from the wires:
Gold Road Resources
Now the question is what Gold Road Resources does with its 17.3 per cent stake in De Grey.
DataRoom understands that Northern Star has approached Gold Road in the past about buying the interest, but sources say that Gold Road was more keen to find a buyer for the company as a whole and Northern Star would not offer enought to gain the stake in isolation.
Based on the chatter in the market, it would suggest that Northern Star did not discuss its move on De Grey with Gold Road before the latest buyout offer.
Gold Road may now shop its De Grey interest - seen as big enough to block a Northern Star vote gaining approval - to various groups, including Agnico Eagle, which may lob a rival offer or just opt to block the deal with the interest until the share price falls and it can come back.
But many in the market believe that Northern Star is offering a full price at a 37 per cent premium to the $1.52 share price on November 29.
They down play the chances of Agnico Eagle being an interloper, despite being at least double the size of the $20bn Northern Star with a $US42bn market value.
Should Gold Road accept the offer, it has suddenly got a whole lot more cash it can secure with a block trade out of Northern Star (its interest would be worth $865m).
Shareholders have been uneasy about Gold Road embarking on acquisitions, and would almost certainly call for capital returns.
But Gold Road, along with Regis Resources with which it held merger talks in the past, are both shaping up to be serious contenders
for EMR Capital’s $2bn Ravenswood gold mine, for which bids are due in February.
Working for Northern Star on its $5bn scrip bid is Macquarie Capital, while De Grey Mining is using Azure Capital, Barrenjoey and Barclays...