Mineral Resources Ltd has increased its takeover offer for fellow explorer Polaris Metals NL, by introducing a cash component to the offer, and increasing the bidder's shares on offer.
The revised offer appears to have broken a deadlock by which Polaris had been unable to decide between offers from Mineral Resources and rival bidder, Singapore-based Lion-Asia.
"(Mineral Resources Ltd) has been informed by the Board of Polaris that it considers the increased share offer to be superior to the offer proposed to be made by Lion-Asia Resources Pte Ltd," the bidder said on Thursday.
It said the Polaris board "intends to recommend that Polaris shareholders accept the increased Share Offer, in the absence of a superior proposal".
Mineral Resources said its offer now was one of its own shares for every 12 Polaris shares, plus five cents cash per share.
The bidder said the revised offer valued Polaris at 65.33 cents per share, up from 56.96 cents under its earlier offer.
Polaris shares currently are at 62.5 cents.
On October 9, the Polaris board said it could not decide between the two bids - Mineral Resources original offer of one bidder share for every 12.5 Polaris shares, and Lion-Asia's cash bid of 60 cents per share.
At the time, the bid was a premium to Polaris' share price, but has since dipped below where the shares are trading.
Polaris holds iron ore tenements spanning more than 6,000 square kilometres across the Pilbara and Southern Cross regions of Western Australia.
Both MRL and Lion Asia or associated entities already control large portions of shares in Polaris.
Mineral Resources said on Thursday that it had asked Polaris to waive the 50.1 per cent minimum acceptance condition, and that it would waive all other conditions, too, should it pass the 50.1 per cent threshhold.
It also is extending its offer period by two weeks, now to close at 2000 AEDT on November 9.
Mineral Resources said its new offer represented a 118 per cent premium to Polaris's share price on August 14, the trading day prior to its original offer announcement.
© 2009 AAP
