Barrick Gold announces $7.3 billion take-over offer for Equinox Minerals

Lawyers Terence S. Dobbin, Kevin Ackhurst, Pierre R. Dagenais, Dawn P. Whittaker, Oliver Moore, Ned A. Steinman, Eric Reither, Evelyn Li, Laurence Smith-Lauzon, Peter J. Wiazowski, Emmanuel Grondin, Matthew J. Hall, Zahra Allidina, Catherine S. Simard, Paul Fitzgerald

On April 25, 2011, Barrick Gold Corporation (Barrick), a leading Toronto-based mining company and the world's largest gold mining company, announced that it has entered into a support agreement for Barrick to acquire, through an all-cash offer, all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Equinox Minerals Limited (Equinox), an Australian headquartered mining company with operating assets in Zambia's copper belt and a gold-copper project under construction in Saudi Arabia. 

The friendly take-over offer values Equinox at approximately $7.3 billion and represents a 16% premium over a rival, unsolicited, bid for Equinox by Chinese metals manufacturing company Minmetals Resources Ltd., proposed on April 3, 2011.  As of the deal's announcement, this offer is the largest Canadian mining sector M&A in 2011.

Ogilvy Renault LLP is representing Barrick in Canada with a team lead by Terence S Dobbin and composed of Pierre Dagenais, Dawn Whittaker, Paul Fitzgerald, Eric Reither, Ned Steinman, Evelyn Li, Matthew Hall, Chris Harris, Matthew McMahon, Zahra Allidina, Catherine Simard, Emmanuel Grondin, Laurence Smith-Lauzon, Oliver Moore, Kevin Ackhurst,  Peter Wiazowski,  Adrienne Oliver, Ted Citrome and Kevin Lam.