberg. “There was quite a large shareholder base saying we don’t understand this.”
Van Eck Associates, the biggest Yamana investor and the third-largest shareholder in Gold Fields, is critical of the transaction, the Globe and Mail reported Thursday. Portfolio manager Joe Foster called the deal “poorly structured” and said the market doesn’t understand the strategy behind the deal, the
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