Engineers and planners has announced a conditional off-cash offer to acquire all of the ordinary shares in Cardinal, presenting a compelling opportunity for Cardinal shareholders to realise value and stimulate ownership of Ghanaian natural resources by a 100 per cent Ghanaian owned entity.
The Consideration “Offer Price” of the shares of Cardinal is $1.05 per share with offer values lingering at approximately $564,764,139.50 based on 100 percent of the ordinary equity in issue.
The offer price of the shares of Cardinal represents a 59 per cent premium to the Binding Offer Engineers & Planners made on 3 June, 2020 to the Board of Cardinal Resources Ltd for the Ghanaian gold mining assets and is 5 percent higher than both the recently revised Nord Gold and Shandong Gold Mining Offers which stand at $1.00.
Engineers & Planners is a wholly owned Ghanaian Mining and Construction company, headquartered in Accra, Ghana, with a 22 year proven track record of mining contracting and operational excellence in West Africa. E&P employs 3,000 mainly Ghanaian team members. It is contracted to two of the major gold mines in production in Ghana.
Engineers & Planners’ formal Offer period has already commenced and it will be open until the close of trading (4pm Sydney time) on 31st December 2020, unless extended or withdrawn in accordance with the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cardinal, Mr Archie Koimtsidis posits that “It’s great to see a Ghanaian Company raise their hand and show an interest in what will be Ghana’s next multimillion-ounce gold mine”.
We are committed to operating in Ghana specifically and West Africa generally, and have project development expertise and financial backing for the successful construction and commissioning of the Namdini project, to the benefit of the local community and all stakeholders, he added.
The Namdini Gold Mine and Cardinal’s Bolgatanga assets are in our ancestral area and we have intimate knowledge of the local communities, customs and urgent needs of our fellow Ghanaians.
The CEO further asserted that the Government of Ghana has recently unambiguously stated that they want Ghanaian companies to own its prized natural resource assets. To emphasize this Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (“GIIF”) recently took over the debt facility originally extended to Cardinal Resources Ltd by Sprott of Canada.
We applaud this development and Engineers & Planners is now extending this goal by seeking to acquire one of the most promising gold mining assets in Ghana, Mr Archie Koimtsidis opined.
This offer, which will be subject to obtaining all usual and necessary approvals, including regulatory approvals in Australia (FIRB) and Ghana (including clarifications on the mandatory 10 per cent free carry equity participation of the Republic of Ghana in the Ghanaian companies holding the mining licenses, and tax treatment of change of control issues for corporate income tax), will support national asset development.
Finally, the CEO went on to disclose that Engineers & Planners is a local business with on the ground resources to start this project immediately, without delay, which will be considerably faster than any international third parties.
Engineers & Planners is delighted to support Ghana with jobs for the local workforce; taxes for the benefit of the government; and local Ghanaian ownership.
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